Dr. Stephanie A. Martin joined Boise State University in 2022 and is currently an Associate Professor with the School of Public Service’s Global Studies Program and the Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs for the Frank Church Institute.  She earned a Doctorate in Communication from the University of California - San Diego, an M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication with an emphasis on Electronic (Digital) Media from Syracuse University, and a B.B.A. in Operations Management from Boise State University.

Dr. Martin brings nearly 20 years of experience in corporate, media and political campaign work to bear in her research, which investigates the discourse of conservative social movements in the contemporary United States.  She is especially interested in a particular interest in the public discourses of conservative social movements, especially evangelical voters. Dr. Martin argues that through understanding the stories these believers tell one another – especially in their churches – about American exceptionalism, traditionalism and the importance of hard work, we can come to understand something about their political priorities. That is, these Christians are not only, or even primarily, concerned about values questions like abortion, but instead share a worldview about who the country once was and so should be again. This, in turn, sheds some light on their relative lack of support for both the Obama presidency, as well as their surprising embrace of Donald Trump.

She has also written about the rights of citizens to protest and dissent, and questions of visual ethics and photography given the realities of digital journalism and the First Amendment.