Associate Professor in the Media Department, LJ (Nic) Theo, has been awarded a C3 rating by the National Research Foundation.
Theo works across many areas in media and communication studies with a main focus on the semiotic mechanism by which subjectivity and consciousness are reflected and represented in media and communication.
“I have always been interested in language and its application and in how representation in visual media reflects social norms. My focus on Applied Communication coalesced in a PhD on how formal psychiatric definitions and diagnostic criteria communicate meta-theoretical assumptions about how people live in the world and fuel media representations.
“Since then I have focused specifically on meaning-making in mass visual media and journalism, with a niche in film screenwriting theory. I really enjoy exploring minutiae and meta-theory and understanding paradigmatically how individual units of communication come together to generate meanings that in turn influence the discourses that constitute our social and personal worlds.”
The award-winning academic started at CPUT in 2008 in the Film Production programme as a part-time lecturer, before progressing to a full-time contract and becoming permanent in 2014 as Senior Lecturer and eventually being promoted ad hominem to Associate Professor in 2016.
Theo has won a few awards over the years and has celebrated many career highlights.
The awards include the CPUT Institutional Teaching Award (2015), a Heltasa National Teaching Excellence Award (2016) and a Gold award for Research from CPUT (2019).
The highlights include being a judge on the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) (2013-14), and a panellist and assessor on the Department of Higher Education and Training Creative Outputs Subpanel for Film and Television (2020-22).
“I currently serve as Chair of this panel (2023-25) and as a board member and ad hoc acting editor for the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa (TD-SA). For the last few years, I have been a supervisory contributor to digital artifact development on the Heltasa Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) 3 and 4 programmes, which is great fun.
“My most rewarding career highlights, though, happen every year when I watch my students who have worked so hard walk across the stage at graduation.”
NRF ratings are allocated based on a researcher’s recent research outputs and impact as perceived by international peer reviewers. The rating of individuals is based primarily on the quality and impact of their research outputs over the past eight years, taking into consideration the evaluation made by local and international peers. It identifies researchers who count among the leaders in their fields of expertise and gives recognition to those who constantly produce high quality research outputs. Ratings are awarded in the following categories:
- A – Leading international researchers.
- B – Internationally acclaimed researchers.
- C – Established researchers.
- P – Prestigious Awards.
- Y – Promising young researchers
“I was seriously happy…a bit surprised since my research niche is not something that generally gets much recognition, but very pleased that I have been acknowledged as a contributor to scholarship,” said Theo about receiving the NRF rating.
In his free time, the academic has a range of interests.
“I don’t count myself as a designer or artist, but I make things for personal entertainment that many would not call ‘art’ but that entertain me. I like sculpture and enjoy whittling wood and making things out of found objects. I’m currently working on a minor project that I call ‘Poe-art-try’: small multi-material sculptural installations intended to be read as wordplay. I also collect antique books and cook.”
Written by Ilse Fredericks
Email: