Dr. Joan Morgan is the Program Director of the Center for Black Visual Culture at New York
University. She is an award-winning cultural critic, feminist author, Grammy-nominated
songwriter and a pioneering hip-hop journalist. Morgan coined the term “hip-hop feminism” in
1999, when she published the groundbreaking book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost:
A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down which is taught at universities globally. Regarded
internationally as an expert on the topics of hip-hop, race and gender, Morgan has made
numerous television, radio and film appearances — among them HBOMax, Netflix, Lifetime,
MTV, BET, VH-1, CNN, WBAI’s The Spin and MSNBC. She has written for numerous
publications including Vibe, Essence, Ms. And British Vogue.

Dr. Morgan has been a Visiting Scholar at The New School, Vanderbilt and Duke Universities
and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Cultural Analysis at NYU. She was a Visiting
Lecturer at Stanford University’s Institute for the Diversity of the Arts where she was awarded the
prestigious Dr. St. Clair Drake Teaching Award. She is the first Visiting Scholar to ever receive
it.

Dr. Morgan is a mentor for Unlock Her Potential and serves on the Board of Trustees for the
National YoungArts Foundation.

Jamaican born and South Bronx bred, Dr. Morgan is a proud native New Yorker.