Gheni Platenburg

Gheni Platenburg, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Houston where she primarily teaches undergraduate journalism skills courses and graduate research courses. Platenburg earned a doctorate in media and public affairs from Louisiana State University. Before her career in academia, she worked full time as a multimedia journalist at both newspapers and television stations across the South. In addition to teaching, she currently works as a freelance journalist for both The Washington Post and Solutions Journalism talent networks covering stories intersecting at politics, crime and race.

Drawing from her journalistic work, Platenburg’s research agenda primarily focuses on the intersection of Black identity and media, which includes the historic and contemporary Black Press, pop culture and racial impact on journalistic decision-making, identity negotiation and newsroom experiences.

Her recent academic publications include a co-authored book, Lizzo’s Black, Female and Fat Resistance (2021, Palgrave Macmillan); journal articles in the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal and the Howard Journal of Communications as well as a book chapter in Sustaining Black Music and Black Culture During COVID-19 (2020, Lexington Books).

She holds memberships with the National Association of Black Journalists; the American Journalism Historians Association; the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting; and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.