Murali Balaji, Ph.D

Program Director

Dr. Murali Balaji is the program director and assistant professor in the Mass Communications Center of Excellence. He joined the Lincoln faculty in 2009 and was promoted to program director in July 2010. Dr. Balaji is considered an emerging scholar in critical media studies, having published several key articles in prestigious journals such as Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication, Culture, and Critique, and the Journal of Black Studies. He has also co-edited two academic volumes, including the forthcoming anthology Global Masculinities (University of Illinois Press) with renowned communications scholar Dr. Ronald L. Jackson II. Dr. Balaji has also authored two books, including the critically praised book, The Professor and the Pupil, a political biography of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. He is a former award-winning journalist who has worked in newspapers, magazines and radio. In 2010, he and colleague Letrell Crittenden launched The Voice of Philadelphia, a community news portal and media literacy site. He has also blogged for Diverse Issues in Higher Education and serves on numerous community, journalistic, and scholarly committees.