Dr. Stephanie Anderson
Professor | SPPAIS
Academic Areas of Expertise:
European Union, European Politics, Security Policy, Transatlantic Relations, International relations, Political Communication
Biography:
Stephanie Anderson, Professor of Political Science, Ph.D. University of Cambridge (UK), M.Sc., The London School of Economics, and B.S.F.S. at Georgetown University. Her research focus is on the European Union (EU) as an international actor, international relations, transatlantic security and political communication.
Stephanie Anderson was born in New York City, but lived part of the year in Wyoming on her family's cattle ranch. Having spent the whole of her life trying to get her New York family to understand her Wyoming family and vice versa, she decided to study formally the interaction of different cultures in international relations. Her mother sent her to a half-French/half-American school in New York City so she would be fluent enough to marry the Prince of Monaco. Although that never happened, she did go to Strasbourg, France her junior year abroad, where she began her studies of Europe. Before that, she had been an Asian studies major in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Once she started traveling, she couldn't stop. She chose to do her master's degree overseas at the London School of Economics. She decided to focus her studies on the European Union, but realized that she would need to learn German and more about Germany. So, she took a job as a research assistant in the political science department of the University of Konstanz. Right afterwards, she was accepted to her dream school – the University of Cambridge in the UK – to do her Ph.D..
Dr. Anderson has worked at the University of Wyoming since 2004. In 2023-24, she won the College’s Seibold professorship to create more and deeper international partnerships for UW. During that time, she was also a senior fellow in the SCRIPTS program at the Free University of Berlin where she finished a co-authored volume called Polarization and Deep Contestations: The Liberal Script in the United States with Oxford University Press. In 2016, she won a research fellowship to the Institute for Global European Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. In 2011-12, she was a senior fellow at the KFG – Transformative Power of Europe at the Free University of Berlin researching EU security policy, identity-formation, and crisis management as well as the scholar-in-residence at the EU Centre in Singapore. In 2008, she published Crafting the EU Security Policy: In the Pursuit of European Identity (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008). Her book is based on research she did while a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Her first Fulbright was as a Senior Scholar in the Graduate School of International Studies at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea. Her second book is co-authored with Rob Godby, The Economics and Politics of the Eurozone Crisis (Budrich/Columbia, 2016). She has also published in several journals and edited volumes including Armed Forces and Society, The SAGE Handbook of European Foreign Affairs, and European Foreign Affairs Review.
In 2015, Dr. Anderson was selected as Faculty Senate Speaker. She is a three-time winner of the "Top Prof" award. In 2007, Dr. Anderson won the College's Extraordinary Merit in Teaching award. She teaches cross-listed courses in political science, international studies and gender and women's studies including Politics of Europe, European Union, International Organization, and Gender in International Relations.
Dr. Anderson serves on the board of the CyberWyoming Alliance. She has served on the UK Marshall selection committee. She was also elected to the European Union Studies Association's (EUSA) Executive Committee (1999-2003) and Co-Chair of the European Union as a Global Actor interest section (2007-2011). She was also made a Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly. The American Assembly, an affiliate of Columbia University, was founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950 with the mandate to illuminate issues of public policy. As a non-profit, non-partisan organization, the Assembly seeks to provide information, stimulate discussion, and evoke independent conclusions on matters of vital public interest.
Current Research Projects:
Her current project, "When Narratives Collide: The role of news coverage and social media in EU crisis management missions on the EU's identity at home and abroad", asks whether the EU narratives, designed "to assert its identity on the international scene", actually undermine the success of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions. How do the EU's experiences overseas construct the identity of the EU both in Europe and around the world? Applying social constructivism and narrative communication theory to the case studies of Bosnia, Kosovo, and Aceh, this project compares the EU's image of itself, as depicted in informational videos and press releases, with the local community's image of the EU, and explores what happens when they conflict on the ground. For example, does the EULEX-Kosovo mission provide a conduit for justice or Serbian influence? This interdisciplinary research combines political science, international relations, European integration, and communications with identity-building and successful peacekeeping strategies. It uses content media analysis, government documents, and interviews with press officers, EU officials, and journalists for methodology.
Fun Facts About Stephanie:
Stephanie Anderson married Tom Seitz instead of the Prince of Monaco. She is the mother of two girls, and has many animals: cats, llamas, chickens, horses, and cows. She owns a cattle ranch, not too far away, which her family homesteaded about 150 years ago.
