Education

B.A., Communication and Culture, University of Pennsylvania
M.S.W., Social Work, University of Southern California
Ph.D., Media, Technology and Society, Northwestern University

Research

Evans' research focuses on the subcultures that urban youth and young adults of color develop and inhabit to understand their social environments, identity development and pursue their professional aspirations. He generally explores strategies these youth use for self-expression on social media platforms as well as other digital media tools and technologies.  His forthcoming book project, Hip-Hop Civics (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming) centers on a Hip-Hop Based Education program in Chicago Public Schools and argues for rap song making’s utility for fostering connected learning in the formal classroom.

Evans’ research has been recognized for awards by the International Communication Association, published in the Journal of Global Hip Hop Studies, Journal for Media Literacy Education, International Journal of Communication and has been covered by the Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Out Magazine, Ebony Magazine and Chicago Crain’s Business.

A national expert in creator culture, Evans is a faculty affiliate for Microsoft Research’s Social Media Collective, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and the blackBox Lab at Harvard Business School.

Teaching

As a media scholar, Evans has expertise in Hip-Hop pedagogy.  Hip-Hop pedagogy refers to the applications of a teaching style and classroom strategies that enhance both the “critical-ness” and “cultural relevance” of schooling with a social justice perspective. Within this method, an ethos towards ingenuity is used to make students and teachers feel empowered by the schooling process in three distinct ways: social consciousness, the use of nontraditional texts in the classroom (e.g., songs, podcasts, social media threads, YouTube videos, etc.) and to have students to critique and question (“deconstruct”) the veracity of dominant texts.

Recent Publications

Evans, J. M.  (2024). Drill Rap, Sex Work and the Digital Underground: (Clout)chasing on Chicago's Southside. Langham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Evans, J. M.  (2025). Hip-Hop Civics: Connected Learning in the Rap Classroom. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press

Evans, J. (2021). ‘We [mostly] carry guns for the internet’: Visibility labour, social hacking and chasing digital clout by Black male youth in Chicago’s drill rap scene. Global Hip Hop Studies, 1(2), 227-247.

Evans, J. M., & Baym, N. K. (2022). The Audacity of Clout (Chasing): Digital Strategies of Black Youth in Chicago DIY Hip-Hop. International Journal of Communication, 16, 19.

Evans, J. M.  (2020). Connecting Black youth to critical media literacy through hip hop making in the music classroom. Journal of Popular Music Education, 4(3), 277-293.

Awards Won

• Racial Equity and Social Justice Research Fund Grant Award
  University of South Carolina, Office of Research
  January 2022
• CIC Rising Star Award
  University of South Carolina, College of Information and Communications
  April 2024
• Top Student Paper - May 2020
  International Communications Association Conference, Popular Communication Division
• Edward Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Award - March 2020 
  Northwestern University, Office Of Diversity and Inclusion
• Top Student Paper - March 2018 
  International Communications Association Conference, Instructional and Developmental Division

Personal

As a rap artist, Evans has enjoyed a decorated career spanning two decades as a hip-hop performer, songwriter and producer performing and collaborating with Grammy-award winning artists under the moniker of "Naledge" in the rap group Kidz in the Hall. Once named one of Vibe Magazine’s greatest rappers under 30 (2011), Evans has shared stages and collaborated with some of the most exciting artists of his era, including (but not limited to) Talib Kweli, Bun B, Jay Electronica, Wale, J Cole, Lupe Fiasco, Pusha T, and Estelle.