The Center for Global Studies

Dr. Sophia McClennen is an established scholar in the fields of globalization, human rights, and media studies. She has published 8 books and over 50 articles; she serves on 10 editorial boards and on executive committees for three scholarly associations. She has conducted research on education and international area studies, with particular attention to how multidisciplinary approaches enhance understanding of global issues. She teaches courses in cultures of globalization, human rights, cross-cultural conflict resolution, global media, the cultures of displaced peoples, cultural trade policy. Her courses in International Affairs focus on the connections between culture and globalization. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies in Canada in 2005.

Dr. McClennen’s latest single-authored volume is Colbert’s America: Satire and Democracy (2012), which studies the role of Stephen Colbert in shaping political discourse after 9/11. The related project, Is Satire Saving our Nation? Mockery and American Politics, co-written with PSU communications undergraduate Remy Maisel, a collaboration that is making Penn State history, was released in October 2014.