The School of Communication Studies is pleased to announce that Dan Schill (Ph.D., University of Kansas) will be joining the faculty in the fall as an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and a member of the Graduate Faculty.  Dr. Schill was most recently an Assistant Professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, where he taught courses in political advocacy, media and politics, social media, telecommunications policy and law, and research methods. This coming fall he will be teaching Introduction to Advocacy Studies in our M.A. program.

His research is centered at the intersection of communication, politics, technology, and the mass media. His book Presidential Campaigning and Social Media (co-edited with John Allen Hendricks, Oxford University Press, 2013) is the first of its kind to comprehensively study the techniques, functions and effects of social media in presidential campaigning. His first book, Stagecraft and Statecraft: Advance and Media Events in Political Communication (Lexington Books, 2009), pulled back the curtain and explained the strategies and tactics of the visual speechwriters and advance staff who plan and manage political events. Dr. Schill’s research has appeared in American Behavioral Scientist, PS: Political Science & Politics, Review of Communication, Real Time Response Measurement in the Social Sciences, and Techno-Politics and Presidential Campaigning.

In addition to his academic research, Dr. Schill conducts research for media outlets with frequent collaborator Dr. Rita Kirk. Since 2008, he has organized and moderated on-air dial focus groups for CNN and provided real time analysis of debates, speeches, and ads. His focus groups are prominently featured on CNN during coverage of major communication events, such as presidential debates, conventions, and major speeches. His research and analysis has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, ABC News, Chronicle of Higher Education, Dallas Morning News, The American Prospect, and other local and regional media outlets. Dr. Schill is also an expert in telecommunications and Internet policy and spent the 2009-2010 academic year working on these issues in Washington, DC for the United States Senate as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow.