Sharon E. Jarvis is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Government and Associate Director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches and conducts research on political communication and persuasion. She has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards and honors, including the Texas Exes Outstanding Professor for the College of Communication, the Eyes of Texas Teaching Award, the Outstanding Professor in the College of Communication, and the Academy of Distinguished Teachers Award. 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.

Dr. Jarvis has published books and articles at the intersection of language use, politics and persuasion. She is the author of The Talk of the Party: Political Labels, Symbolic Capital & American Life (Rowman & Littlefield -- winner of the 2007 Book of the Year, Political Communication Division, National Communication Association), and a co-author of Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us (Oxford University Press). Her articles, chapters, and reviews on political messages have appeared in Journal of Communication, Political Psychology, American Behavioral Scientist, Political Communication, Communication Quarterly, Communication Studies, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and Howard Journal of Communications.

Dr. Jarvis also has considerable experience with funded research at the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic life. She has been the Principal Investigator on a $100,000 grant to investigate the political participation of college students and working youth (CIRCLE, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts), has been a co-Investigator on related projects geared to connect candidates with young voters and to improve high school civics instruction (over $550,000 in funding), has headed an evaluation team for an intervention in San Antonio High Schools ($500,000) and has served as a subcontractor and strategist in securing a grant from the Texas Secretary of State to facilitate voter education ($ 3 million).