Director of the School of Journalism & Media Studies

email: dborden (at) mail (dot) sdsu (dot) edu
office: PSFA 361G
phone: (619) 594-0633
office hours: posted each semester

Dr. Borden serves as director of the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. She joined the SDSU faculty as an associate professor in August 1998, and was promoted to full professor in May 2001. In July 2001, she was named executive assistant to SDSU President Stephen L. Weber, a position she held for three years. She returned to the School of Communication as an associate director in August 2004.

Dr. Borden teaches graduate seminars in mass communication law and theory as well as undergraduate courses in journalism. Previously, she taught at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Before that, she served as the project director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), where she was responsible for the administration of more than $1.5 million in grant projects. She also was an associate professor and director of the news-editorial sequence in the Department of Journalism, School of Communications and Theater, at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Dr. Borden holds a B.A. in technical journalism from Colorado State University, an M.A. in communication from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Washington in Seattle. She came to academe after a lengthy career in professional journalism, including a 10-year tenure with Gannett Co. Inc., during which time she worked as an editor and publisher in a variety of media markets. She served as president and general manager of The New Mexican in Santa Fe, N.M.; deputy managing editor of The Tribune in Oakland, Calif.; managing editor of The Herald in Bellingham, Wash., and as a copy editor at both the Denver Post and the San Francisco Examiner.

Dr. Borden has a keen interest in how the mass media and other cultural institutions, such as the judicial system, historically have constructed social reality, particularly images of women and minorities. Her research tends to focus on the intersection of communication, gender and the law. She is the co-author of a textbook on editing for contemporary print media and an editor of a book on journalism in the new online environment. Her legal scholarship has been published in several refereed journals, and she is involved in a number of ongoing research projects, including a study of gender and cyberlibel.