Assistant Professor Chenjerai Kumanyika has been nominated for a third Peabody Award for his role as a collaborator on season four of "The Land That Never Has Been Yet," created by Scene on Radio based at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

“It is a tremendous honor,” Kumanyika said.

Kumanyika has been nominated for Peabody Awards twice in the past and won once. In 2018 he was nominated for both Gimlet Media’s podcast “Uncivil” and Season 2 of Scene on Radio. “Uncivil” won.

Scene on Radio writes the “The Land That Never Has Been Yet” podcast “aims to explore human experience and society” and was created and produced by CDS audio director John Biewen and distributed by PRX.

According to a CDS press release, “The season-long series “The Land That Never Has Been Yet”  (January–June 2020) explores democracy in America, past and present, retelling the story of the country as it complicates, even upends, its listeners' understanding of American history while exploring critical questions like, How democratic was the U.S. ever meant to be? The Season 4 title is borrowed from the Langston Hughes poem ‘Let America Be America Again. ‘O, let America be America again— / The land that never has been yet— / And yet must be. . . .’ Listen to the Season 4 trailer. 

“Out of approximately 1,300 entries, ‘The Land That Never Has Been Yet’ is among 60 finalists for the prestigious award, which honors the most compelling and empowering stories released every year in broadcasting and digital media. Thirty Peabody Award winners will be announced in June 2021.”

Kumanyika is a researcher, journalist, and artist. His research and teaching focus on the intersections of social justice and emerging media in the cultural and creative industries. He has written about these issues in journals such as Popular Music & Society, Popular Communication, The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture and Technology, Pedagogy and Education. 

Currently, Kumanyika is the Co-Executive Producer and Co-Host of Gimlet Media’s podcast “Uncivil” on the Civil War. He has also been a contributor to Transom, NPR Codeswitch, All Things Considered, Invisibilia, VICE, and he is a news analyst for Rising Up Radio with Sonali Kolhatkar.

Discover more about the Journalism and Media Studies Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.