Steven V. Roberts
J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs

Phone: (202) 994-0235
Fax: (202) 994-5806
E-mail: sroberts@gwu.edu
Office: MPA 415

Expertise

Journalism; Political Communication; Media, Society, and Politics

Courses Taught

JOUR 121, Feature Writing
JOUR 199, Ethics in Journalism
PCM 128, Media, Politics, and Government

Selected Works

My Fathers' Houses, a childhood memoir (2005)

From This Day Forward, (with Cokie Roberts), Morrow, 2000.

Background

Steve Roberts has been a journalist for more than 35 years, covering some of the major events of his time, from the antiwar movement and student revolts of the 60s and 70s to President Reagan's historic trip to Moscow in 1988 and nine presidential election campaigns. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1964, he joined the New York Times as research assistant to James 'Scotty' Reston, then the paper's Washington bureau chief. His 25-year career with the Times included assignments as bureau chief in Los Angeles and Athens, and as Congressional and White House correspondent.

He was a senior writer at U.S. News for seven years where he is now a contributing editor. Roberts and his wife, TV journalist Cokie Roberts, write a nationally-syndicated newspaper column and are contributing writers for USA Weekend, a Sunday magazine that appears in 500 newspapers nationwide. In February of 2000 they published From This Day Forward, an account of their 35-year marriage, as well as other marriages in American history. The New York Times called the book "inspiring and instructive" and it spent seven weeks on the Times best-seller list. The paperback version was published in February of 2001.

A well-known commentator on many Washington-based TV shows, Roberts also appears regularly on the ABC radio network and as substitute host on National Public Radio's Diane Rehm Show. As a teacher, he lectures widely on American politics and the role of the news media. Since 1997 he has been the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University, where he has taught for the last thirteen years. His many honors include the prestigious Dirksen Award for covering Congress, the Wilbur Award for coverage of religion and politics, the Bender prize as one of GW's top undergraduate teachers, and four honorary doctorates. He's been named a Father of the Year by the Father's Day Council and awarded the Public Service Sector Award by the Aspen Institute.

Steve and Cokie have two children: Lee, an investment banker in London, and Rebecca, a journalist in San Francisco, and five grand-children. In his spare time, Roberts is an avid gardener and tennis player.

Roberts currently co-hosts the NPR program America Abroad.

Education

B.A. Government, Harvard University, 1964