Professor, Communication
Communication Honors Faculty Liaison
- PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mass Communication
- MA, University of Washington, Communication
- BS, Northwestern University, Communication Studies
Susannah Stern, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of San Diego, and she currently serves as the Director of the Honors Program. She is also affiliated faculty with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Stern’s research examines how both fictional and news media represent adolescents, as well as how young people interact with, make sense of and are affected by media. Her work aims to emphasize youth agency, and she is centrally concerned with the complex and dynamic relationships young people share with digital technologies. Her work draws attention to the cultural consumption, self-expression, and identity work that accompany young people’s media and digital participation.
Stern offers a variety of courses that investigate the role of media in contemporary life. Some of her favorite classes to teach include The Digital Self, Teenagers and Popular Media, Children & Media, Media Process and Effects, and Qualitative Research Methods. As the Director of the Honors Program, Stern also teaches the Honors Thesis Seminar to over 100 students annually, guiding honors seniors as they create original scholarly projects rooted in over 25 majors from across the university.
In addition to her classroom teaching, Stern enjoys collaborating with undergraduate researchers on a variety of projects. In 2018, she was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, which recognizes a senior scholar who brings respect and excellence to the practice of mentoring undergraduates in research and scholarly activities.
Scholarly Work
Stern’s scholarly research encompasses a range of projects investigating youth’s digital media practices and their representations in the media. Her current work includes an exploration of how popular streaming programs depict social media in the lives of teenagers, an examination of how families make decisions about giving their children smartphones, and an investigation into public sentiment about the relationship between social media use and youth mental health.
Stern's work has appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Children and Media, the Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Health Communication, as well as numerous edited collections. Stern has presented her research and offered lectures and workshops regarding children, adolescents and media at an array of professional, non-profit, university, and pre-K-12 meetings and conferences.
Areas of Interest
Youth and identity; media representations; digital media practices; popular culture; media uses and effects; children & teens; gender; qualitative research.