The Union for Democratic Communications has named Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Chenjerai Kumanyika the recipient of the 2021 Dallas Smythe Award.

In a tweet, Kumanyika wrote, “It is an unbelievable honor to be the recipient this year of UDC's Dallas Smythe Award! The Union for Democratic Communications has been a central ‘village’ in my intellectual & political development. I'll keep working toward being worthy of this honor.”

Kumanyika will receive the award and deliver the Dallas Smythe lecture during the UDC’s 40th Anniversary Conference on Thursday, June 24, 2021 from 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (EST). The conference will be held virtually from June 23-25. This year’s theme is “Social Movements, Street Politics, and the Political Process.”

The Dallas Smythe Award, according to the UDC conference program, “is given in loving memory of one of the great pioneers of the study of the political economy of communications and one of the great leaders in the struggle for democratic communications. At each conference, the Union for Democratic Communications honors a critical media scholar/activist whose work exhibits the spirit of engagement, democracy, teaching, and feistiness to which the UDC is committed.”

During this year’s UDC conference, Kumanyika and Associate Professor Todd Wolfson will also take part in a “Book Launch Plenary” for the book they recently co-authored and published titled “The Gig Economy: Workers and Media in the Age of Convergence” at 11 a.m. (EST) on Thursday, June 24.

Kumanyika is a researcher, journalist, and artist whose 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 new podcast on the Civil War, named “Uncivil.” 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.

According to the UDC website, the UDC “is an organization of communication researchers, journalists, media producers, policy analysts, academics and activists dedicated to: critical study of the communications establishment; production and distribution of democratically controlled and produced media; fostering alternative, oppositional, independent and experimental production; development of democratic communications systems locally, regionally and internationally."

More information about the Journalism and Media Studies Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information is on the website.