Frank E. Beaver is Professor of Communication Studies and Professor of Screen Arts & Cultures. In 1989 he was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Communication. Prof. Beaver holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Radio-Television-Motion Pictures/Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Prof. Beaver's research interests include socio-political history of the motion picture with particular focus on social criticism of film, and on statutory and self-regulatory controls of motion picture expression. Beaver's writings on First Amendment issues for the motion picture have been anthologized in two mass media readers, and his published research on the impact of new video technology on adult films was cited in a State of Oregon Supreme Court test case. He serves as General Editor of Simon and Schuster's Twayne Filmmakers Book Series, and for 25 years has been film commentator on the statewide University of Michigan radio stations WUOM/WFUM/WVGR.

From 1987-1991 Beaver served as the Chair of the University of Michigan Department of Communication.

Professor Beaver has published extensively on the art and history of the motion pictures. His books include: Bosley Crowther: Social Critic Of The Film; On Film: A History Of The Motion Picture; Dictionary Of Film Terms; Oliver Stone: Wake up Cinema. Dictionary Of Films Terms was translated into Mandarin Chinese and published in Beijing in 1993. Articles and critical writings have been anthologized in The Films Of Oliver Stone (Kunz, ed.), Chicano Cinema (Keller, ed.), State of the Art: Issues in Contemporary Mass Communication (Shimkin, Stolerman, O'Connor, eds.), Media Reader: Perspectives on Mass Media Industries, Effects and Issues (Biagi, ed.). Prof. Beaver is the producer and director of the documentary films Under One Roof and If I Were Free; he was the writer and host of a four-part television series, Art Of The Film.

Prof. Beaver has taught courses in Film History and Film Theory, Mass Media Research Methodologies, History and Analysis of British Cinema, Japanese Cinema History, Italian Cinema after Ossessione, Film Analysis, Art of the Moving Image, Idea-Form-and-Medium, Television and Film Production Practica, Scriptwriting. Beaver frequently teaches in Study Abroad programs in England and Italy and has served as the Director of the University of Michigan London-Summer program. In 1981 he was a faculty coordinator with Harvard University's Children's Television Workshop Practicum.