Joel Plummer

History Teacher

Joel I. Plummer is a professional educator and photojournalist whose work has focused on amplifying the voices of people that too often go unheard. He graduated from Rutgers-Newark where he earned a B.A. in African American Studies and a M.A. in history. He also completed the Rutgers Graduate School of Education's Supervisor's Endorsement program. For nearly twenty years, he has taught history at the secondary level and for the past nine years, has taught in the Africana Studies department at Rutgers University. As a photojournalist, his work has been used by The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, NBC, CBS, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and numerous international media outlets. In 2017, he joined New York University’s Translucent Borders program with which he travelled to Ghana to photograph collaborations between African and American artists. His most recent project was a photo documentary that he created from the images he made while spending four years covering the Black Lives Matter Movement (www.blacklivesmatterbook.com). He is a product of the Plainfield Public School District and still lives in Plainfield with his wife, Danielle, and their children, Alexis, Morgan, and Mason.