Rate My Professor Dhavan Shah

Dhavan V. Shah is the Jack M. McLeod Professor of Communication Research and Louis A. and Mary E. Maier-Bascom Chair in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has served since joining as an assistant professor in 1998, advancing to associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2004. He holds affiliated faculty positions in Political Science, Marketing, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and the Institute for Diversity Science. Shah earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication with a minor in Political Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 1999, an M.A. in Mass Communication from the same institution in 1995, and a B.A. with Distinction in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989. As Director of the Mass Communication Research Center since 2010 and Research Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal since 2020, he leads interdisciplinary teams addressing key societal challenges.

Shah's scholarship as a political and health communication scholar integrates traditional media effects research with computational social science, examining the influence of mass media and digital platforms on social judgments, political engagement, civic participation, and health behaviors. His work explores framing effects, communication mediation models, partisan media environments, online networks in chronic disease management for cancer, addiction, and vaccination, and dynamics of polarization and trust. With over 200 articles and chapters published in premier outlets in communication, political science, and health informatics, alongside six co-authored and co-edited books, his research has attracted more than $66 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Knight Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and others. Shah has mentored over 35 Ph.D. students to completion as major advisor and served on more than 110 dissertation committees across nine departments. His honors include the 2023 WARF Named Professorship, 2022 International Communication Association B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award and Belfer Fellowship, 2020 ICA Fellows’ Chair, 2016 ICA Fellow, and multiple top paper awards from ICA and AEJMC divisions.