Danielle Hodge, PhD, employs a critical race theoretical approach to identity, culture, and language. In particular, she is concerned with how systems of oppression and marginalization inform the identities, discursive practices, and experiences of African Americans. To advance theoretically robust and culturally grounded knowledge about African American life and language worlds, her research agenda is guided by the following questions: How can communication concepts and theories (i.e., discourse analysis) further illuminate African American culture, experiences, and struggle; and, how can African American Studies theories inform the ways we interpret and examine communication? Importantly, she explores how Communication and African American Studies can be bridged to examine how systems of oppression impact marginalized groups and are discursively reproduced, maintained and resisted.