Phone: 213 821 1546
E-mail: stacysmi@usc.edu Office: ASC 222
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m.
Stacy L. Smith (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999) joined the USC Annenberg Faculty in the fall of 2003. Her research focuses on children’s responses to mass media portrayals (television, film, video games) of violence, gender and hypersexuality. Dr. Smith has written nearly 50 journal articles and book chapters on content patterns and effects of the media on youth. Further, she has received multiple "top paper" awards for her research from the Instructional Developmental Division of the International Communication Association. In terms of the popular press, Dr. Smith’s research has been written about in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, Salon.com, The Boston Globe, and USA Today.
Most recently, she has been working with a team of graduate and undergraduate students to assess portrayals of males and females in children’s media (Read technical research reports from the project). Some of this work has been funded by See Jane, a program started by Academy Award winner Geena Davis.
While research is important, Dr. Smith is most passionate about teaching. She currently teaches the undergraduate COMM 203 – Introduction to Mass Communication course at USC Annenberg. Dr. Smith has been recognized for her outstanding teaching, receiving multiple awards from different constituencies on campus. She has received the Outstanding Professor Award from the Annenberg Students Communication Association twice, the Greek Professor of the Semester Award, the Golden Apple Award from Kappa Alpha Theta twice, the Professor of the Year Award from Spring Gamma Alpha Sigma, and was recognized as an Honorary Member of Lambda Pi Eta. More recently, she was tapped by Mortar Board at USC and was nominated by the Trojan League of Southern California for the 2008 Outstanding Service Award.
Outside of research and teaching, Dr. Smith enjoys laughing, drinking coffee and telling stories. Her favorite books include The Alchemist, The Catcher in the Rye, Blue Like Jazz, and Pagan Christianity.