Imani M. Cheers

Imani M. Cheers is an Associate Professor of Digital Storytelling at GW's School of Media and Public Affairs, where she has served for more than 13 years across faculty, faculty-in-residence, and administrative roles. Her scholarship is grounded in cultural curation, examining how media shapes the stories communities tell about themselves and who gets to tell them. She is the author of The Evolution of Black Women in Television (Routledge, 2017), Sacred Sisterhoods (Ohio State University Press, 2025), and Framing Fatherhood (Andrews McMeel, 2025), and held a John W. Kluge Center Digital Studies Fellowship at the Library of Congress (2023–2024). Dr. Cheers teaches digital media literacy and storytelling, and since 2013 has led Planet Forward's Academic Adventures across 30+ universities on four continents. As Head of Production at Zuri Productions, a DC-based documentary agency, she brings a practitioner's eye to how images and video are made, edited, and manipulated. She holds a BFA in Photography from Washington University in St. Louis and an MA in African Studies and PhD in Mass Communications and Media Studies from Howard University.