Dissertation

Communities are built on stories. Communities are also destroyed by stories. In my dissertation, I explored both. That Cancer Alley has negative effects on Black residents, or that Cancer Alley exists at all, is part of a story that is at once told by Black residents of Cancer Alley and yet denied by the local petrochemical industry that gave rise to its name. 

Through semi-structured interviews, I found that Black residents are using storytelling to tell counterstories that resist attempts by industry to dis-empower them and to define their experiences for them. By contrast, I find that industry in Cancer Alley is using storytelling—via public relations—to further entrench its corporate hegemonic influence over Black residents. 

Suffering, exploitation, and expropriation are part and parcel of Cancer Alley, but in the final analysis, the story of Cancer Alley is one of resistance, revolt, and empowerment by residents. If public relations is a way for industry to maintain its grip on Black residents, then telling counterstories is their way of subverting this iron fist. 

As a tool for survival and resistance against racism, this dissertation emphasizes that counterstorytelling among Black resident is a central component of cultural preservation, inter-generational communicative networks, and resistance.

Titled Breathing In Justice: A History of Cancer Alley Propaganda and its Relationship to Historic Black Communities, my dissertation is informed by insights from media studies, public relations, critical race theory, and cultural and labor history.

Peer-reviewed Publications

1. Stamps, D., Joshua Jordan & Rollins, D. "The Plight of Police Propaganda: Audiences’ Consumption of In-Group Police TV Characters and Attitudes Toward The Police". Journal of Applied Communication Research (2025).

2. Joshua Jordan, Winfield, A. S., Birrer-Lundgren, K., Burry, J., Beard, D., Bloom, Z., Carlson, E. B., Gouge, C., Rogers, B. & Sirek, A.* "Deficit, Exploitation, Beauty, Opportunity: Academics and Practitioners Talk Rural Health and the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine." Journal of Rural Health and Medicine (2025).

*equal authorship.

3. Winfield, A. W., Mushtarin, N., and Joshua Jordan. "Love and Tradition of the Grand Design: Exploring Culturally Responsive Qualitative Methods with Intergenerational and Intercultural Teams & Participants." Qualitative Health Research (2025).