Katrina Overby
Assistant Professor
Katrina Overby
Assistant Professor
Bio
Dr. Katrina M. Overby is an activist scholar whose research centers Black feminist thought, media studies, and critical cultural communication. Her work explores Black digital cultures and communities—particularly how Black women use social media, storytelling, and placemaking as strategies for belonging, resistance, and care. She is especially interested in how digital and in-person spaces serve as sites for Black women’s communal connection and sisterhood.
Her scholarship has been published in Gatherings, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and the Journal of Sports Media, in addition to publishing book chapters in several edited books. She is also the co-editor of a recent special issue in Feminist Pedagogy, and is committed to examining and cultivating engaged pedagogy within communication education.
In 2025, Dr. Overby was honored with the Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Faculty Pluralism Award at RIT for her contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion through her scholarship, service, and community engagement.
A proud native of Indianapolis, Indiana, she holds a Ph.D. in Journalism from Indiana University, an M.S. in Mass Communications and Media Management from Oklahoma State University, and a B.A. in Mass Communications and Broadcast Journalism from Rust College, an HBCU in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Currently Teaching
In the News
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May 10, 2024
Bright Spot: Inspiration for young scholars
WHAM-TV features Katrina Overby, assistant professor in the School of Communication, as its Bright Spot.
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October 2, 2023
RIT Faculty Host Inaugural Sister Scholars Connect Writing Retreat
Only two percent of full professors at US colleges and universities are Black women, according to National Center for Education Statistics data, and Black faculty as a whole make up about six percent of all faculty. During the Sister Scholars Connect Writing Retreat held last month at RIT’s Tait Preserve, more than 30 Black women faculty from throughout the region met for a day of scholarly writing, collaboration, mentoring, and support.
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December 22, 2022
Katrina Overby to deliver keynote address at RIT’s Let Freedom Ring celebration
RIT’s annual event commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will feature a keynote address by a faculty member whose work explores the intersections of communication, race, and identity. Katrina Overby, an assistant professor in the School of Communication, will headline the sixth annual Let Freedom Ring.