Stephen D. McDowell serves as the Assistant Provost for International Initiatives at Florida State University (2018 - present).   He also serves as the John H. Phipps Professor in the School of Communication at Florida State University (2006-present).  He served as Department Chair (2002-2013), Associate Dean (2013-2021), and Interim Dean of the College of Communication and Information at FSU (August 2021- June 2023).

His research and teaching interests address news, and communication technology and  policy in South Asia and North America. He has co-edited, with Sahana Udupa, Media as Politics in South Asia (Routledge, 2017), co-authored, with Phillip Steinberg and Tami Tomasello, Managing The Infosphere: Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion (Temple University Press, 2007), and authored, Globalization, Liberalization and Policy Change: A Political Economy of India's Communications Sector (St. Martin’s, 1997).

McDowell has held fellowships with the Canadian federal Department of Communications in Ottawa, Canada (1987-1989), with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in New Delhi, India (1989-1990), and a Congressional Fellowship supported by the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C. (1994-1995).

• BA, Economics and Political Science, 1982; University of Waterloo (Ontario)
• MA, Political Science, 1983; Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario)
• PhD, International Relations, 1988; York University

Media Policy; New Media; International Communication; Internet Governance; South Asian Media; Intercultural Communication

New Communication Technology and Society, Mass Media Telecommunications Policy, International Communication