University of Missouri
University of Montevallo
Dr. Xavier Scruggs (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an Assistant Professor of Communication. He is a family and political communication scholar, who specifically examines how racial socialization and family communication shape how adults of color navigate the world and form opinions and values about American institutions (e.g., law enforcement, criminal justice system). In his work, he has developed a scale, using structural equation modeling (SEM), to measure racial socialization messages in Black families. Dr. Scruggs has also published work examining how racial resentment and ambivalent sexism impacted debate evaluations of the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate, and most recently he published a book chapter, using his scale, that looked at how racial socialization messages impacted voting behaviors among Black adults. His work has also been published in communication journals, such as Journal of Family Communication, Communication Research, and Communication Reports.
Dr. Scruggs is also excited to be conducting political communication research in the purple state of North Carolina!