Devoted to the craft of communication — listening, speaking, writing, and teaching — to strengthen the human connections that matter most.
Five decades of teaching, scholarship, and one discovery that reached across the Atlantic and into literary history.
Steven A. Beebe served on the Texas State University faculty for thirty-three years before retiring in 2019, following ten years as a tenured member of the communication faculty at the University of Miami. At Texas State he chaired the Department of Communication Studies for twenty-eight years while concurrently serving as Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication for twenty-five years.
He earned his B.S. in Education in 1972 and his M.A. in Speech Communication in 1973, both from the University of Central Missouri — where, in 1970, he met his future wife and most frequent co-author, Susan J. Beebe, on the college debate team — followed by a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 1976.
"One of the themes throughout all of my books and my writing and research is the focus on the other person in communication. That, to me, is the focal point of what we do in communication studies." Steven A. Beebe
His research centers on communication skill development and instructional communication, with work appearing in Communication Education, Human Communication, Communication Research Reports, and several Russian-language academic journals. He is the author or co-author of fifteen books — editions totaling more than eighty-five volumes, including Canadian, Russian, Chinese and international printings — used by millions of students at hundreds of universities throughout the world, alongside more than seventy-five articles and book chapters.
A Visiting Scholar at both Oxford University and Cambridge University, and a permanent member of the Common Room, Wolfson College, Oxford University, Beebe has lectured across Europe, Asia, and Central America. He made fifteen visits to Russia across twenty-five years, collaborating with others to establish the first university communication studies programs in the country and co-founding the Russian Communication Association.
He has been an ordained lay minister in the Community of Christ since 1978, serving as pastor of the Miami congregation and later as district president in Texas; he continues to provide personal ministry and to officiate weddings. He and Sue have been married since 1974 and live in San Marcos, Texas, where they are the proud parents of two sons, Mark and Matt, and grandparents to Mary and Ollie.
In 2002, during research at Oxford University, Beebe first encountered a small, tattered notebook in the Bodleian Library labeled "Scraps" — pages holding early fragments of Lewis's fiction and, buried among them, reflections on the nature of language and meaning.
Years passed before the pieces fit. In 2009 he recognized what he had been reading: the opening chapter of Language and Human Nature, a book C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien had planned to write together in the 1940s and which scholars had long assumed never advanced past the idea. The find drew international headlines and was published in SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review.
The research culminated in C. S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication (Peter Lang, 2020), which identifies five enduring principles behind Lewis's power as a communicator.
… he has learned from C. S. Lewis to say exactly what he means.
A thoughtful, insightful, delightful book that informs, instructs and illuminates.
Lewis the master communicator and Beebe the master teacher.
… a singular contribution that expands our understanding of and appreciation for Lewis.
University of Missouri–Columbia.
Ten years as a tenured member of the communication faculty.
Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices, with John T. Masterson (now in the 13th edition).
The beginning of a thirty-three year tenure; chair for twenty-eight years, associate dean for twenty-five.
Opens the notebook that would later reveal the Lewis–Tolkien manuscript.
Co-directs the inaugural conference in Pyatigorsk — one of fifteen visits to Russia.
In the inaugural group to be named a Regents' Professor: the highest academic rank bestowed by the Texas State University System Board of Regents.
International headlines follow the identification of Language and Human Nature.
Champions the introductory course as the discipline's "front porch."
One of ten professors honored statewide across all Texas academic disciplines.
Peter Lang.
Steve and Sue receive Pi Kappa Delta's Order of Attainment.
Religious Communication Association.
The National Communication Association's highest teaching honor.
Peter Lang · 2020
with Susan J. Beebe · 12th ed.
with Susan J. Beebe · 6th ed.
with Susan J. Beebe · 6th ed.
with John T. Masterson · 13th ed.
with S. J. Beebe and M. V. Redmond · 10th ed.
with S. J. Beebe and D. K. Ivy · 9th ed.
with T. P. Mottet and S. S. Frei · 4th ed.
with T. P. Mottet and K. D. Roach · 3rd ed.
co-edited · Routledge
with John T. Masterson · Random House, 1986
with J. T. Masterson and N. H. Watson · Scott, Foresman, 1989
Herald Publishing House, 1983
with J. T. Masterson and N. H. Watson · Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983
with Matyash, Pogolsha, Kazarinova & Zaritskaya · St. Petersburg: Rech, 2011
An ordained lay minister in the Community of Christ since 1978, Steve served as pastor in Miami and later as district president in Texas, and continues to provide personal ministry and officiate weddings. He and Sue — married since 1974, and co-authors many times over — established a forensics scholarship at their alma mater, the University of Central Missouri, in 2003. They live in San Marcos, Texas, the proud parents of two sons, Mark and Matt, and grandparents to Mary and Ollie.
"The plot of all stories, including our own story, is finding home." Steven A. Beebe
Dr. Beebe invites you to connect regarding speaking engagements, consulting, and corporate training seminars, as well as media inquiries, scholarly correspondence, and collaborative inquiries.