608-263-3388
sjhull@wisc.edu
http://shawnikahull.com

Shawnika Hull is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the 2010-2011 Anna Julia Cooper Post-Doctoral Fellow. Her research focuses on health communication, message effects and health disparities.

In the context of health, her work utilizes survey and experimental methodologies to examine the processes through which mediated messages influence attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.  This research uses theories of message effects, information processing and behavior change to understand how features of messages interact with individual characteristics to promote HIV testing, particularly among young women. Her work also focuses on the construction and evaluation of messages designed to influence social determinants of HIV transmission among disproportionately affected groups. This work has contributed to the construction of a social marketing campaign designed to address homophobia and it’s impact on the HIV related risk experienced among young gay men of color.

Her teaching experience includes instructing concepts and skills focused courses, such as SJMC 201: Introduction to Mass Communication, SJMC 345: Principles of Strategic Communication, SJMC 565: Mass Media Effects. Her graduate instruction focuses on theory in the context of health communication.

Dr. Hull’s work has been published in the Journal of Sex Research, Health Psychology, Journal of Communication, Journal of Health Communication and Cancer Education. Her work received Top Student Paper from the Health Communication Division of the National Communication Association and was nominated for the Donald P. Cushman Award, which honors the top student-authored paper, across divisions.

Shawnika Hull received her BA in Communication at the University of Arizona in 2004. In 2007, she received her MA and Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.