SCHOOL of INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
American University · Washington, D.C.
FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES -- Shalini Venturelli
Shalini Venturelli
B.S., Illinois State University
M.A., University of Chicago
Ph.D., University of Colorado
E-mail: sventur@american.edu
Phone: (202) 885-1635
International Communication Web Site
Dr. Shalini Venturelli is Director and Associate Professor of the International Communication Division in the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Venturelli’s current research examines the international dimensions of the Knowledge Society and the Global Internet. Her work addresses the social preconditions of knowledge development and the relationship between information technologies and the emergence of a knowledge culture in comparative national contexts. Her research explores how societies may create social and cultural environments that spur the dynamic growth of ideas through the design of knowledge strategies, more effective transfer of information technologies, and the greater facilitation of participation in knowledge production within civil society and culture. Her scholarship is grounded in the role of knowledge within constitutional transformation, associational networks, cultural participation and economic change, and develops a set of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of knowledge systems and the production of ideas in the information age. She argues that “a culturally creative labor force sparks new ideas which in turn stimulate economic innovation—moving local economies from a traditional product-oriented, manufacturing base to a continually evolving economy based on intellectual capital, the new “gold” standard in the global knowledge economy.”
Dr. Venturelli has conducted research on the social, cultural, political and economic challenges of global communications, including the development of information technology networks and the Internet. She has delivered lectures, reports and recommendations for policy to international organizations and governments worldwide, particularly in the European Union, the World Bank, the United Nations, the OECD, and NGOs in North America, South Asia and East Asia. In the United States, her work has contributed to knowledge economy strategies of state governments and community development agencies. She has examined the emerging international framework of the Global Information Society in terms of cultural rights and cultural policy, free expression rights, poverty and information technology, human rights, content regulation, intellectual property rights, telecommunications liberalization, competition policy, and universal service. Her analysis has focused on the socio-legal and political constitution of the public sphere in the information age, especially with respect to social access, participatory conditions, and socio-economic development.
Dr. Venturelli is an expert on European Union constitutional reform, a subject she has been following for more than a decade. She has focused in particular on the evolution of constitutional rights, the framework of institutional governance, and the restructuring of European democracies under EU expansion not only in newly admitted member states of Eastern Europe, but also in the older democracies of Western Europe. The EU and its transatlantic relations with the United States continues to play a central role in Prof. Venturelli’s research because of its significance for international communication, knowledge development and dominant forces shaping democratic change within the international system.
Dr. Venturelli is the author of books and journal articles on the social and democratic development of the Knowledge and Information Society. Her forthcoming work on Dynamics of Knowledge Culture: Civil Society, Culture & Ideas in the Global Information Age develops from a multi-year study of knowledge systems and socio-economic development. It takes a fresh look at four areas of conceptualization--civil society, culture, economics of ideas, and rights of expression--in order to redefine the way we may more effectively address the challenge of designing knowledge societies of the future. One of the central questions in this work is directed at how we can create conditions for greater levels of participation by local communities worldwide in the processes of knowledge generation.
A sample of other works by Dr. Venturelli’s include: Liberalizing the European Media: Politics, Regulation and the Public Sphere, a study of the political, cultural, and constitutional implications of the Information Society in the European Union; Culture and the Creative Economy in the Information Age; Public Service Media in the Knowledge Society; From the Information Economy to the Creative Economy: Moving Culture to the Center of International Public Policy; Inventing Internet Regulation in the US, EU and East Asia: Conflicting Social Visions of the Information Society; Ownership of Cultural Expression: The Place of Free Speech & Culture in the New Intellectual Property Rights Regime of the European Union.
Prof. Venturelli received a Ph.D. from the University
of Colorado at Boulder, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a
B.S. from Illinois State University.
Areas of Expertise (regions and sectors):
Knowledge Economy in Comparative International Context
Internet regulation and international policy
Speech rights and content regulation
Cultural Rights & Cultural Policy
Intellectual Property Rights and International Agreements
International Communication, International Media, & World Politics
Transatlantic Relations between the European Union and the United States, including:French – U.S. Relations
Italian – U.S. Relations
British – U.S. RelationsEuropean Union Constitutional Reform
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