DR. NANCY SNOW

Nancy Snow is Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy in the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.  She teaches in the dual degree masters program in public diplomacy sponsored by the Newhouse School and Maxwell School. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Executive Education Program in the Maxwell School.  Snow serves as Senior Research Fellow in the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. 

Snow is lead editor with Philip M. Taylor (University of Leeds, UK) of the 2008 Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy. She is the author of The Arrogance of American Power: What U.S. Leaders Are Doing Wrong and Why It's Our Duty to Dissent (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9/11 (Seven Stories Press, 2004), which is available in Japanese and forthcoming in Chinese translation; and Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World (Seven Stories Press, 2002), available in Farsi, Japanese, and Portuguese translation. She is editor with Yahya Kamalipour of War, Media and Propaganda: A Global Perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). 

Snow received her Ph.D. in International Relations (magna cum laude) from the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C., and B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude) from Clemson University, South Carolina.  She studied German politics and history at the University of California, Berkeley as a Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service. A Fulbright Scholar to Germany, she completed graduate study in German and Political Science at the universities of Regensburg, Bayreuth, and Freiburg.

In fall 2007 Dr. Snow was a Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing, China. 

Her doctoral dissertation, Fulbright Scholars as Cultural Mediators, earned an honorary "fourth best" dissertation of 1992 by the Speech Communication Association (now National Communication Association), Division of International and Intercultural Communication. 

Dr. Snow is a frequent media source to popular and online media about American persuasion and propaganda with over 300 appearances, including CNN, ABC News, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, CBC, Swiss Public Radio, Japanese Radio and TV, German Radio and TV, Voice of America and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  She has written op-eds for the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, among other publications in scholarly journals including the Journal of Communication and Peace Review.  She is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post, Common Dreams and O'Dwyer's PR Daily and founding faculty associate to the Academic Brain Trust, a partnership of Free Press, media policymakers and activists.  She has served as a faculty associate to Media Channel, the Institute for Public Accuracy, and the Mainstream Media Project. Her film and television appearances include "The Brothers Warner" (2008); "Decoding the Past: Nazi Prophecies" (2005); and "War is Sell" (2004).

Her book chapters include "Propaganda" in American Thought and Culture in the Twenty-First Century, Martin Halliwell and Catherine Morley (Eds.), Edinburgh University Press, 2008; “Invisible Ink: Women and Global Communications,” in Women Across Borders, Jeffrey Klaehn (Ed.), Black Rose Books, 2008; "Propaganda Lies and Patriotic Journalism" in Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney, Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips (Eds.), Seven Stories Press, 2006; "Public Diplomacy as Propaganda" in Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion: New and Classic Essays, Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell (Eds.), Sage, 2006; "Terrorism, Public Relations, and Propaganda" in Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader, Anandam P. Kavoori and Todd Fraley (Eds.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; "Confessions of a Hollywood Propagandist: Harry Warner, FDR and Celluloid Persuasion," in Warners' War: Politics, Pop Culture and Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood, Martin Kaplan and Johanna Blakley (Eds.); "Brainscrubbing: The Failures of Public Diplomacy After 9/11" in Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, David Miller (Ed.); "Framing Globalization and Media Strategies for Social Change" in Representing Resistance: Media, Civil Disobedience, and the Global Justice Movement, Andy Opel and Donnalyn Pompper (Eds.); “The Social Implications of Media Globalization,” in Media, Sex, Violence and Drugs in the Global Village, Yahya  Kamalipour and Kuldip Rampal, (Eds.); “The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948,” Peace Review; and  “The Crisis in Mobility,” in Invisible Crises, George Gerbner, Herbert Schiller, and Hamid Mowlana (Eds.).

Snow's Fulbright scholarship to the Federal Republic of Germany was at the height of the Cold War during the Reagan, Kohl and Thatcher years of the mid-80s. She was subsequently awarded a summer research fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study German history and language at the University of California, Berkeley. Doctoral studies in the School of International Service at The American University focused on international communication, intercultural communication, and peace and conflict resolution. Snow holds lifetime membership in the Fulbright Association and remains a strong advocate for cultural and educational exchange.  

Dr. Snow has lectured at many universities including the University of British Columbia, Naval Postgraduate School, Cal Tech, University of Michigan, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA, Clemson University, Principia College, Franklin Pierce College as well as think tanks and organizations such as the Foreign Affairs Association, International Visitors Council of Los Angeles, Foreign Press Center of LA, Women of Los Angeles, Women of Pasadena, World Affairs Council (Palm Springs, San Francisco), Office of the Americas, League of Women Voters, ACLU, and German Fulbright Association.  Her research and consultancies have led to speaking invitations to Athens, Berlin, Kuala Lumpur, London, Tel Aviv, Valencia, and Vancouver.

Snow's professional experience includes serving as a political consultant to The History Channel and Douglas, Cohn and Wolfe public relations.  During Election 2000, Dr. Snow served as an online American Politics expert for Hungry Minds, Inc. of San Francisco, California, which also featured her in its national advertising campaign in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. In 2002, Snow received a Knight Foundation Fellowship to the University of Mississippi for an inaugural workshop on "The Fourth Estate and the Third Sector: Press Coverage of Nonprofits."  Government service includes two years in the Presidential Management Fellows Program as cultural affairs and educational exchange specialist at the U.S. Information Agency and refugee and migration analyst at the U.S. State Department. She was co-chair of the Japan-America Leadership Exchange Committee (JALEC) and traveled twice to Japan as USIA representative.

She has served as a public diplomacy advisor to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee overseeing changes in U.S. public diplomacy legislation since 9/11.

While serving as Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, Snow was voted one of the three most quoted "media stars" among the 900 full-time faculty.  While Assistant Professor of Political Science at New England College, she was voted the "most enthusiastic and engaging professor" of 1999 and received membership in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. While on the New England College faculty, she served three years as Executive Director for Common Cause in New Hampshire (1997-2000), a nonpartisan citizens' advocacy organization that lobbies for greater accountability and ethics in government. From 1990-1995, she taught as Professorial Lecturer in intercultural communication, global communications, and peace and conflict resolution at American University's School of International Service. She also served as an international exchange administrator for the international nongovernmental organization Delphi International before joining USIA.

From November 2001 until August 2002, Snow served as a faculty associate to the UCLA Center for Experiential Education and Service Learning, where she taught media and social change as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology. From June 2000 until November 2001, Snow served as Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Communications and Community, a research and training organization that focuses on media coverage of diverse neighborhoods and cities.

Snow's research, writing, and public speaking center on U.S. foreign policy, American persuasion, influence, and propaganda, entertainment and media culture in American society, communications in the public interest, and the impact of global communications theory and practice on democratic participation and community development. She is a strong advocate for media accountability and alternative/independent media, a result of her experience as a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Cultural Environment Movement (CEM), a national coalition of more than 150 community-based organizations united to advance gender equity and general diversity in media employment, ownership, representation and perspective.

Teaching Experience 

• American Foreign Policy (NEC)
• American Politics and Government (NEC)
• American Presidency and Executive Process (NEC)
• Anti-Americanism (USC)
• Cold War (NEC)
• Contemporary Politics (NEC)
• Communication and Global Organizations (USC)
• Feature Article Writing (CSUF)
• Global Media Systems (CSUF)
• Global Security & Human Rights (NEC)
• History and Philosophy of American Mass Communications (CSUF)
• Human Rights and Global Wrongs (NEC)
• Ideology and Propaganda (USC)
• Intercultural Communication (AU, NEC)
• International Communication (AU, CSUF)
• International Exchanges and Public Diplomacy (USC)
• International Organization (NEC)
• International Politics (NEC)
• Media and Politics (NEC)
• Media and Social Change (UCLA)
• News Journalism (Tsinghua)
• Opinion Writing (CSUF)
• Peace and Conflict Resolution (AU, NEC)
• Political Communication and Elections (CSUF)
• Persuasion and Propaganda (NEC)
• Persuasive Communications (CSUF) 
• Propaganda, Terrorism and Media (USC)
• Propaganda and Media in an Age of Terrorism and War (CSUF)
• Public Diplomacy (Tsinghua)
• Women and Leadership (NEC)