{"633123":{"#nid":"633123","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Incubates Black Media Studies","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003Eby Ian Frazer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIvan Allen College Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nGeorgia Tech, and Atlanta with it, has a rich history of invention and innovation, both in the technological and cultural spheres.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt makes sense, then, that the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E (LMC) in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts has incubated the growth and development of the field of black media studies.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s very joyful, it\u0026rsquo;s very black,\u0026rdquo; said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/wilson_3\u0022\u003EJoycelyn Wilson\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor in LMC. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s very necessary, and oftentimes when you\u0026rsquo;re doing that type of work, you\u0026rsquo;ve got to find somewhere where you fit.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOn Feb. 20 in the Student Center Ballroom, during a session of the Planet Deep South conference, Wilson explained the history and focus of the program and the kind of work it has inspired.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFormer Ivan Allen College dean \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/royster\u0022\u003EJacqueline Royster\u003C\/a\u003E, who was present at the talk, laid the groundwork for the field of study by, in response to the results of a five-year departmental review, tasking\u0026nbsp;LMC leadership with examining how their courses and degrees fit institutional commitments to diversity and equity.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERoyster also helped found the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dilac.iac.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDigital Integrative Liberal Arts Center\u003C\/a\u003E (DILAC), which brought in Wilson and LMC Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/morris\u0022\u003ESusana Morris\u003C\/a\u003E as fellows, and envisioned a \u0026ldquo;cluster\u0026rdquo; of academics focused on expressions of black identity in digital culture.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBlack Media Studies (BMS) is a multidisciplinary area of scholarship that bricolages a variety of approaches and methods to study the relationships between media, culture, and racial politics, particularly as it relates to people of African descent. BMS is also interested in the use of digital technologies to design and make media that connects to the cultural practices of black people.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWilson described the goal as to understand the (re)production of knowledge, ideas, norms, and artifacts as embodied, mediated performance and fundamental to the media-making of black culture. BMS\u0026nbsp;explores how media platforms create, market, curate, and preserve messages and representations of people of color through culture-producing industries such as music, film, television, social media. Two of its primary aims are to interrogate these representations and their sociocultural, geopolitical influences on culture and society.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe presentations by Wilson and her colleagues showed how that has taken shape within the program here. Wilson first described her own project \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/fourfourbeatproject.org\/about\/\u0022\u003EFour Four Beat Labs\u003C\/a\u003E, a \u0026ldquo;digital pedagogies incubator\u0026rdquo; that produces educational content focused around pop culture, designed for integration into educational models.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the most exciting outputs of Four Four Beat Labs has been building a digital environment to house the Michael Webster Vinyl Collection, an archive of thousands of vinyl records compiled by Webster, an Atlanta native and pioneering DJ in the city\u0026rsquo;s early hip-hop scene.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat design project, part of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/fourfourbeatproject.org\/hiphophighered\/\u0022\u003EHipHop2020 Curriculum Project\u003C\/a\u003E, has resulted in a digital museum, with white walls and hardwood floors, that visitors can explore while checking out the archive, looking at paintings and listening to music from artists like Kanye West and Run the Jewels. The archive was initially planned to just be four rooms, but it has gradually expanded since, and Wilson hopes to eventually host it on virtual reality platforms.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe inspiration for the structure and message of Wilson\u0026rsquo;s work with Four Four Beat Labs is obvious: the source material of hip-hop, which is a pedagogical medium in itself.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It always comes with instructions and a message,\u0026rdquo; she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnother presenter at the talk was \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/john-thornton\u0022\u003EJohn Thornton\u003C\/a\u003E, academic professional and video production lab coordinator in LMC. Thornton\u0026rsquo;s talk\u0026nbsp;revolved around film: He presented \u0026ldquo;Stop Playin\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo;, a documentary series that he shot at comics and pop culture conventions around the Southeast.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe series focuses on cultural and representation issues, particularly of minorities, at cons and in nerd culture in general. Thornton\u0026rsquo;s idea for \u0026ldquo;Stop Playin\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo; came from a conversation he had with his daughter about not seeing people like her represented in movies, and he explores that problem in interviews with cosplayers and fans.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I just felt like hearing those stories would motivate other people \u0026ndash; like my daughter, maybe \u0026ndash; to feel like she had a space in that arena,\u0026rdquo; Thornton said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe reach of Black Media Studies is not limited to these projects. Also seated at the table for the talk were Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/brock\u0022\u003EAndr\u0026eacute; Brock\u003C\/a\u003E, who in February published his book \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/nyupress.org\/9781479829965\/distributed-blackness\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDistributed Blackness\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, an exploration of how African-American identity is expressed in online spaces; and Morris, who is working on a book exploring Afrofuturism and feminism.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECheck\u0026nbsp;out more work and perspectives by our BMS faculty:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/research\/features\/black-twitter-andre-brock\u0022\u003E#BlackTwitter: Andr\u0026eacute; Brock Works to Unravel the Online Complexities of Race, Culture, and Technology\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/stories\/2018\/3\/georgia-tech-expert-afrofuturism-reflects-black-panther-phenomenon\/603799\u0022\u003EExpert in Afrofuturism, Susana Morris,\u0026nbsp;Reflects on the \u0026#39;Black Panther\u0026#39; Phenomenon\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech, and Atlanta with it, has a rich history of invention and innovation, both in the technological and cultural spheres. It makes sense, then, that the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E (LMC) in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts has incubated the growth and development of the field of black media studies.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The School of Literature, Media and Communication (LMC) is innovating a new field of study."}],"uid":"27167","created_gmt":"2020-02-28 16:52:48","changed_gmt":"2020-02-28 18:15:03","author":"Rebecca Keane","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2020-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"633124":{"id":"633124","type":"image","title":"Black Media Studies Faculty","body":null,"created":"1582909161","gmt_created":"2020-02-28 16:59:21","changed":"1582909161","gmt_changed":"2020-02-28 16:59:21","alt":"Black Media Studies faculty (l-r) John Thornton, Joycelyn Wilson, Susana Morris, and Andr\u00e9 Brock","file":{"fid":"240907","name":"black media studies panel.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/black%20media%20studies%20panel_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/black%20media%20studies%20panel_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":59038,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/black%20media%20studies%20panel_0.jpg?itok=qxf8tYzU"}}},"media_ids":["633124"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"184111","name":"black media studies"},{"id":"181530","name":"Andre Brock"},{"id":"177419","name":"Susana Morris"},{"id":"174283","name":"John Thornton"},{"id":"174257","name":"joycelyn wilson"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nrebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404.894.1720\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}