Dhavan Shah
LP
Dhavan V. Shah is Maier-Bascom Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication and Political Science. He received his doctorate in mass communication in 1999 from the University of Minnesota, where he also minored in political psychology. He earned tenure at the University of Wisconsin in 2002, was promoted to full professor in 2004, and was awarded a named professorship in 2006. Shah’s research concerns the social psychology of communication influence, especially effects on personal evaluations, political judgments, health outcomes, and civic engagement. He has developed programs of research on (a) the capacity of mass and interpersonal communication, particularly the Internet, to encourage community building and participation in civic and health contexts, (b) the influence of news framing and priming on cognitive complexity, attitude formation, and public opinion, and (c) the relationship of media use with the intersection of consumer and civic culture, particularly the politics of consumption. To date, he has authored over 80 articles, chapters, and entries and been principal investigator or project leader on grants and awards totaling over $1,500,000 — part of over $9.6 million in extramural funding he has been involved in securing. Shah has served on the editorial boards of eleven different journals and has held leadership positions in three professional associations. He is the recipient of the Nafziger-White Dissertation Award, the Krieghbaum Under-40 Award, and the Article of the Year Awards in the fields of Political Communication from ICA and Information Technology and Politics from APSA, as well as UW honors such as the Vilas Associates Award, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, and selection as a Hamel Faculty Fellow.