Sharon Shahaf
Dr. Sharon Shahaf is an Israeli-American media scholar, educator, and research entrepreneur, and Affiliate Faculty in the Doctoral Program in Antisemitism Studies at Gratz College. Her work focuses on global media and the rise of contemporary antisemitism, particularly the role of mediated environments and the implications of rising antisemitism for Israeli creative industries. Building on her expertise in qualitative research methods and critical media studies, Dr. Shahaf developed Qualitative Approaches to Antisemitism and Media Analysis in Antisemitism Studies, among the first courses designed specifically to train doctoral students in qualitative and media-analytic approaches within the emerging field of antisemitism studies and is contributing to curriculum development for the field.
Dr. Shahaf earned her Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature and a B.A. in Communication and Comparative Literature from Tel Aviv University. From 2009 to 2018, she served as Assistant Professor of Global Television Studies at Georgia State University and, later served several years as a Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Shahaf received multiple fellowships and awards for her research, including the prestigious Zvulun Hammer Memorial Award from Israel’s Second Authority for Radio and Television for her dissertation research on Israeli adaptations of global television formats.
Her published scholarship focuses on media globalization, Israeli creative industries, and transnational media cultures. She is the co-editor of Global Television Formats: Understanding Television Across Borders (Routledge, 2012), recipient of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies’ Best Edited Collection Award. Her work has appeared in journals including Critical Studies in Television, Creative Industries Journal, and Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture.
Her current research explores the role of media and popular culture in understanding contemporary antisemitism after October 7, with particular attention to digital discourse, the intersection of mediated and real-life environments such as university campuses and the Eurovision stage, and the experiences of Israeli cultural workers operating within transnational media environments. Her ongoing research on Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest after October 7 examines the experiences of Israeli delegation members within increasingly hostile international cultural environments using ethnography, discourse analysis, semiotics, and other qualitative methods. The first publication emerging from this research is an article currently in development for the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism.
