New Director of Center on Public Diplomacy

By Kay Heitzman on June 19, 2009 8:06 AM

USC Annenberg School for Communication journalism professor Philip Seib has been appointed the new director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, effective July 1.

Seib will continue the work of professor Geoffrey Wiseman, who is stepping down as director to resume his full-time faculty teaching position at the USC School of International Relations.

The Center on Public Diplomacy was established in 2003 as a partnership between USC Annenberg and the USC College. The center established the first master’s program in the country in public diplomacy and in 2006 introduced the first summer program for mid-career practitioners.

“Since its inception, the Center on Public Diplomacy has become the definitive destination for practitioners and international leaders in public diplomacy, while pursuing an innovative research agenda,” said USC Annenberg dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “Geoff Wiseman provided key leadership at an important moment in the life of the center, so that today we are widely consulted by government agencies, nongovernment organizations and private firms from around the world. USC Annenberg is proud of its role in these efforts, and we are dedicated to advancing this important field.”

Howard Gillman, dean of USC College, said: “There is no better time or place for innovation, leadership and debate in public diplomacy than at USC’s Center for Public Diplomacy. The partnership between the Annenberg School for Communication and USC College continues to bring together prominent scholars from each of the schools to tackle challenges of global importance, including past director Geoff Wiseman and incoming director Phil Seib.”

As a professor of journalism and public diplomacy, Seib has concentrated on the links between media, war and terrorism. He also holds an appointment as a professor of international relations and is a prolific author.

He is the author or editor of 18 books, including New Media and the New Middle East and The Al Jazeera Effect, published in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In September, his new book, Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy, will be published. He is also the series editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication and is co-editor of the journal Media, War and Conflict.

In addition, Seib has served as USC Annenberg’s principal project director and liaison to American University in Dubai, assisting the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication with curriculum development.

In 2008, USC received one of four inaugural Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy from the U.S. State Department in recognition of the university’s teaching, training and research in public diplomacy.

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