Michael Fagans is a photojournalist, multimedia specialist, author, and documentary filmmaker with more than 20 years experience in journalism and nonprofit communications.
Research Interests
- Documenting the South through photojournalism, video, documentary film, and audio projects.
- Exploring the intersections of race and class.
- Documenting the history of our country and how it influences and shapes our present.
Biography
Prior to teaching at the University of Mississippi, Fagans was an instructor at California State University, Bakersfield, and at Bakersfield College. Fagans has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in political science from the University at Albany, SUNY. His first documentary film, ‘The Trafficked Life,’ helped raise awareness about human trafficking in the Central Valley of California and through the Tour Against Trafficking helped raise over $50,000 for nonprofits working to end modern-day slavery.
Fagans was the National Press Photographers Association’s Photographer of the Year for 2005 for New York state, and Ontario and Quebec provinces and was also a Visual College Fellow at the Poynter Institute in 1999.
Fagans has had a gallery show of his documentary work in Afghanistan titled “Unguarded Moments.”
Courses Taught
- JOUR 479 Applied Video Storytelling
- JOUR 456 Journalism Innovation
Education
M.A. Political Science, Suny at Albany (1995)
B.F.A. Journalism, Rochester Institute of Technology (1998)