Scholar. Researcher. Writer.

One of my favorite quotes from author and scholar Zora Neale Hurston is, "research is formalized curiosity". I have always been curious. In elementary and middle grades I was awarded most curious or most likely to ask questions (admittedly, not all of my teachers liked or encouraged this behavior).  My parents loved that I asked questions. They always had answers. Although the answer was often, "I don't know. Why don't you go look that one up?" My parents taught me how to formalize my curiosity - to look it up. 

I spend my days in formalized curiosity as a Scholar Administrator. Department Chair and Professor of Communication in the Department of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at Texas Southern University. My research focuses on African American Rhetoric, Womanist Rhetoric, Intercultural Communication, Gender Communication, and Digital Humanities. I've cultivated my interest throughout my doctoral work at Bowling Green State University where I completed my Ph.D. in Communication Studies with a focus on Rhetoric in 2009. My research, conference presentations, and publications speak to diverse interests. Recent research and conference presentations include discussions on womanist rhetoric as method and theory; practical social justice pedagogy for faculty and students; and digital humanities methods implications for activist recovery projects. Publications include “Saving Sound, Sounding Black, and Voicing America: John Lomax and the Creation of the “American Voice”’ in Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog, June 8, 2015, http://soundstudiesblog.com/2015/06/08/john-lomax-and-the-creation-of-the-american-voice/ and a co-authored essay with Amy E. Earhart titled “Pedagogies of Race: Digital Humanities in the Age of Ferguson” in Debates in Digital Humanities, 2016, ed. by Lauren Klein and Matthew Gold. 

Recently, I contributed “Reflections on Sandra Bland on the 3rd Anniversary of Her Death” to the Online Roundtable on Sandra Bland, Black Perspectives, July 13, 2018, aaihs.org, and in 2019 “Dear Nice White Ladies, A Womanist Response to Intersectional Feminism and Sexual Violence” to the forum in Women and Language 42, no. 1 (Spring 2019).

I am an affiliate of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies at NYU and a National Teaching partner for the Colored Conventions Project.