Michael Stohl’s research employs a wide range of methods to explore human rights, political violence, and media reporting of them and the impact on public and governmental behavior and opinion, as well as the organizations that employ terrorism and promote human rights.
Michael Stohl joined the Department of Communication in January 2002. Formerly he was Dean of International Programs and Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Dr. Stohl's research focuses on organizational and political communication with special reference to terrorism, human rights, and global relations. Dr. Stohl is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and has been the recipient of numerous other fellowships and awards, including the International Communication Association Applied/Public Policy Research Award for career work on State Terrorism and Human Rights in 2011, the International Communication Association 2008 Outstanding Article Award for Stohl, C. and Stohl, M. 2007, “Networks of Terror: Theoretical Assumptions and Pragmatic Consequences” Communication Theory 47,2: 93-124, a Fulbright Fellowship at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Arhus, Denmark in 2013, a Fulbright Fellowship for International Education Administrators in Japan and Korea in 1989 and a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1983. He was Chair of the UCSB Department of Communication from 2004-2010, the Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UCSB from 2014-2019, and is an affiliate faculty member of the Departments of Political Science and Global Studies at UCSB.
A.B. State University of New York at Buffalo, Political Science, 1969
M.A. Northwestern University, Political Science, 1970
Ph.D. Northwestern University, Political Science, 1974