Council for University of Malawi appointed Dr. Mufunanji Magalasi as the Acting Executive Dean of School of Arts, Communication and Design from 1st September, 2022. Dr. Mufunanji Magalasi, holds an MA in Dramatic Art from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and Split-Site Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Dramatic Literature from the University of Malawi and University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. An Associate Professor of Drama and Development Media at the University of Malawi, and Deputy Chief Editor of Journal of Humanities, he has published a monograph, Stage Drama in Independent Malawi, edited Beyond the Barricades: A collection of Contemporary Malawian Plays, and authored numerous peer reviewed articles in Drama, Development Communication, Development Studies, Literature and Cultural Studies.
An entertainment theatre, theatre for development and Development Communication academic and practitioner, he has been a communication research consultant for an IDRC Fish Processing and Marketing project in Malawi, a Global Affairs Committee’s (Canada) Malawi Farmer to Farmer Agroecology (MAFFA) project and a Malawi Co-Case Country Manager for the European Union Horizon 2020’s Innovate Africa’s Future in Food and Nutrition Security. Currently he is Co-Principal Investigator (Malawi) in the Parasport Against Stigma [on People with Disabilities] (PSAS) project: a collaboration between University of Malawi and Loughborough University, London.
Dr. Magalasi has served in various administrative and academic capacities. He has been Head of Fine and Performing Arts at University of Malawi twice, and has also served as Deputy Dean and Dean of Humanities at the University of Malawi. He has taught at University of Witwatersrand, University of Leeds, UK, and has been a visiting scholar at Escola Communicacio e Artes at Educardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique, and Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University, New York. He has worked with the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine and Haramaya University, Ethiopia on their Theatre and Health Intervention in Kersa, Ethiopia, and trained over 1000 theatre, film and television artists in South Africa, Malawi and the UK, and staged over sixteen professional productions at Johannesburg Civic Theatre, Wits Theatre Complex, Bachaki Theatre, Vuka Africa Artists, Great Hall Complex - University of Malawi, Leeds Workshop Theatre, and Afrika Cultural Centre - Johannesburg. A member of the African Theatre Association [AfTA] (Goldsmith and Oxford), his research interests broadly lie in Development Communication, Cinematography, African Literature, Colonial and Postcolonial African History, Development Broadcasting, Applied Theatre, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, Research, and African Commercial and Popular Drama.