Bill Kovarik

Prof. William (Bill) Kovarik, PhD, teaches science journalism, media history, media law, digital imaging, and environmental history. His research is located at the intersection of history, communications and the environment.

Prof. Kovarik’s background as a professional journalist has involved reporting positions with The Associated Press, the Baltimore Sun, the Charleston SC Post-Courier, and with columnist Jack Anderson. He has also worked as a part-time stringer with the New York Times, Time Magazine and Time-Life Books. He has also served in the environmental press, editing publications such as Energy Resources and Technology, Latin American Energy Report, Appropriate Technology Times, and Appalachian Voice.

Prof. Kovarik studied history of media, technology and environment at the University of South Carolina, earning an M.A. in 1983, and the University of Maryland, earning a PhD in 1993. His dissertation involved research into the media coverage of a preventable environmental disaster — the development of Ethyl leaded gasoline and alternative anti-knock additives, especially ethanol. Prof. Kovarik has also studied international comparative media law as a post-doctoral fellow at the PCMLP Summer Institute at Oxford University.

Prof. Kovarik’s books include: “The Forbidden Fuel” (1982, republished 2010) with Hal Bernton and Scott Sklar), The Ethyl Controversy (1993); “Mass Media and Environmental Conflict” (1996, with Mark Neuzil, Sage); “Web Design for the Mass Media” (2001, Pearson) and “Revolutions in Communication” (2011, 2016, Bloomsbury).

Prof. Kovarik has served three decades at Radford University (a public university once part of Virginia Tech) and also as an instructor at the University of Maryland and the University of South Carolina. He has also served as a visiting professor at Virginia Tech, the University of Western Ontario in London, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Unity College in Maine.

Kovarik has also served as an academic representative on the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists as well as the board of Appalachian Voices and the academic advisory board for the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism.