Summer Hill-Vinson teaches writing and journalism courses, and she enjoys helping students become effective communicators for wherever life takes them.
Biography
Summer Hill-Vinson earned her Ph.D. in journalism in 2011 from the University of Missouri and both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in journalism from the University of Mississippi, where she was one of the first graduates of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Prior to returning to Mississippi, she taught journalism courses at the University of Missouri and Middle Tennessee State University. Hill-Vinson’s research area is journalism during the civil rights movement, primarily the actions and motivations of media organizations. Her dissertation examined the launch of serene Southern Living magazine during the tumultuous 1960s in Birmingham, Alabama, using archival documents to piece together the narrative. Her graduate education was interdisciplinary with focuses on history and politics in the American South.
One of Hill-Vinson’s greatest loves is teaching. She has taught introductory media writing since 2008. She also teaches courses on social media, disability, editing, and media law. Hill-Vinson’s experience outside academia is largely in editing. Prior to graduate school, she was a production editor in Atlanta, and she was a grammar editor for a technology company in the early 2000s. In 2020, Hill-Vinson created OxfordSpeak, an online journalism outlet that served the local community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hill-Vinson is a regular attendee of the annual Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavik, Iceland, and a proud member of that writing community. In June 2025, Hill-Vinson published a chapter about the history of disability in the United States in the book Communicating Disability. She is nearly finished with a book close to her heart, a compilation of essays about her experiences with having premature babies hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the aftermath of parenting preemies. When not on campus or writing, Hill-Vinson has a wide range of hobbies, including attending local government meetings, reading, buying books she may never read, gardening, hiking, traveling, watching sports, baking, and, best of all, parenting.
Courses Taught
- JOUR 102 Introduction to Multimedia Writing
- JOUR 310 Social Media in Society
- JOUR 350 Topics in Journalism: Exploring Disability in the Media
- JOUR 371 Communications Law
- JOUR 379 Editing
- IMC 205 Writing for Integrated Marketing Communications
Education
Ph.D. Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia (2011)