Robert P. Stephens
Robert Stephens has been at Virginia Tech since 2001. His primary research interests include the history of drugs, the history of film, and digital history. In addition to his appointment as Associate Professor of History, he serves as affiliated faculty with the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT), the Science and Technology Studies Program, and the program in Film Studies.
Current Research
I am currently working on a book tentatively titled Screening Addiction that focuses on the complicated ways in which the film industry and governments have worked together over the past century to shape specific visual narratives of drug addiction.
I also continue to pursue work on the use of technology in the classroom, including work on The Digital History Reader and research on the use of student-produced digital content to promote student learning.
Current Teaching
I am on leave for the 2007-2008 academic year.
Recent Publications
- Germans on Drugs: The Complications of Modernization in Hamburg (University of Michigan Press, 2007).
- 'Wowman! The World's Most Famous Drug Dog': Advertising, the State, and the Paradox of Consumerism in the Federal Republic, in Selling Modernity: Advertising and Public Relations in Modern German History (Duke University Press, September 2007).
- E. Thomas Ewing and Robert Stephens, The Digital History Reader: Teaching Resources for United States and European History, Perspectives: Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association (May 2007).
Spotlight:
The Digital History Reader
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Virginia Tech, The Digital History Reader is a free, multimedia, primary source reader.
Created by faculty at Virginia Tech, the Digital History Reader is made up of inquiry-based modules that help teach students to read audio, visual, and textual sources more effectively. The modules are appropriate for use in survey and upper-level courses as well as AP and IB courses.
