Academic Appointments
Present
2022-2023 Lecturer, Department of Communication, Videography; Westfield State University, Westfield, MA
2020-2022 Podcasting Instructor, The Institute for Training and Development (ITD); Amherst, MA
2020-2021 Online Lecturer; History, Social Justice, and Sociology; Cambridge College Springfield, MA
2020-Present Founder and CEO of Seven Generations Movement Collective, LLC., a diversity training, research, and community engagement consultancy; Amherst, MA
2018-2023 Lecturer; Department of Communication, Videography; Bay Path University- Longmeadow
2017-2022 Lecturer; Afro American Studies; University of Massachusetts- Amherst
Previous
2017-2019 Lecturer; Film Studies; UMASS-Amherst
2007-2017 Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, UMASS-Amherst
2005-07 Assistant Professor, Screen Studies/English Dept., Oklahoma State University
2004-05 Instructor, Women’s Studies, New College, Honors College, University of Alabama
2003-04 Lecturer, Communication Studies, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
2002-03 Instructor, Communication Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
1998 Field Production, Studio Camera Operator, and Research Assistant, Center for Public Television, University of Alabama
1996-97 Graduate Assistant, Webmaster, and Undergraduate Advisor, Women’s Studies Program, University of Houston
Education
Ph.D., Mass Communication, University of Alabama, 2005
Dissertation: “Negotiated Boundaries and the Making of Black Representation in Julia: A Case Study of Interlocking Effects of Race, Gender, and Class on the Making of a Situation Comedy”
M.A., Telecommunication and Film, University of Alabama, 2000
Thesis: “Television & the Politics of Identity: Race, Gender, and Class in the 1968 Sitcom Julia.” Winner of the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences Outstanding Thesis Award for 1999-2000
B.A., English Literature, Minor, African American Studies, University of Houston
Reports
Demetria Rougeaux Shabazz, Valencia Harvey, Sonji Johnson-Anderson, Katie A. Lazdowski, and Terry Mullen, 7 Generations Movement Collective. “Report in Fulfillment of Part A and Part B of Contract to the Town of Amherst for Community Safety Working Group.” (May 4, 2021).
Journal Articles
Demetria R. Shabazz and Leda Cooks. “The Pedagogy of Community Service-Learning Discourse: From Deficit to Asset Mapping in the Re-Envisioning Media Project.” Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 7.1 (May 2014).
Article online: http://jces.ua.edu/the-pedagogy-of-community-service-learning-discourse- from- deficit-to-asset-mapping-in-the-re-envisioning-media-project/
Encore interview about my research: http://jces.ua.edu/encore/
Select Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Essays
Demetria R. Shabazz. “Wilson Anthony ‘Boozoo’ Chavis.” In The African American National Biography,eds. Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Conference Paper Presentations (All single-authored unless otherwise indicated)
Demetria R. Shabazz. “Roundtable on Global Work in the International Decade for People of African Descent.” Paper giver, The National Conference of Black Studies, Houston, Texas, Friday, March 10, 2017.
Demetria R. Shabazz. “Television’s “Race Race,” 1968-1971: Making Black Representation in the TV Sitcom Julia.” Paper giver, The 62nd Annual Conference of the Japan Black Studies Association, Nihon University, Tsudanuma Campus, Chiba, Japan, June 25-26, 2016.
Demetria R. Shabazz and Leda Cooks. “Between a rock and a hard “space”: Dialoging about race and racism in light of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and the film Dear White People and why it matters?” Papergiver, The National Communication Association, Las Vegas, November 2, 2016.
Demetria R. Shabazz. “A Race Toward Hollywood Diversity.” Paper giver, The NationalConference of Black Studies, Los Angeles, California, March 13, 2015.
Demetria R. Shabazz and Leda Cooks. “(How) Does Dialogue Matter? Designing, Implementing and Evaluating aLarge-Scale Dialogue Project on Race and Whiteness.” The National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, National Harbor, MD, June 2010.
Demetria R. Shabazz and Leda Cooks. “Racial Politics, Schools and Society.” The Critical Race Studies in Education Association conference, Salt Lake City, UT, May 2010.
Scholarly and Community Engagement Activities
Project Scholar, “Voices of Resilience: Intersection of Women on the Move” Exhibit. South Hadley, MA,September to October 2022.
Videographer and Oral Historian, Native American Exhibit. Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA, September 2022.
International Podcast Consultant and Workshop Designer, Institute for Training and Development, Inc.Amherst, MA, July 2021.
Project Scholar, “Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move, Exhibit.” SpringfieldMuseums, Springfield, MA, February 15, 2020 – April 30, 2020.
Conference review committee member, The National Conference of Black Studies, New Orleans, LA, March 2019.
Panel Chair, “I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin and the Deconstruction of Religion and Language.” The National Conference of Black Studies, New Orleans, LA, Friday, March 8, 2019.
Panel Participant, “Triggers and Trigger Warnings: Ethical Responsibility, Threat to Academic Freedom,Opportunity for Dialogue?” An interactive panel discussion, February 3, 2016; The Institute for Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development, UMASS- Amherst.
Workshop session co-organizer. “(How) Does Dialogue Matter? Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Large-Scale Dialogue Project on Race and Whiteness.” National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, National Harbor, MD, June 2010.
Participant and trainer. Five College faculty and staff participant in Intergroup Dialogue training institute.Trained and led dialogues between staff and faculty on issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and class inequalities, and other interests and concerns. UMASS-Amherst, October 2009.
Panel Participant. “Troublin’ the Waters: Community Conversation and Reception.” A Five College Consortium event sponsored by Crossroads in the Study of the Americas in partnership with the Amherst College Department of English, Smith College Department of Afro-American Studies, and the University ofMassachusetts Department of Communication. October 2007.
Digital Humanities Project Participant. “Mapping the 3rd Ward in Houston: Story Work in the Face of Redevelopment” online at http://storymapping.org/thirdward.html, a collaboration with Carroll Parrott Blue’s The Dawn Project and the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) of Berkeley, California. Created a Story Map for the Third Ward of Houston, Texas, a signature CDS case study on place and environment (http://www.storycenter.org/place-environment/). The online map locates multimediastories in the form of short memoirs that combine creative writing, digital audio, and video editing with a toolset ofdigital mapping technologies now available to the public: geotagged images on Flickr, story-based Google Maps, Windows Live virtual tours, and walking tours via local cell phone, Bluetooth, and other embedded wireless stories. From a December 9-12, 2006, workshop, I contributed the Story Map for the “S.H.A.P.E. Center,” one of Houston’s most significant and long-lived African American community centers.
Fellowships, Awards, and Grant Activity
2020 The Alumnae Award from the African American Female Professor Award Association. HonorsAfrican American female professors annually teaching and leading in postsecondary education.
2019 Mass Cultural Council, Amherst $4,000 for “African American Oral History of Amherst project.” Program in partnership with Amherst Media, and the Jones Library, the project will document local African American narratives, archive and catalog stories, and hold listeningsessions at the public library for families and community members (funded).
2012-13 Co-recipient of $10,000 digital humanities grant from the Five College Women StudiesResearch Center to develop a Feminist Media Justice Colloquium taught in Fall 2013 and develop an online network for 2012-13 (awarded).
2011 Davis Collaborative Model Fellow for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences andCollege of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts at Amherst from the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum, Houston, TX.
Select Teaching and Curriculum Experience
Amherst Media
Director and Founder: Climate Justice Youth Summer Program; Founded in cooperation with Dr. Russ Vernon-Jones, summer education program for middle and high school youth to learn about climate change and environmental science and ways to communicate sustainability ideas using video and social media
Bay Path University at Longmeadow, MA
Undergraduate courses: Media Lab: Communication and Technology; Video Field Production
Cambridge College Online and Springfield, MA
Undergraduate Courses: Introduction to Political Science; Introduction to Social Justice
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Undergraduate Courses: Black Literature and Culture; Black Media and Journalism; Junior Year Writing; Black 70s Through Film; African American TV Studies; Race, Gender and the Sitcom; Hollywood, Adaptation, and Diversity; Civil Rights and Film; Women in Cinemas of the African Diaspora; Media Literacy and Community Media – Community Service-Learning Honors Course.Graduate Courses: Black Springfield Community Participatory Research; Digital Video Production and Research in the Black Comm; Media Literacy and Community Media – Service-Learning Honors Course; Postcolonial and Feminist Film Theory; Junior Year Writing
Hampshire College
Hollywood, Adaptation, and Diversity
Westfield State University
Studio and Video Production
Oklahoma State University
Television Studies; African American Literature; History of American Film; African & Asian Women Filmmakers (Graduate Seminar); Television Studies; Introduction to Film; Film as Literature; History of American Film; Introduction to Film
University of Alabama
Freshman Honors Seminar—Culture and Human Experience: Media and Islam; Critical Media Studies: Local Forms of Alternative Media; Film History and Criticism; Radio and Television Broadcasting
Mississippi State University
Communication Theory; Electronic News Writing
Northeastern University
Television Criticism
University and Community Service
University of Massachusetts
Member, Search Committee for Career Services, UMASS, Fall 2014 (University) Diversity and Social Justice Committee, Communication, 2014-2015 (Dept.)
Integrated Experience Department Coordinator, Communication, 2012-2013 (Dept.) Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Communication, 2012-13 (Dept.)
Member, Graduate Studies and Admissions Committee, Communication, 2011-12 (Dept.) Member, Interdepartmental Film Certificate Program (University)
Member, The Graduate Certificate in Film Studies (Dept.)
Member, Committee for the Third and Fourth Annual Graduate Film Studies Certificate Paper Prize, 2014-2015 (University)
Member, Five College Film Steering Committee, 2015-present (5 College Consortium)
Member, Search Committee, Lecturer in Media Culture and Visual Methods, Communication and Anthropology Depts., 2011-12 (College of SBS)
Chair, Search Committee, Associate Director of Equal Opportunity & Diversity, 2011(University) Member, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Graduate Committee, 2011-2014 (Dept.)
Member, Chancellor’s Diversity Advisory Committee, 2010-present (University)
Member, Community, Diversity & Social Justice Committee, Communication, 2008-2009 (Dept.) Member, Alumni Career Night Committee, Communication, 2008-10 (Dept.)
Oklahoma State University
Screen Studies Program faculty committee, 2005-07; Search Committee, 2006-07 English Department Graduate Committee, 2005-06
Affiliated Faculty member in American Studies Program, Africana Studies, and Women’s Studies Program, 2005-06
University of Alabama
Historian, Alliance of Women of Color, 2004-05
Advisory Committee Taskforce on Violence Against Women, 2001-02
Radio Reader Service volunteer, College of Communication & Information Sciences, 2000-02 Student Representative, University of Alabama Graduate Council, 1999-2000
President and listserv moderator, African American Graduate Student Association, 1997-99
University of Houston
Member, Office of Affirmative Action Sexual Harassment Hearing Committee Coordinator and Webmaster, Women’s Resource Center
President, University Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
Community
Board President, Amherst Media, Amherst, MA, 2017-present; Member since 2009.
Board Co-chair, Youth Action Coalition promoting youth empowerment through social justice infused community-based arts and media projects, 2011-2013. Member, 2009-present.
Committee Chair, Cable Advisory Committee, Amherst MA, June 2015-present. Founding Board Member and Secretary, The Blues Project of Alabama Founding Board Member, Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum, Houston, TX
Selected Media Production Experience
Media works in progress
On the Move Forum to Advance Women: “This is what change looks like: Video Montage,” Bay Path University, March 8, 2021
Black Amherst; Oral History Project in conjunction with Amherst Media and the Jones Public Library, 2020-present
Oral history of Pilgrimage Reunion: Retracing the Slave Trade from Amherst, MASS to Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018-2019 archival work.
Oral history of Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black and Other Minority Students, 51stReunion, 2019 archival work.
Co-Producer and Director with Amilcar Shabazz, “Global Africana Studies,” a documentary about the influence and history of African American / Black Studies across the globe.
Producer and Director, “Joseph Celestine High School: A Rosenwald School in Mamou, Louisiana,” will include archived oral history research and digital photos documentation.
Media works
Producer and Co-Founder, Western Massachusetts Media Justice Network video series (16 episodes)https://amherstmedia.org/content/western-mass-media-justice-network; since 2013.
Co-Producer and Co-Director with Amilcar Shabazz, Difficult Dialogues: Voices from the Valley video series (26 episodes) https://amherstmedia.org/content/difficult-dialogues; since 2015.
Producer and Director, The National Liberation Poetry Tour Experience, a short video project featuring performance poet, Anika Nailah, and stage director, Ingrid Askew, 2013.
Producer, Where I’m From, a short-subject video project featuring poetry of middle school students in the CHOICES Afterschool Program at W. R. Peck School, Holyoke, MA., 2010.
Editor, Spirit Walk, a short documentary on education reform and advocacy, 2002.
Specialized Training, Certificates, and Licenses
- Oral History Facilitator, in Association with the Oral History Summer School and the Oral History Association, Hudson, NY, 2018
- Digital Storytelling Facilitator Training, The Center for Digital Storytelling, Lyons, CO, June 2013
- Documentary Camera Workshop, Maine Media Workshops, Maine Media College, June 2011 Center for Digital Storytelling
- Three-day Educator Workshop (fulfills INTE 5330), December 2006
- Media 100 non-linear editor; Final Cut Pro; and SoundForge digital-audio editor
Membership in Academic, Professional, and Scholarly Societies
- Association for the Study of African American Life & History National Council for Black Studies
- International/National Communication Associations Society for Cinema & Media Studies
- Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture