Doctoral Fellow 2025 - 2027

Doniquah Miche Allies is a 24-year-old academic and a distinguished cum laude graduate. She earned her Master’s degree in record time, completing it within an impressive 12 months instead of the typical two years. Her research explored "selected representations of signs of genocide on TikTok," addressing critical societal concerns and media narratives. 

Doniquah’s research interests span sociolinguistics, with a focus on linguistic landscapes, virtualscapes, virtual ethnography, discourse analysis, and the role of media in contemporary society. Her work reflects a dedication to understanding and analyzing contemporary issues through innovative methodologies, positioning her as a promising scholar in her field

Her research project focuses on the mediated public discourse surrounding maternal criminality.

Doctoral Fellow 2025 - 2027

Jacina Januarie is a PHD linguistics candidate at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), in Cape Town, South Africa. She currently holds a BA, BA Honours and an MA from UWC. Her research focus areas are linguistic landscapes, specifically the virtual domain; media studies; multimodal discourse; intersectionality of language, race, gender and identity; sporting landscape; and skinscapes. 

Recently, she co-authored a book chapter for the international academic publisher in social sciences, Peter Lang, for a special issue: Educational Agency and Activism in Linguistics Landscape Studies, titled “Linguistics or Logistics? Actively Changing a Harmful Narrative through Collaborative Autoethnography on TikTok”. Her research brings together media, persuasion and representation. She is studying towards a Masters in Linguistics at UWC.

Her research project focuses on body semiotics, Skinscapes and mediatised racism in an elite sport.

Doctoral Fellow 2025 - 2027

Siyanda Kobokana is a PhD fellow under the UWC Chair in Media Inclusion and Diversity. He holds a Master’s degree in Historical Studies (cum laude) from the University of the Western Cape, where he developed the concept of insurgent listening to describe radio’s role in resistance under apartheid. His current research explores ecological listening and the role of sound, rhetoric, and media technologies—such as radio, podcasts, and climate tools—in shaping post-apartheid subjectivity and environmental awareness. 

His work draws on sound studies, historical memory, and rhetorical framing (eco-rhetoric) to understand how media persuades, includes/"excludes", and connects communities.