Dr. J.W. Smith shares experiences with Fellows
Dr. J.W. Smith has achieved an outstanding amount throughout his career both in his academic work and public advocacy. In his discussion with the Fellows Program, he shed light on some of the work he has done to fight for the interests of differently abled individuals across the United States, alongside leading broader discussions with the Fellows about Black history.
Having attended school prior to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, he spoke about the difficulty of working through academia and the lack of infrastructure to support blind students, such as himself. He also touched on the importance of making Black history more central to our education and the inability of Black History Month to achieve truly centralizing Black voices in our history and politics.
As a professor of communication studies, one of the primaries focuses of his work has been Black political rhetoric historically. When asked about contemporary political rhetoric among prominent Black intellectuals, he stressed the importance for these leaders to embrace a more communicative and less antagonistic politics, in the hope of better reforms to the political and economic issues that continue to disproportionately affect Black Americans and differently abled individuals. One of the most valuable parts of his life and education is music. He views music as having an enormous affective potential in uniting people and speaking to greater political issues, viewing music as an extension of his understanding of communication.
In 2019, he authored and published “From the Back of the Bus to the Front of the Classroom: My Thirty-Year Journey as a Black and Blind Professor” in which he reflects on his experiences encountering the intersections of being Black and differently abled. He has also published an extensive amount of literature within the field of communications that speaks to the issues that impact these communities.
