A faculty member and a Ph.D. graduate student in the University of Memphis’ Department of Communication and Film have written a journal article about a pop-culture icon and musical heritage that has been published in the December 2018 edition of Communication, Culture and Critique.

In “‘I Think of Him as an Ancestor:’ Tupac Shakur Fans and the Intimacy of Pop Cultural Heritage,” Assistant Professor Amanda Nell Edgar and Ph.D. graduate student Keven Rudrow “demonstrate the emotional investments fans have in (Shakur’s) image and their individual and communal connections to his memory,” they wrote in the abstract of their journal article. “The 2017 biopic, All Eyez on Me (AEoM), sparked public discussion of Shakur’s legacy and prompted his fans to reflect on the importance of his work in their identity development.”

At the U of M, Dr. Edgar teaches Media and Information Literacy, Rhetoric of Popular Culture, Oral Communication, and a graduate seminar in Media, Rhetoric, and Sound Studies. Rudrow’s research centers on rhetorical criticism and other qualitative methods to interrogate contemporary American society and media.

Communication, Culture and Critique is an academic journal that publishes critical research on communication, media and cultural studies.

— Phillip Tutor, CCFA media coordinator, potutor@memphis.edu