Meta Carstarphen

Gaylord Family Endowed Professor

Associate Professor

Office: 3510C Gaylord Hall

Phone: (405) 325-2721

E-Mail: mcarstarphen@ou.edu

Meta Carstarphen's Homepage

Education

• Texas Women's University (MA, PhD)
• Temple University (BA)

Background

Meta G. Carstarphen is a Gaylord Endowed Professor in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Carstarphen, who joined the Gaylord College faculty as Associate Professor in 2003, was selected for the professorship based on a research proposal to establish collaborative research projects with scholars, agencies and educational organizations to develop one of the premier primary document resources on ethnic newspapers. Carstarphen served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the Gaylord College for 2005-2007.

Carstarphen has previously taught at The University of North Texas Department of Journalism and North Lake College’s Communication division in Irving, Tx. Currently president of the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication (SWECJMC), Carstarphen heads this eight-state consortium of regional colleges and universities devoted to the strengthening of research, service and teaching of journalism and mass communication for a one-year term that began November 2005.

She teaches courses in public relations writing and campaigns, as well as in race, gender and the media, research and cultural studies within the media. Her professional experience is in public relations and journalism, and she has consulted on community relations, nonprofit public relations, and cross-cultural integrated communication topics. A regular arts reviewer, Carstarphen is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters, and has edited two books, including the 1999 volume,  Sexual Rhetoric: Media Perspectives on Sexuality, Gender and Identity, by Greenwood Press. Her latest is the Fall 2004 textbook from Allyn & Bacon Publishers, Writing PR: A Multimedia Approach.

A former editor with Chilton Publishing Co. in Radnor, Pa., she received the “Best Feature” awards twice from the American Business Press as a result of her contributions to in-depth reports on the emerging digital watch industry and on discrimination in the jewelry industry, respectively. A member of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), she has published reviews and commentaries in such publications as contributing writer for The Dallas Morning News, Our Texas magazine, Black Issues in Higher Education and others.

In Spring 2006,  Carstarphen hosted a speakers’ series based upon her “Race, Gender & the Media” course that was chosen as one of the seven 2005-2006 OU “Dream Courses,” It is the first dream course awarded to the Gaylord College. Carstarphen developed this interdisciplinary class for Gaylord College three years ago, as a vehicle to engage students in probing discussions about contemporary media portrayals.