Lionell "Badu" Smith

Lionnell “Badu” Smith (he/him) is an assistant professor of critical communication pedagogy at San Francisco State University. He is an Africana communication scholar who studies African and African American cultural rhetorics. His primary aim is to bridge the gap between these often-separated subfields to articulate the possibilities that occur when Africa and African America are in conversation with each other. Dr. Badu situates his work within three global contexts: (a) Black pedagogical rhetorics, (b) Black language rhetorics, and (c) Black religious rhetorics. Using critical rhetorical and qualitative methods, he explores these interrelated areas through the lens of Afrocentric and Black Critical Thought to examine the various historical and contemporary rhetorical situations that advance the self-determination of the Black diaspora.