About Me

I am an Afro-Filipino scholar, teacher, and cultural strategist rooted in ancestral memory and committed to public-facing scholarship. Currently based in Minnesota, I explore how media, identity, and place shape Black and Afro-diasporic life. My work lives at the crossroads of academic inquiry, storytelling, and liberatory praxis-centered on Black masculinity, memory, and meaning-making across digital and embodied spaces.

My scholarship is rooted in a framework that investigates how place, relationships, and discourse shape identity and cultural memory. Through a lens informed by Black geographies, Afro-Filipino heritage, and rhetorical analysis, I examine how physical, cultural, and spiritual spaces impact the narratives we inherit and the identities we perform.

I earned both my B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where I developed an interdisciplinary, practice-based approach to media criticism. My research extends beyond theory into action, as I have actively worked in sports journalism, documentary production, and public scholarship. As a Digital Journalism Intern with The Cardinal Nation, I analyzed media narratives, player development, and audience engagement through data-driven storytelling.

Beyond academia, I am committed to mentorship, public scholarship, and community engagement. Through my work with the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change and the Communication Ph.D. Pipeline Program (CP3), I actively support emerging scholars in navigating academic and professional spaces. I believe mentorship is an act of resistance, a way to lift others as I climb, and a key part of how I carry the archive forward.

My Declaration

I am more than a scholar.
I am a portal.
I am an archive of Afro-Filipino memory, media, and culture.
I stand at the threshold of empire’s forgetting, holding space for those ready to re-member.
My research, teaching, and public scholarship are not only academic pursuits—they are acts of re-activation.
I write, teach, and speak so that those who have been silenced can hear themselves again.
I am here to remind us that we were never meant to forget who we are.

 I am passionate about bridging the gap between scholarship and public discourse, fostering critical conversations around identity, visibility, representation, and liberation.
Every classroom, every essay, every lecture I give is a site of awakening—an invitation to step through the portal.

Curtis Ladrillo Chamblee
Doctoral Candidate | Department of Communication & Film
The University of Memphis
curtischamblee@gmail.com | www.curtischamblee.com
Afro-Filipino Scholar Researching Identity, Media, and Culture