N.C. A&T’s Morganfield Named Interim Department Chair

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Oct. 11, 2021) – The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has named Robbie Morganfield, Ph.D., interim chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JOMC). This selection follows his appointment as the Janice Bryant Howroyd/News & Record Endowed Professor when he joined the faculty at North Carolina A&T in 2020.

As chair of the largest CAHSS department, Morganfield will lead 30 JOMC faculty and staff members as they prepare and support nearly 600 students pursuing career opportunities in multimedia reporting and producing, and public relations. He will also oversee the establishment of M.A. and certificate programs, in addition to his teaching, mentoring and research responsibilities as an endowed professor.

Morganfield’s distinguished career, which spans three decades, includes instruction, administrative leadership and diversity consultant at various colleges across the country including the University of Arkansas, Texas Christian University, St. Augustine University in North Carolina and the University of Maryland, College Park. He was executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University and most recently served as the mass communication department head and Cleo Fields Endowed Professor at Grambling State University.

Additionally, Morganfield’s decades-long experience as a professional and freelance journalist includes reporting for the Houston Chronicle, the Sun-Sentinel and The Detroit News.

Morganfield’s research interests bring attention to media theory and the intersection of media, race, religion and culture. His insights and scholarly contributions have been featured in prominent spaces including Diverse Issues in Higher Education and the Montana Journalism Review, and he has presented his paper, “Bishop Richard Wright, The Christian Recorder and Social Responsibility,” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference. His chapter “Teaching Diversity at HBCUs” will be published in a book set scheduled for release in October 2021.