Emeritus Professor Ian Glenn

Professor of Media Studies

Professor Ian Glenn is Emeritus Professor of Media Studies. He studied at the University of Natal (Durban), at the University of York in the UK and then at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a PhD in English and American Literature. He is currently working on a study of the idea of wilderness in Southern Africa.

Recent publications

  • 2024: Wildlife Documentaries in Southern Africa: From East to South. Footprint Press. 

  • 2023: “The ethics of wildlife documentary making in Africa: Fréderic Rossif’s La Fête Sauvage and the school of lies.” Journal of African Cinemas: 15:2-3: 181-97. 

  • 2023: Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage, Critical Arts, 37:2, 100-105.

  • 2023: “Chapter 8: In the Heart of the Country.” in The Bloomsbury Companion to J.M. Coetzee, eds Lucy Valerie Graham and Andrew van der Vlies, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

  • 2023: Wildlife Documentaries in Southern Africa: From East to South. Anthem Press.

  • 2022: “Norma Foster and ‘Wildlife in Crisis’” Communitas 27: 34-43.

  • 2022: “The COVID Pandemic and cartooning the South African President.” English Academy Review. 39(1); 63-82.

  • 2022: “Research ratings, research coherence and justifying the butterfly.” South African Journal of Science. 118(7-8); 1-2.

  • 2022: “Classical imagery and policing the African body: 1695-1877.” In Masters, S., Nzungu, I. & G.R. Parker (eds.) 2022. (u)Mzantsi Classics: Dialogues from Southern Africa. Cape Town: African Minds; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

  • 2021: “Looted treasures? Black Panther and King Solomon’s Mines.” Journal of African Cinemas. 13 (2-3), 135-45.

  • 2021: “Journalism, the Coming of Television, and the New South Africa.” African Journalism Studies. 42:2; 114-16. 

  • 2021: “The Kruger Park and Jacob Dlamini’s Safari Nation: A Social History of the Kruger National Park.” Critical Arts 35:2, 121-26.

  • 2021: ‘Fake news’ or trust in authorities? The problems of uncertainty at a time of 

              medical crisis. Journal of African Media Studies. 13:2, pp. 287-99. 

  • 2021: “Telesafaris, WildEarth Television, and the Future of Tourism.” International Journal of Communication. 15: 2569-2585.

  • 2021:  Robert Mattes and Ian Glenn. “Ch.27: South Africa: A united front? A divided government.” In Darren Lilleker, Ioana A. Coman, Miloš Gregor and Edoardo Novelli (eds.) Political Communication and COVID-19: Governance and Rhetoric in Times of Crisis, Routledge, London, pp. 303-11.

  • 2020: “Levaillant’s illustration of the Gonaqua and the first scene of Anthropology.” Visual Anthropology, pp.301-312.