Stephen D. McDowell is John H. Phipps Professor of Communication and serves as Director of the School of Communication at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, where he has taught since 1996. He also serves as the co-director of the FSU Institute for Intercultural Communication and Research, as Chair of the Academic Subcommittee for the FSU Global Pathways Certificate program, and on the FSU International Activities Advisory Committee.

McDowell has conducted research on media and communication policies in India and Pakistan, and has made presentations to universities and/or worked to establish university contacts, special programs, and/or academic exchange partnerships in  China, South Korea, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Thailand,  India, and Pakistan. 

His research and teaching interests address media policies and new communication technologies, Internet governance, international and intercultural communication, and communication policies in Canada, South Asia, and North America.  Along with articles and book chapters on these topics, he has co-authored, with Phillip Steinberg and Tami Tomasello, Managing The Infosphere: Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion  (Temple University Press, 2007), and written a book on India’s communication policies, Globalization, Liberalization and Policy Change: A Political Economy of India's Communications Sector (New York: St. Martin's; and Houndmills, U.K.: The Macmillan Press, 1997). 

McDowell prepared the self-study report for the FSU School of Communication Quality Enhancement Review (QER) of undergraduate and graduate academic programs and faculty development  in 2008, and the graduate program sections for the department QER in 2000.  He has served as an external reviewer for doctoral programs in Communication at Temple University and the University of Western Ontario. 

McDowell has held fellowships with the Strategic Policy Planning Division of the Canadian federal Department of Communications in Ottawa (1987-1989), with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in New Delhi (1989-1990), and a Congressional Fellowship supported by the American Political Science Association in Washington D.C. (1994-1995).  He served as Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association from 2008-2010.

E-mail: steve.mcdowell@cci.fsu.edu