• Assistant Professor
• Communication Studies & Film/Media
• Email: justinw@uri.edu

Identity: Gay

What motivates you to be visible on campus?

I believe in authenticity across all parts of my life. I am a better teacher and mentor if I can bring my whole self to URI. My job as an educator is to facilitate learning and to create a comfortable and safe environment for all my students to learn. I am thankful that URI is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels within the university community. This commitment has been crucial to my life and to the way that I make decisions to shape the future.

When I worked at NBCUniversal leading primary research, I was Co-Hub Leader for OUT@NBCU, the LGBTQ employee affinity group, in Los Angeles. I have lectured and published on LGBTQ media and media history for the past three decades. In 1994-96, I taught ‘AIDS, the Mass Media & Cultural Politics’ at the University of North Texas. Among other topics, the course addressed how the media constructed representations of queer people in the AIDS epidemic, including positive and negative rhetorical strategies used by film and video-makers. I am working on a research project on the presentation of character, family and queer history in the show Transparent.