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Dawn Booker

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Dawn Booker

Junior Lecturer

  • Department: Communication, Media and Culture
  • Graduate Program(s): Global Communications, Strategic Brand Management
  • Office Hours: 
    by appointment

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Dawn Booker is a global communication strategist with more than 25 years of experience advising private, public and non-profit entities in the areas of communications strategy, marketing, brand management, public relations, and economic development marketing. Dawn combines theory along with practical expertise to accurately represent gender and culture in global communications and marketing. Her international perspective has been honed through work, study and travel experience in more than 20 countries. Dawn teaches and mentors as an adjunct Journalism professor at Bennett College (since 2011), in Greensboro, NC and Global Communications Lecturer at The American University of Paris. Dawn has presented and published on topics of representation, culture, tourism and inclusive development in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, Paris, France and Florence, Italy. Dawn has a BS in Journalism from West Virginia University and an MA in Global Communications from the American University of Paris in France. In addition to teaching, Dawn is the founder of Pack Light Global Itineraries, an experiential travel company for women of color and she also serves as Artist Development Director for the Southern Documentary Fund. Although she is an avid traveler, Dawn is based in Durham, NC.



Education/Degrees

  • M.A. in Global Communications, The American University of Paris
  • B.S. in Journalism, West Virginia University

Publications

  • Wiki approaches to wicked problems: Considering African traditions in innovative collaborative approaches. Development in Practice, 24(5-6), Link to article; Also Published in Book – Booker, D. S. (2015). Wiki approaches to wicked problems: Considering African traditions in innovative collaborative approaches. In Endogenous Development: Naive Romanticism or Practical Route to Sustainable African Development (pp. 58-71). Routledge.

Conferences & Lectures

  • Destination Commodification: Exploring cultural tourism in South Africa through slum tours and cultural villages. Research examines the ideas of exoticism, possession, economic empowerment and the colonial construct of the Western tourist and the Black South African. Abstract accepted for presentation at BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] III: Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures held in collaboration with the Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research/Harvard University, New York University’s LaPietra Dialogues, Tisch School of the Arts and the Institute for African American Affairs. University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa (Turbine Hall) November 17-19, 2016.
  • You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served: James Baldwin and Nina Simone: celebrity and activism on a global stage. – Presented at “A Language to Dwell In”: James Baldwin, Paris, and International Visions – This presentation explores the transnational cosmopolitan identity of both Nina Simone and James Baldwin. I examine how both employed a modern form of parrhesia (Foucault) at great personal risk to speak truthfully about US Civil Rights in global settings. The American University of Paris – Paris, France May 27, 2016.
  • What Color is the Hand of Development? The Framing of Global Issues through the use of Black and Brown Images in Development Communications. Presented at BLACK PORTRAITURE{S} II: Imaging the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories – Presentation explores the use of images of black and brown bodies by NGOs to construct a global representation of poverty. This research looks at the consequences of these portrayals and the possible motivations for the continued use of these images NYU –Florence, Italy – Villa La Pietra, Odeon Firenze – May 28 – 31, 2015.
  • Wiki Approaches to Wicked Problems: Can Wiki-based Approaches innovatively Employ the Principals of Traditional African Philosophy to Lessen the Impact of Wicked
    Problems, presented at the University of Cape Town School of Business Conference – Business of Social and Environmental Innovation 2013: “Co-Innovation to Address Wicked
    Problems Conference Cape Town, South Africa” November 2013. Published as a Peer Reviewed Article – Booker, D. S. (2014).
  • Representations of Race/Gender in Reproductive Rights Communications Case Study: Marie Stopes, South Africa. Graduate School Capstone Project- The American University of Paris – Paris, France May 2013.

Research Areas

• Global Communications

• Gender Issues in Communications

• NGO/Non-Profit Communications

• Corporate Social Responsibility

• Cross-Cultural Communication

• Collaborative Development

• Representations of Race and Culture in Development Communications