Sharon Strover
Professor and DEPARTMENT CHAIR
E-mail: sstrover@mail.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.118C
Phone: 512-471-6652
Ph.D., Stanford University, 1982.
Dr. Strover teaches and researches various topics related to communications and telecommunications, including communication theory, research methodology and telecommunications policy, in the College of Communication at the University of Texas. She also directs the Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute there. One of her latest projects at the Institute is heading up the national Telecommunications Panel for the Rural Policy Institute, a national, multi-university think tank devoted to rural issues. The Panel will work on various national rural telecommunications policy issues.
Current research projects have included examinations of broadband competition in three states, local telecommunications efforts and community networking, video game content and implications for learning, telecommunications networks and policies in the Appalachian region for the Appalachian Regional Commission, modeling telecommunications infrastructure in rural regions, and an investigation of state and local telecommunications policies. Some of this year’s articles appear in The Information Society (Fall, 2003), Javnost The Public (on digital television policy), and Government Information Quarterly (on broadband deployment).
Dr. Strover has worked with the U.S. Federal Communication Commission on technology needs and state and local telecommunications applications, participated in Advisory panels for the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment and the Federal Trade Commission, and was subcommittee chair for the State of Texas’ investigation of the US-Mexico Free Trade agreement (later NAFTA). The recipient of numerous grants and contracts in the telecommunications field, she has worked with several foundations and state agencies around the country on networking and telecommunications policy issues. Dr. Strover co-directed a three-year Ford Foundation study of telecommunications and rural areas and collaborated on the book Electronic Byways, examining state telecommunications applications and policy. She also has co-edited two other books examining telecommunications in urban and rural areas. She currently sits on the editorial boards of four journals. In addition, Dr. Strover was a member of the Network Policy and Planning Advisory Council for the University Corporation on Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), and a member of the steering committee for the annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. The National Research Council also enlisted her help as a member of their Digital Divide panel in 2000. She was elected Mass Communication Division Chair 1999-2001 the International Communication Association, for a major professional organization in the field of communications.
At the University of Texas, she has held a various administrative posts. She has been the Department’s Graduate Advisor for three years, a member of the Women’s Studies Steering Committee for three years, chaired or been a member of several University committees as well as the elected University Faculty Council, and directed the University’s Office of Survey Research. She is the first Director of the University’s Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute, which undertakes research projects, sponsors conferences and publications, and is developing a curriculum concentration in telecommunications. She currently serves as Chair of the Department of Radio-Television-Film. Strover received the University’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award for 1999. Dr. Strover received her Ph.D. from Stanford University.
