Elna Boesak’s career as South African journalist, researcher, debate moderator, forum facilitator and public speaker spans more than thirty years. Her work as media worker includes radio and television programme hosting, documentary production and feature writing. In her research, in-depth investigations and lectures Boesak prioritises perspectives, narratives, experiences and developments that are hidden in the cracks of public attention. She has in the past shed light on challenging social and economic realities such as white supremacy and racism, chronic poverty, backstreet abortion and gangsterism. In a six-part radio docudrama series she offered an extensive analysis of the nature and legacy of the slave society of South Africa. As public forum facilitator Elna creates safe spaces for honest, credible and constructive dialogue and often tackles contentious and sensitive matters. In public lectures, she focuses on matters related to reconciled diversity, the many faces and places of oppression and violence and gender equality and the empowerment of women and the LGBTQIA+ community. She has a particular interest in media and communication ethics and the impact of the media on harmful societal thinking and doing patterns. In her PhD (Religion, Gender and Communication; University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) she investigated the role of globalised strategic mass media communication as a vehicle for harmful grand narratives. She is a research associate of the USA Chicago-based organisation the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and was one of the organisation’s delegates that attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2015. In the first semester of 2018 she served as Distinguished Professor in Communication at Berea College, KY USA and as CAS George A. Miller Scholar at the University of Illinois, IL USA. From July 2018, she will again be managing EB&A in a hands-on fashion from Cape Town, South Africa.
Elna Boesak
