Collegiate Affiliation

Catherine R. Squires is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Squires' work investigates the interactions between social identities, media discourses, and publics. She is the author of Dispatches from the Color Line (SUNY, 2007) and African Americans and the Media (Polity, 2009). Her most recent book, The Post-racial Mystique (NYU Press, 2014), explores how a variety of media—the news, network television, and online, independent media—debate, define and deploy the term “post-racial” in their representations of American politics and society.

Dr. Squires is a member of the Historical Injustice Collaborative at the IAS, working on ways to reconsider Minnesota historical narratives and engender resilient partnerships with communities that have historically been excluded from dominant tellings of the Minnesota story. See https://ias.umn.edu/collaboratives for more information about upcoming events and opportunities to engage with the collaborative. She is also engaged in a long-term partnerships with Gordon Parks High School and Hallie Q. Brown Center in St. Paul. Dr. Squires and U of M students collaborate with community members and high school students to deepen their knowledge about the school's and center's namesakes, local African American history, and foster publicly-oriented creative projects.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: Communication Studies, Northwestern University, 1999
  • B.A.: Politics, Occidental College, 1994

Specialties

  • Media, race and politics
  • Gender and media studies
  • Public sphere studies
  • Community-engaged research
  • Educational Inequality