Simphiwe Rens is based at the department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He teaches courses in media studies and supervises postgraduate projects in media and cultural studies. Simphiwe’s research interests cut across gender studies, cultural studies, popular culture, audience studies, and media consumption studies in the Global South. Some of his published works explore creative constructions of gender, sexuality, and notions of Africanness in the Afrobeats musical genre, and the intersections of popular psychology (self-help/self-improvement discourses) and identity in the media, public secret-revealing and class identity in South African media.
