Dr. Sharon E. Jarvis (Ph.D., University of Texas- Austin, 2000) is a Professor of Communication Studies and Founding Associate Director of Research of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life (ASI) at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches and conducts research at the intersection of language use, politics, and persuasion. Her books include The Talk of the Party: Political Labels, Symbolic Capital & American Life (Rowman & Littlefield—winner of the Top Book Award, Political Communication Division, National Communication Association), Conservative Political Communication: How Right-Wing Media and Messaging (Re)Made American Politics (author-editor, Routledge), Votes that Count and Voters Who Don’t: How Journalists Sideline Electoral Participation (Without Even Knowing It) (co-authored with Soo-Hye Han, Penn State Press—winner of the Top Book Award, Political Communication Division, National Communication Association), and Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us (co-authored with Roderick P. Hart, William Jennings, and Deborah Smith Howell—Oxford University Press). Her articles, chapters, and reviews have appeared in Journal of Communication, Political Psychology, American Behavioral Scientist, Political Communication, Communication Quarterly, Communication Studies, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Communication and the Public, and Howard Journal of Communications among others. During her years as Associate Director for Research at ASI, over $ 9 million dollars of projects were funded. She has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards and honors, including the University of Texas System Regents’ Teaching Award, the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers Award, the Texas Exes Outstanding Professor Award, the Eyes of Texas Teaching Award (2009, 2001), the Outstanding Professor in the College of Communication (2024, 2003), and Academic Accolades from the University of Texas Athletic Department. Her instruction at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Executive Master’s Program (EMPL) and the McCombs School of Business Executive Education Program has also been recognized. In 2005, she was the second Assistant Professor in the history of the University to receive the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship, the largest undergraduate teaching honor at U.T. Austin.
