Advisory Board
Mundus Journalism is excited to announce its new Advisory Board, comprising two external industry experts and eight distinguished alumni. Using the course-related and journalism experience of its members, the Advisory Board will consider the intersection between the programme and journalism more widely. The Board’s objective is to provide ideas, suggestions and recommendations to the Mundus Journalism consortium regarding what is taught, how it is taught and why, ensuring that industry trends and issues are being factored in. Our goal is to develop ideas to ensure that this programme remains at the cutting edge of global journalism practice, scholarship and research. The Board is chaired by Dr Richard Thomas.
Here are our distinguished Advisory Board members!
Richard Thomas
Dr Richard Thomas, Head of the Advisory Board, is an Associate Professor in Journalism and is Head of Media Communications at Swansea University in Wales, UK. He is a former Prorgamme Director of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Journalism Degree (War and Conflict specialism). He has published many scholarly and non-scholarly books and articles on a range of issues including politics, elections, conflict, digital journalism and sport.
Brindusa Nastasa
Brindusa Nastasa is a Romanian filmmaker, award-winning multimedia-journalist, storytelling trainer and video editor based in Rotterdam. She is the co-founder of Springroll Media – a collective of female media professionals helping organisations and NGOs in their social impact mission. Her clients include: Humanity in Action, UN WOMEN, UNOCT, European Schoolnet, Africa Europe Foundation Women’s Leaders Network, RREUSE, Council of Europe, Euclid Network, EVPA, Goethe Foundation, AWID, etc. Her work has been published by De Correspondent, Der Spiegel, CGTN, CCTV, TV Brasil, ZDF, Initium Media, The Ferret, etc. Brindusa graduated from the Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Journalism, Media and Globalisation in 2016.
Thomas Seymat
Thomas Seymat is currently an Editorial Projects and Development Manager for Euronews’ Business Development team. Previously, Thomas was Euronews’ first-ever VR editor, where he supervised the company’s award-winning immersive journalism workflow, and was a digital journalist before that. He’s also a journalism educator and speaker, a former RJI fellow, and sits on the Advisory Board of the European Youth Press. Thomas attended the Mundus programme in 2008-2010.
Dinfin Mulupi
Dinfin Mulupi is a Journalism Studies Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. She holds the joint Erasmus Mundus M.A. in Journalism and Media and Globalization from City, University of London and Aarhus University in Denmark (2018). Prior to completing the Mundus programme, Dinfin worked as a business journalist for six years, covering the East African region. Dinfin’s research interests focus on the intersection between media, race and gender equity, particularly the representation of women and ethnic minorities in newsrooms and news content, and the use of social networking platforms for feminist and racial justice activism.
Dánae Vílchez
Dánae Vílchez is a Nicaraguan journalist currently based in Guatemala. She graduated from the Mundus Journalism program in 2020 in the Amsterdam Cohort. She currently collaborates with openDemocracy's Tracking the Backlash project as its Mesoamerica correspondent and with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as its Central America correspondent. Her areas of interest include human rights, feminism, migration, and politics; she has been a fellow with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, Pikara Magazine, El Diario.es, and Aj +, among others.
Marcelo Elizardo
Marcelo Elizardo is a Brazilian journalist and Erasmus Mundus alumnus - from the Amsterdam cohort (2019-2021). He started his career in Rio de Janeiro at TV Globo, the biggest broadcaster in Latin America. During this period, he covered subjects such as politics, human rights and international relations. After Mundus, he decided to stay in Amsterdam. Currently, Marcelo is Head of News at Vylo - a news social media start-up -, as well as an International Correspondent at Globo in The Netherlands.
John Ainger
John Ainger is a British climate reporter for Bloomberg News based in Brussels. He was part of the 2014-16 Mundus batch, specialising in politics at the University of Amsterdam, where he wrote his thesis on the power of visual and written framing in reporting of terror. The day of his final assessment also happened to be the day Britain voted to leave the EU, making it memorable to say the least!
Louisa Esther Mugabo
Louisa Esther Mugabo is a PhD candidate in the French and Spanish Departments at University College Cork and a freelance journalist and communications specialist. She holds two Bachelor degrees from Leipzig University in Political Science and African Studies and a Joint Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts degree in International Journalism, where she specialised in Conflict and War Reporting at Swansea University. In her PhD, Mugabo attempts to conceptualise the phenomenon of exile journalism through interviews with East African and Latin American exiled journalists. Beyond this project, her research interests are decolonial media studies, conflict and peace reporting, and genocide denial with a focus on Africa's Great Lakes Region. She is a fellow of the German Episcopalian Academic Foundation, a board member of Ibuka Germany and a member of the first advisory board of the Mundus Journalism programme.
Idris Akinbajo
Idris Akinbajo is a Nigerian investigative journalist and the current Managing Editor of Premium Times, a Nigerian investigative online newspaper. Idris is a multiple award-winning journalist and was twice named Nigeria's investigative journalist of the year. He completed his Erasmus Mundus Masters in 2016 and did his second year of study at in Amsterdam. Apart from his work as a journalist, Idris likes reading novels and playing/watching football.
Jonathan Paterson
Jonathan Paterson is Managing Editor of The News Movement, a start up pressing the reset button on journalism. Previously Head of Video at BBC News, Jonathan’s 20+ year career include production roles at the flagship Newsnight programme, and international postings to New York and Washington. He is a visiting lecturer in Digital Storytelling at City University in London.
Brandon Oelofse
Brandon Oelofse is Co-Founder of Media Development Collective, a collaborative consultancy and training organisation focused on the media, civil society, and for-good sectors. MDC has a focus on Media for Influence and Advocacy, Media for Behaviour Change and Media to Counter Radicalisation and Disinformation. Brandon has experience in leading teams of content developers, trainers and curriculum specialists in building digital communities for social change programme roadmaps, social change campaigns and implementing media for development projects globally for NGOs in the Netherlands.
Experience includes working in media and development sectors as an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker with work represented at numerous festivals, including Cannes and the Oscars. Writer and Director of television series, commercials, short films, documentaries and new media content. Co-founder of Vuselela Media, a Southern African non-profit youth development agency with a decade of experience in promoting social activism and behavioural change through advocacy, education and awareness campaigns.