In an email to the Rutgers University–New Brunswick community, Chancellor of Rutgers–New Brunswick and Distinguished Professor Francine Conway and Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, Professor and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, notified the Rutgers community that Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Khadijah Costley White has been awarded the Provost Award for Excellence in Community/Publicly Engaged Scholarship, a scholarly inquiry award that “honors a faculty member whose scholarship integrates community engagement as a vital component of their work. Their work centers on community collaboration, benefits the external community, has significant public and scholarly impact, is disseminated through both traditional and non-traditional outlets, and reflects the mission of Rutgers-New Brunswick.”

In 2013, White earned her Ph.D. from Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and joined the faculty at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, Journalism and Media Studies (JMS) Department. She became as assistant professor following a year as a postdoctoral fellow and accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor in 2021. The recipient of numerous grants and awards throughout her career, White researches races and gender in media and politics. As an activist and community organizer, she has helped lead community actions against police violence, mobilized concerned citizens via social media, organized events and programs related to racial justice, convened panels, lectures, and teach-ins, and participated in rallies and other community events. Prior to joining Rutgers, White was a White House intern, a New York City Teaching Fellow, and a journalist at “NOW” on PBS.

In her nomination letter, Chair and Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Amy Jordan wrote, “Dr. Khadijah Costley White is dedicated to publicly and community engaged scholarship throughout her work at Rutgers and in New Jersey. She shines as a scholar in multimedia and multimodal approaches to both producing, collecting, and sharing research with communities using film, audio, and multimedia installations, such as This is Not a Drill, which premiered in Maplewood in 2022 and 2023 both online in a site she designed (www.talkaboutdrills.com) and in physical exhibition at the community art gallery. That work was funded as a Whiting Public Engagement Fellow, a highly competitive fellowship awarded in 2020. It also led to an op-ed in the state newspaper and a role in national efforts to reduce trauma in security drills. In 2022, Governor Phil Murphy signed new legislation to address the negative impact of active shooter drills.”

Referring to White as “an impressive and thoughtful scholar and who has created effective collaborations with high positive community impact, leveraging Rutgers’ expertise and resources to serve the public, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science Britt Paris noted that it was a true honor to nominate White and added, “I am continually inspired by her long-standing commitment to her local community in Maplewood-South Orange, NJ, where she is a primary organizer for a local non-profit called SOMA Justice that addresses and advocates for racial and social justice and equity.”

Chair and Associate Professor of Library and Information Science Rebecca Reynolds, in nominating White, wrote that she is a “unique scholar-activist whose profound and powerful work always breaks through to the core of the issues she investigates.” Reynolds concluded by noting that White “demonstrates a commitment to multimodality and multiperspectivity in public humanities, public policy, and social science research. We need more of this type of work at Rutgers University; Dr. Costley White can help us get there, with greater recognition, resources, and support for this type of multi-modal research.”

“I am deeply honored to receive this award that recognizes community-engagement as a key part of Rutgers and very grateful for the support to continue this work,” said White. “I came from journalism into academia, drawn by the work of forebears like Ida Bell Wells, Zora Neale Hurston, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, and other scholars who saw no dividing line between being a rigorous researcher and engaging deeply in community. Wells' work on lynching data, especially, highlights the important intersection of truth-telling, social change, scholarship, and public service that I believe the university represents at its best. I thank those who took the time to nominate and build with me.”

White and her colleague, Professor of Library and Information Science Marie Radford, were the two SC&I faculty members to receive Chancellor and Provost Awards this year. Radford is the recipient of the Chancellor Award for Excellence in Mentoring, a service award that “honors a faculty member for their exceptional contributions toward mentoring post-doctoral researchers and/or early or mid-career faculty, and toward advancing the next generation of scholars.”

Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Dafna Lemish wrote in an email to the SC&I community, “These are hugely prestigious awards and we are proud and delighted to see this recognition of Marie’s and Khadijah’s contributions and accomplishments celebrated in this way!”

White and Radford will receive their awards during the Chancellor and Provost Awards for Faculty Excellence ceremony.

Photos courtesy of Amy Jordan