School of Social and Political Science

Background

Albert is a Joint-postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand and University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. 

His work falls within two main research areas. The first is 'digital culture, society and the state'. This work examines how technologies are transforming forms of political activism and campaigning and the ways the state responds through policing and state surveillance. This includes issues of victimisation and criminology (i.e crime and criminal justice policy) in online spaces. Some of the work produced in this area is a PhD which is being converted into a monograph with the Oxford University Press. His co-edited Special Issue on digital State Surveillance of Political Activists in Africa is on contract with the Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS). He has published papers on digital citizenship focusing on how citizens, including diasporic communities, mobilise online to challenge their governments. His ongoing project examines the 'culture of fundraising on social media' by non-state actors and 'Online content and content monetisation' in Africa.  

The second research area is 'journalism/media culture and practice'. This work builds up on his 10 years of newsroom experience as a journalist. It examines the ways technologies are transforming journalism/media culture and practice in Africa. He has published widely on this topic, taught and provided commentary on the future of journalism and media in Africa. His co-edited volume Technologies and Media Production Cultures: A Global South Perspective with Prof Ufuoma Akpojivi was published by Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South. His second volume BBC's Legacy in African Radios: Continuities and Change is available online for preorder. His ongoing project on this focuses on 'AI innovations in developing newsrooms' and "Tech companies and compensation for traditional media'.

Teaching and supervision

University of Edinburgh

• Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities(2023-24)
• Affiliate, Edinburgh's Centre for Data, Culture & Society (2022-24)
• Commonwealth Scholarship PhD Fellow, Centre of African Studies (2021-23)

Modules: International Development: Research Design and Practice(2023-24) PG

                  Politics and International Relations 1A: Concepts and Debates (2023-24) UG

                  Politics and International Relations 1A: Concepts and Debates (2022-23) UG

                  Interpreting Development: Institutions and Practices (2022-24) PG

                  Key Skills in Development Practice (2022-23) PG

Supervision

Yichi Zhang, MSc in International Development. Digital finance and women empowerment in Indonesia and Kenya. 

University of the Witwatersrand

Modules: Introduction to Comparative Politics, (SM1), (2020-2023)UG

                  Conflict, Stability & State Building in Post-colonial Africa(SM2), (2019-2022)    

• Senior Tutor, Department of Politics (2021-2021)
• Cordinator, Masters Research Seminars (2021-2021) PG
• Tutor, Department of Politics-tutoring (2019-2021)
• MOOC Cordinator, Forced and Precarious Labor in the Global Economy: Slavery by Another Name?(2019-20)

Student supervision

Cecilia Nthala, PhD in Politics. Philanthropic humanitarianism, political expediency and gender justice  in Malawi. Ongoing and co-supervising with Prof Joel Quirk.

Jimmy Kainja, PhD in Journalism and Media Studies: Information Disorder Across Digital Divide: Fact-Checking Misinformation and Disinformation Online and Offline in Africa.

Tinashe Kuyeri, BA Hons in Politics. Political transitions and independence of the Reserve Bank of Malawi. Graduated. 

Tintswalo Chauke, BA Hons in Politics. Diplomacy, security and intelligence practices during cold war in Africa. Scored a Distinction and received the Joe Ebrahim Prize for the Best Honours Dissertation in the Faculty of Humanities.  

Nation Publications Limited

• Investigative Journalist (Solutions Journalism), Features Analyst, Reporter (2009-2019) 

Professional Projects 

Since 2018, I have been running projects for professional development targeting activists, journalists and politicians in Africa in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Media Africa programme (South Africa), Multilateral Dialogue Programme(Geneva) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation. 

Over €65 000 has been spent on training media personnel in Africa. Currently, with funding from KAS Geneva, we are training African journalists in reporting the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review which is an important mechanism for monitoring how governments are performing in protecting and promoting human rights in their respective countries. Some of the countries that have benefited from this initiative include Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Togo, Sudan and South Sudan. The project continues under the banner of a community organisation which I founded in 2015, Centre for Education and Development. Visit www.cfedmw.org.

In 2024, he won the IASH Susan Manning Grant at Edinburgh and brought together Wits and Edinburgh universities and 13 authors for a special issue project with JSAS. He has also brought together 7 researchers from KU Leuven, Edinburgh, Leiden and Wits for the UNA-Europa African Partnership 36 000 Euros grant application.  

Book Projects 

Monograph        

• Digital Political Activism and State Response: A Global South Perspective, Oxford University Press. I am converting my PhD into a book.

Edited collections

• Sharra. A., and Akpojivi, U. (Eds.) (2025). Technologies and Media Production Cultures: A Global South Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South. eBook ISBN 978-3-031-78582-5. Available on https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78582-5.
• Sharra. A., Kainja, J., and Gunde., A. (Eds.) (2025). BBC’s Legacy in African Radios: Continuities and Change. Routledge African Media, Culture and Communication Studies. eBook ISBN 978-1-041-01739-4. Publication date 19th August 2025.

Special Issue

• Sharra. A., Karekwaivanane., G. and Quirk,. J. (Eds.) (in press). Digital State Surveillance of Political Activists in Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies. 

Selected publications

Sharra. A., and Akpojivi. U.,(2025). Introduction: Media Culture and Practice in the Digital Age. In: Sharra. A., and Akpojivi, U. (Eds.) (2025). Technologies and Media Production Cultures: A Global South Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South. eBook ISBN 978-3-031-78582-5.

Nyangulu. D., Sharra. A., (2023). Agency and Incentives of Diasporic Political Influencers on Facebook Malawi. In: Reidl M., Lukito. J., Woolley. S., (eds). Social Media

Sharra. A., (2023). Digital First As a Coping measure for Malawi's Print Newspapers in New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa. Palgrave Studies  in Journalism and the Global South. 

Sharra. A., (2023). Media, Ethnicity and Electoral Conflicts in Kenya by Jacinta Mwende Maweu. Review. University of Oxford Press

Sharra. A., (2023). From Bush War to Fighting Graft. In: Joseph Odindo (eds). Journey, Journalistic Experiences of African Media Practitioners. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Sharra. A., Matsilele T. (2021). This Is a Laughing Matter: Social Media as a Sphere of Trolling Power in Malawi and Zimbabwe. In: Mpofu S. (eds). The Politics of Laughter in the Social Media Age. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Sharra. A., (2020). Eyes of the Society: How Malawian Journalists Utilise Question Time During Political Press Briefings, African Journalism Studies, 41:3, 49-64. 

Sharra. A., (2020). Watchdog Role: How Malawian Media Utilise Question Time During Press Briefings. Published by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Africa programme. 

Sharra. A., (2019). Vampires in the News: A Critical Analysis of News Framing in Malawian Newspapers, African Journalism Studies, 40:2, 67-82.