My Research Agenda

Research & The Archive I Carry

 Overview

I am an Afro-Filipino scholar, teacher, and carrier of ancestral memory, and my research explores the intersections of Media Studies, Critical Cultural Studies, and African American Rhetoric. My work examines how media constructs, circulates, and contests representations of Black masculinity, identity, and spatial belonging. I approach media not only as a site of cultural production but as an archive of power, resistance, and re-membering—one shaped by place, relationships, and discourse.

I am deeply invested in Black geographies, Afro-Filipino heritage, and the politics of representation, interrogating how both physical and metaphorical spaces inform the construction of Black and diasporic identities across film, television, digital media, and public discourse.

Background & Research Motivations

My research journey is rooted in lived experience and ancestral memory. As a United States Air Force veteran, cancer survivor, and Afro-Filipino descendant, my academic work is informed by personal histories of survival, struggle, and spiritual awakening.

In 2012, following a life-threatening battle with cancer and a near-death experience during surgery, I began to question the stories we are told and those deliberately erased. This moment marked the beginning of my own awakening, reconnecting me to the archives of my African and Filipino lineage. It is from this place of awakening that I approach my research, committed to disrupting empire’s narratives about race, masculinity, and cultural belonging.

My passion for hip-hop, R&B, comic books, and media criticism was seeded long before academia, cultivated in everyday spaces where identity is contested and reclaimed. These experiences, along with the grief and memory of loved ones—including my beloved dog, Godiva, whose presence activated my spiritual re-membering—informs the questions I bring into my research, teaching, and public scholarship.

Core Research Questions & Theoretical Frameworks

My research is guided by two central questions:

  1. How does media construct and circulate representations of Black masculinity?

  2. How do different forms of media shape Black identity, spatial belonging, and cultural memory?

To address these questions, I engage with:

  • Stuart Hall’s theories of representation, ideology, encoding/decoding, and reception

  • Rhetorical frameworks including identification, terministic screens, and dramatism

  • Black geographies, Afro-Filipino epistemologies, and postcolonial theory

My research is interdisciplinary, integrating media criticism, cultural theory, rhetorical studies, and spatial analysis. I analyze media not just as entertainment, but as a spiritual and political battleground where identity is contested, erased, and re-membered.

Key Research Projects & Contributions

Afroterroir: A Framework for Black Media Representation
My signature framework, Afroterroir, interrogates the relationship between place, relationships, and discourse in Black media narratives. This framework draws upon the geographies of Blackness, Afro-Filipino cosmology, and rhetorical analysis to examine how spatial and relational dynamics construct and contest Black masculinity.

Superhero Narratives & The Rhetoric of Black Masculinity
My dissertation, titled “The Impact of Place on the Representations of Black Masculinity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” critically examines how Black masculinity is constructed, contested, and circulated within the superhero genre.
This project focuses on three key case studies:

  • Luke Cage as a mediated performance of race, geography, and cultural authenticity

  • Sam Wilson (The Falcon/Captain America) as a site of negotiation between American nationalism and Black citizenship

  • T’Challa (Black Panther) as an articulation of African sovereignty, diaspora, and ancestral responsibility

 Through these case studies, I analyze how Black masculine identities are shaped by the spatial, rhetorical, and cultural politics of superhero media. This research bridges media studies, rhetorical theory, Black geographies, and Afro-diasporic cultural critique to explore how superhero narratives function as contemporary mythologies that both constrain and liberate representations of Blackness.

 Edited Volume on Ethnography, Media, and Culture
As lead editor of an upcoming volume, I curate critical perspectives that examine the intersections of media, identity, and lived experience through ethnographic methodologies and cultural critique.

CP3: The Documentary & Mentorship Work
As a mentor in the Communication Ph.D. Pipeline Program (CP3) and the Hooks Academic Achievement and Mentoring Initiative (HAAMI), I guide first-generation and underrepresented students in academic writing, research development, and professionalization. My story and philosophy are featured in CP3: The Documentary, where I discuss mentorship as an act of resistance, care, and ancestral responsibility.

Benjamin L. Hooks Institute Research & Public Scholarship
Through my work with the Hooks Institute for Social Change, I contribute to research and initiatives focused on race, media, and policy. I have served as editor for Uplift Memphis, Uplift the Nation, mentoring students in producing public-facing scholarship on race, equity, and justice. I coordinate programs like the Hooks National Book Award and the Hooks Art Gala, bridging academic and community spaces through conversations on race, media, and activism. Additionally, I help oversee the Hooks Policy Papers, a nationally recognized publication archived in the Library of Congress.

Future Research Directions & Long-Term Goals

Building on my current work, I aim to:

  • Develop my dissertation into multiple peer-reviewed journal articles deepening the analysis of Black masculinity and media geographies.

  • Investigate the impact of digital media, on racial identity and representation

  • Explore the spatial politics of Black representation in comic books and films as well as other film franchises such as The Equalizer Franchise, Creed, the new DCU and the films by Antoine Fuqua.

  • Curate additional edited volumes amplifying critical Black, Brown, and diasporic media scholarship.

  • Expand public scholarship through documentary production, media criticism, and policy engagement.

Bridging Research, Teaching & Public Scholarship

My research is not confined to academic spaces. It is an extension of my role as a portal, an archive, and a carrier of memory. I integrate theory, practice, and lived experience in my teaching, emphasizing critical media literacy, African American rhetoric, and the politics of representation. I foster environments where students can see themselves as knowledge producers, inviting them to re-member and rewrite the narratives imposed upon them.Through mentorship, public scholarship, and community engagement, I extend my research beyond the university—ensuring that the knowledge I carry contributes to meaningful dialogue, activism, and collective awakening.

My Research Declaration

I am not merely a researcher.
I am a portal.
My scholarship is a reflection of ancestral memory, lived experience, and cultural survival.
Through my research, teaching, and public engagement, I hold open the door for others to re-member who they are and how media has shaped and erased their stories.
My work exists to challenge empire, resist erasure, and honor the voices that have been silenced.
I research not just to know—but to awaken, to heal, and to carry the archive forward.