Debra C. Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Garinger 129
704-687-2366

Dr. Debra C. Smith is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies.  Her research and teaching interest include e-Black Studies, African-Americans in communication and popular culture, minority images in the media, contemporary African-American folklore and developing teaching strategies that incorporate popular culture, language and power. 

Education:
• Ph.D., University North Carolina-Greensboro
• M.A., University North Carolina-Charlotte
• B.A., University North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Areas of Interest:
• African-Americans in Communication and Popular Culture
• Minority Images in Media
• African-American Contemporary Folklore
• Teaching Strategies utilizing Popular Culture
• Rap Music, Language and Power
• Media Literacy

 

Books:
The Words Unspoken: The Hidden Power of Language, Carolina Academic Press, 2008, 142pp (ISBN-10: 1-59460-174-7. ISBN-13: 978-1-59460-174-3)

Recent Publications:

(In press) Orbe, Mark, Debra C. Smith, Christopher R. Groscurth & Rex L. Crawley.  Exhaling So That We Can Catch Our Breath and Sing:  Reflections on Issues Inherent in Publishing Race-related Communication Research.  Southern Journal of Communication

Critiquing Reality-Based Televisual Black Fatherhood:  A Critical Analysis of Run’s House and Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood.  Critical Studies in Media Communications.  25(4): (2008) 393-412.

 Of Brutal Necessity:  Rap Music and Black Language.   Making Connections:  Journal for Teachers of Cultural Diversity, Vol, 10, No. 3. (2008) 41-62.

 Smith, Robert and Debra C. Smith (2009)  The Wire:  Media Placement and Postindustrial  Landscapes (pp. 73-93).  In Zachery Williams (ed) Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: Scholarship and the Transformation of Public Policy.  New York:  Palgrave Macmillan (Series Editors:  Manning Marable and Peniel Joseph).

Reading, Writing and Watching TV:  The Pedagogy of the Pre-Schooler:  A Case Study in Teaching Media Literacy (2009): pp 173-189.  In  Marcus Leaning (ed) Issues in Information and Media Literacy: Education, Practice and Pedagogy.    Santa Rosa:  Informing Science Press.

Popularizing Folklore in the Age of Text-messaging Millenials. Folklore Journal, Volume 118, Issue 1, April 2007, Routledge Publishers, (2007) pp 91-99.

Cartoon Culture: How Maya and Miguel Exceed Beyond the 1990 Children's Television Act. Wilson, Leslie (ed) Readings in Popular Culture. Press Americana: The Institute for the Study of Popular Culture, November 2006, pp 105-112.

Current Projects:
•  Black Teachers' Use of Media During the Civil Rights Movement (Ethnography)

•  e-Black Studies Collaborative Research Network

Courses Taught:
• AFRS 2105 – Black Images in the Media
• AFRS 3050 – Blacks in Communication and Popular Culture
• AFRS 3050 – Africana Folklore
• AFRS 1100 – Introduction to Africana Studies                                                             AFRS 2203 -  African American Culture
• LBST 1102 – Film and Society ("The Wire")
• LBST 2102 – Minorities in the Media
• JOUR 2160 – Introduction to Journalism
• JOUR 3161 – News Editing