ROCKELL BROWN BURTON, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Radio, Television and Film Department in the School of Communication at Texas Southern University.
Professor Brown earned a doctorate in Media Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and holds a master’s in Mass Communication from Howard University, in Washington, DC.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her research interests concern race and representation, mediated representations of women, communication and culture, as well as health communication. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mass communication, health communication and communication studies. She received the School of Communication Teacher of the Year Award in 2009 at Texas Southern and co-authored the 2011 book, Race and News: Critical Perspectives that examines how issues related to race are represented in contemporary news coverage in the United States.
Additionally, Brown has authored and or co-authored several book chapters and journal articles including: Mammy, Angry Black Lady, Down Ass Bitch and Beyond: Representations of Black Women in Reality Television (In Press); Even Playing Field: The Role of Race in the Media’s Analysis and Coverage of Black NFL Quarterbacks (In Press); African Americans: From Minstrelsy to Reality TV; Exploring the Dark Side of Social Support Among African Americans with Prostate Cancer; Representing’ the Ladies: A Negotiated Response to Tyler Perry’s Film Portrayals of African-American Females, , Examining memorable messages in the African American family: Coping with prejudice.
Previously, Brown served as Interim Chair of the Speech Communication department as well as the Director of Graduate Studies for the School of Communication at TSU. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas Southern, Dr. Brown was an Assistant Professor at Xavier University in New Orleans. She served as a mentor in the Ronald E. McNair Program and co-advisor to the undergraduate chapter for the National Association of Black Journalist.
Dr. Brown is a member of the National Communication Association (NCA), the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), National Association of African American Studies (NAAAS), and The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and previously served as Co-Chair of the Professional Freedom and Responsibility Standing Committee for the Minorities and Communication Division of AEJMC.