Geoffrey Cowan , university professor and Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, was officially named Walter Lippmann Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science at a ceremony at the University of Pennsylvania.
“The road that led me to this fellowship has included stints well outside of academic life, and those experiences have informed much of my teaching and research," said Cowan during his acceptance remarks, adding that his work has been shaped by what he calls “biography as scholarship.”
Cowan was honored for his contributions to the world of communication, as an academic leader, government official, author, award-winning television producer and playwright. He was recognized for serving as dean of USC’s Annenberg School, where he founded the Center on Public Diplomacy, as well as his leadership as director of Voice of America and of the United States Information Agency’s International Broadcasting Bureau and his role in the creation of National Public Radio while he served on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“We are honoring individuals who have not only accomplished impressive intellectual breakthroughs--but who have done so with their eyes firmly focused on advancing the public good," said Douglas S. Massey, president of the AAPSS and professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, about the Academy’s new Fellows.
The American Academy of Political and Social Science was founded in Philadelphia in 1889 with the objective of promoting the progress of the social sciences and using social science knowledge in the development of public policy. The Academy’s bimonthly journal, The Annals, has featured contributions of such notables as Eleanor Roosevelt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harold Lasswell, Margaret Mead, and Mahatma Gandhi.
