"My THF experience taught me that your career doesn’t have to be linear to be meaningful. The most powerful opportunities often emerge when you’re willing to connect worlds that others think don’t belong together."
Dr. Jabari M. Evans is an Associate Professor of Race and Media in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. A proud alumnus of the T. Howard Foundation, his career has spanned the music industry, journalism, social work, and academia, giving him a unique perspective on how media shapes culture and opportunity. His research examines creator culture, hip-hop, digital media, and the ways Black youth use technology and storytelling to build identity, community, and economic mobility.
He is the author of Drill Rap, Sex Work and the Digital Underground (Bloomsbury, 2024) and Hip-Hop Civics (University of Michigan Press, 2025). His scholarship has been featured in leading academic journals and has informed conversations across major media outlets, including ABC News, BBC, ESPN, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Dr. Evans is also a faculty affiliate with Microsoft Research’s Social Media Collective, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and the blackBox Lab at Harvard Business School.
Whether in the classroom, on stage, or through public scholarship, Dr. Evans is committed to helping the next generation of creators, journalists, and scholars understand that culture is not just something we consume—it is something we build.