Lecturers and Staff
Director of Education and Training
Professor Dr. Christoph Schmidt studied Business and Economics at the University of Siegen and holds a PhD from the University of Cologne. He was Marketing Manager at Philips AG in Frankfurt and later worked as an HR consultant and manager for numerous companies. Prof. Dr. Schmidt joined the Deutsche Welle in 1995 and has since held several leadership positions within the company. In 2000, he also began lecturing at universities in Germany and abroad, and has since been a speaker at more than 30 international conferences around the globe. He has developed several study programs in Turkey and Egypt, among others, and works intensively as an advisor for universities abroad. Prof. Dr. Schmidt was appointed Head of DW Akademie's Administration and Academic Department in 2006. Prof. Dr. Schmidt's research focuses on international media systems, Media Literacy and human resources management. He teaches Comparative Media Systems, New Media and Convergence as well as the Master Seminar and Methodology Workshop.
Modules: Media and Development, Media Science and Empirical Methods, Applied Research Projects
Coordinator of the Master's Program
Dr. Almuth Schellpeper holds a PhD in Journalism from the University of Dortmund, a Master’s degree in Media Science from the University of Tübingen and a Master's degree in Development Management from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She completed her traineeship at the public broadcaster SWR in southern Germany and she worked for several years as a radio and TV journalist and media trainer. From 2009 to 2019, Dr. Schellpeper served as a research associate and senior lecturer in the IMS program at DW. She then transitioned to the role of project manager in DW Akademie’s Media Development department, with a focus on East Africa. She has also taught in Cape Town, Cairo, Thessaloniki and at the University of Bonn. In 2024, Dr. Schellpeper returned to the IMS program as the program coordinator and senior lecturer. Her research interests include citizen participation in public discourse, media and democratization, media literacy, and global media debates. She teaches Media Globalization, Media Governance and the Master Seminar in the IMS master's program.
Modules: Media and Development, Media, Politics and Society I and II, Applied Research Projects
Lecturers and Staff
Winkate Bendig holds an MBA in International Marketing and Ethics from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Wales in the UK. She has been teaching undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at LJMU, the University of South Wales, and other institutions in both Germany and the UK since 2014. Winkate is a firm advocate of lifelong learning and is passionate about critical thinking, believing that it not only drives academic growth but also is essential for personal, professional, and societal change. She teaches a wide range of subjects, primarily academic research methods, business ethics, industrial and organisational psychology and sustainability. Additionally, she served on the Advisory Board for the sustainable fashion brand Lucy and Yak and has been a speaker at the World Class Corporate Climate-Neutral Strategies & Resource Management conference. She joined the IMS program in 2025 as a lecturer for Empirical Research Methods.
Module: Media Science and Empirical Methods
Dr. Merga Yonas Bula is a communication expert and researcher specializing in political communication, migration, diaspora, and media development. He holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from the University of Leipzig and a Master’s degree in International Media Studies, a joint program from the DW Akademie, the University of Bonn, and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. His professional background combines significant journalistic experience with academic research and project management. He has worked as a journalist and editor for international media houses, including DW and Afrika.Table (Table.Media), where he reported on complex socio-political issues. His practical expertise is further demonstrated through his role as a co-project manager for media development at the DW Akademie and his ongoing academic work at Leipzig University. Dr. Bula's core competencies include in-depth qualitative research, content analysis, political communication, and managing projects at the intersection of media and social change. Since September 2025, Dr. Bula has been lecturing Political Communication as part of the IMS master's program.
Modules: Media Politics and Society I
Barbara Cholewa holds a Master‘s Degree in Economics from the Business University of Katowice in Poland and studied Business Administration at the University of Tübingen. She worked as a researcher and market analyst for McKinsey & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group in Germany and Poland, where she focused on the deregulation of international energy markets. Before joining the Deutsche Welle in 2019, she worked as a Senior Expert at Deutsche Post DHL Group (DP DHL) where she conducted market research projects in international logistics business. In 2017, she completed a digital marketing training course with a focus on digital transformation and graduated with the university certificate "Digital Professional" from Steinbeis University in Berlin. During her time at Deutsche Welle, Barbara Cholewa was responsible for market and media research projects with a focus on media landscape and evaluation of DW offerings in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since 2019, she has been teaching the course Media Planning for the IMS Master’s program.
Module: Management Techniques
Dr. Esther Dorn-Fellermann earned her doctorate in Media Studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn on the topic of "Civil Society Engagement in Community Radios - Opportunities and Limitations of Participatory Media Work in South Africa”. After completing her master's degree in the fields of Political Science, Media Studies and European Cultural Studies, Dr. Dorn-Fellermann worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Bonn. Her research focuses on participatory media and democratization. Since 2014, she has held various positions at the DW Akademie. Dr. Dorn-Fellermann is currently working for the DW Akademie Communication and Consultancy. She also teaches Media and Development Cooperation and Media in Conflict and Crisis Situations in the IMS Master’s program.
Modules: Media, Politics and Society II, Media and Development
Dr. Maryann Ijeoma Egbujor holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Education from the Catholic University of West Africa, a Master of Arts in International Media Studies from the DW Akademie, and a Diploma in Journalism from the London School of Journalism. She completed her PhD in Journalism Professionalization, Christian Social Ethics and Cultural Values within the Faculty of Theology at the University of Freiburg. She has conducted field research in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, among other countries. Dr. Egbujor also worked as a guest researcher at the Franciscan University of Ohio (2017-2020). Her areas of research include media projects, media ethics, social ethics, cultural studies, globalization, media policy and digital literacy. She is teaching Media Literacy.
Modules: Media, Education and Communication
Lara Föll holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Studies and Political Science (University of Tübingen) and a Master’s degree in North American Studies from (University of Cologne). She did an Erasmus semester in Ireland for before working at the doctorate office of the Arts and Humanities faculty at the University of Cologne and at UNICEF Germany in the field of civic engagement and fundraising. Lara Föll was on the organizing team of the UNICEF Youth Festival, a networking event for young volunteers covering topics like children rights, climate justice and diversity. She is in charge of administrative coordination and the onboarding process for students.
Administration
Ira Katharina Fröhlich studied Cultural Studies and Business Administration at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She lived and worked at the German Consulate in Mexico from 2011-2016, where she oversaw the legal and consular matters for the Puebla and Tlaxcala districts. She was also responsible for organizing press and cultural activities. Since 2017, Ira Fröhlich has been working in the Academic Education Department as an administrator for the Master's program. She manages the administrative coordination and onboarding process for the international students before and during their stay in Bonn.
Administration
Dr. Hao Gui studied German Language and Literature, Communication and Journalism in Beijing and Dortmund. He holds a PhD of Culture Sciences from University Dortmund. Later, he joined the journalism traineeship with Germany’s largest public broadcaster, WDR, before serving as Senior Editor and Managing Editor at the Deutsche Welle. Dr. Gui currently works as an advising trainer for different foundations and academic institutions. He has published works in the areas of media and journalism within the context of globalization. Since 2015, Dr. Gui has been teaching Journalism Theory in the IMS Master’s program.
Module: Journalism
Mira Keßler studied Archaeology, History, and Media Studies at the University of Tübingen and is doing her PhD in Media Studies at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. She worked as a filmmaker, media educator and journalist for various companies, research institutions and the public broadcaster SWR, as well as a freelance researcher. Before her PhD she also worked as the press officer for the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), an application-oriented research institute that investigates how digital media influence knowledge and communication processes. Mira Keßler focused in her dissertation on international journalism trainings as part of media development. She analyzed the interpersonal negotiations of asymmetries and different contexts trainers and trainees came from. She conducted field research in Europe and South-Asia. Her research interests include media development, emotions in journalism and journalistic values, cultural studies, postcolonialism and qualitative methods. Mira Keßler joined the IMS program in June 2024.Currently, she is teaching Intercultural Communication and Competence, Journalism Research, Media and Communication Science as well as Digital Project Work.
Modules: Media, Education and Communication, Journalism, Digital Project Work
Grahame Lucas joined the Deutsche Welle in 1983 after graduating from the universities of London and Bonn. Initially working as a news and features writer and anchor, he soon moved on to the Bonn Bureau as a correspondent, where he pioneered bi-medial reporting for radio and television, alongside hosting and producing Deutsche Welle TV’s first English language weekly politics show. As the host of the show, Grahame interviewed top politicians from Germany and abroad, including former chancellor Helmut Schmidt. In 1999 he was appointed as DW’s Europe correspondent based in Brussels, interviewing a range of world and European leaders. After his time in Brussels, he returned to the DW headquarters as the head of news and current affairs in the English Radio Service, where he also served as deputy chief. In the following years, he modernized output and led the introduction of DW‘s Content Management System. He also wrote DW‘s Manual of Journalism. From 2007 to 2016, Grahame was responsible for the South and South-East Asia departments, leading the successful transition from radio to social media and video output. Since leaving DW in 2016, he has intensified his work for public broadcasters as an expert on European and British affairs. He has taught the IMS course Forms of Journalistic Writing since 2009.
Modules: Journalism
Irene Najjemba studied English Literature and Cultures as well as Media Communication at the University of Bonn. She obtained her Master’s degree in International Media Studies from the DW Akademie, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg and University of Bonn. She has worked in the fields of journalism, communication, and development in both the German and international sphere. Irene Najjemba joined the Deutsche Welle in 2016 as a Master’s student and has worked in the IMS office as a research associate since 2019. Her research interests lie in the areas of journalistic standards and practice, media literacy and press freedom – especially within the context of the East African Community. She is currently supervising the Research Project seminars along with Prof. Christoph Schmidt.
Module: Elective III - Media Practice
Dr. Janara Nicolettiis a journalist and media scholar with a PhD in Journalism from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Her dissertation on the impact of precarious working conditions in journalism received the 2020 Adelmo Genro Filho Award for Best Dissertation from the Brazilian Association of Journalism Researchers. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at universities in Brazil and Germany, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Erich-Brost-Institut für internationalen Journalismus (TU Dortmund). She also co-leads the Latin America and Caribbean Working Group of the Journalism Safety Research Network (JSRN) and is an associate researcher at the Journalism Ethics Observatory (objETHOS/UFSC). Her research explores journalists’ working conditions - with focus on work precarity and safety -, press freedom, and journalism quality. She teaches Media Economics and Organization as well as Editorial Management in the IMS program.
Module: Media Economics, Management Techniques
Dr. Peter Niepalla studied law and holds a PhD from Cologne University. As part of his articling term he worked for the legal departments of Deutsche Welle and the public broadcaster WDR. He joined DW's legal department in 1992 and was appointed deputy legal advisor in 1993, focusing on labor law issues and contract negotiations. Dr. Niepalla was also DW's youth protection officer from 1998 to 2004. He was appointed DW's head legal advisor in 2003. Dr. Niepalla is also a lecturer at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (media law) and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. He has published in the area of labor and media law, and teaches Media Law for the IMS Master's program.
Module: Media, Politics and Society I
Dr. Oliver Pye holds a doctorate in Forestry and a habilitation in Development Studies. His main teaching and research foci are Southeast Asia (particularly Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), Sustainable Development, Political Ecology, Social Movements, Environmental Labour Studies and Labour Geography. He is particularly interested in theoretical debates around the relation between labour and ecology in the context of development. Empirically, he has and continues to examine this relation in the context of the palm oil industry. He is currently a co-coordinator of the DFG Research Network “Global Transformations and Socio-ecological Reproduction: Labour Geography Perspectives from German-speaking Countries”. In addition to numerous articles on the relationship between ecology, social justice and development, he is also the author of “Khor Jor Kor. Forest Politics in Thailand” (2005, White Lotus), “The Palm Oil Controversy in Southeast Asia. A Transnational Perspective” (2012, ISEAS, with Jayati Bhattacharya) und “A Political Ecology of Agrofuels” (2015, Routledge, with Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels and Achim Brunnengräber). He teaches Media and Development in the IMS program and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Bonn.
Module: Media and Development
Dr. Michael Thomas P. Sprenger-Menzel studied at European universities, where he earned Master’s Degrees in Business Administration, Economics and Law, Political Science, Roman Languages and English, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Theology, African Studies and Global Economics. He worked as a Chartered Public Accountant for KPMG, one of the global “Big Four” accounting firms, and taught Business Administration at high schools and technical colleges before working as a controller, CPA auditor, management consultant and Senior Manager, CEO and Director in the German industry. Later, he served as a Senior Government Official (Regierungsdirektor) for the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of the Interior and as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor at several universities. As Associate Professor of Business Administration, Economics and Governance in Cologne, Dr. Sprenger-Menzel has authored several scientific textbooks in the field and teaches at Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in Bonn, Cologne and Hamburg. Since the founding of the International Media Studies program, he has taught Controlling. His research is primarily focused on International Political Economics, Business Ethics and Controlling.
Module: Media Management
Dr. Charmaine Voigt was project coordinator of the BMFTR-funded research project “Wi4impact – Understanding the Impact of Knowledge in the Context of Digitalization” at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. Her work focuses on science and higher education communication, media practice, and media literacy. Additional research interests include media ethics as well as film and television studies. She earned her doctorate at the University of Leipzig, where she also worked as a research associate in the Department of Media Studies and Culture. At Institute for Language, Media and Music Studies of the University of Bonn, she taught media practice for two years. Dr. Voigt holds a master’s degree in Communication and Media Studies from the University Leipzig and a bachelor’s degree in German and Communication Studies from the University of Erfurt. She is an active member of several research associations, including the German Communication Association (DGPuK) and the International Communication Association (ICA). As vice-chair of the ECREA Temporary Working Group Media Literacies and Communication Competencies, she contributes to advancing research and teaching methods in communication curricula. She teaches Academic Work in the IMS master's program.
Module: Media and Development
