Office Hours
Monday, Thursday 3:20-4:50 pm
Education
Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
M.A., San José State University
B.S., San José State University
About Me
Sarah Aghazadeh is an assistant professor of public relations in the School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University. Broadly, Dr. Aghazadeh's research explores public relations, activism, advocacy, and health communication. More specifically, she examines how public relations shapes culture for stigmatized and taboo health issues (such as mental health and pregnancy loss), often employing, cultural, critical, and rhetorical approaches to public relations. She also analyzes how advocacy and activism intersect with public relations to make social change. She has taught a variety of public relations class that span multi-media writing, social media, and news writing and she centers active and experiential learning in the classroom. Students often work with community-based, non-profit clients and use real-life examples to engage with important public relations lessons and experience advocating on behalf of a client.
When not researching or teaching, she enjoys learning how to play guitar, lifting weights, and hanging out with her cat (Selena).
Research Interests
public relations, advocacy and activism, health communication
Publications
Aghazadeh, S.A., & Aldoory, L. (forthcoming). Health communication theory in public relations. In E.
Sommerfeldt & C. Botan (Eds.). Public Relations Theory III. Routledge.
Aghazadeh, S.A., & Aldoory, L. (in-press). Inroads into healthy decision making: The role of health
literacy in health communication. In T.L Thompson & N.G. Harrington (Eds.), The Routledge
Handbook of Health Communication (Routledge Communication Series, 3rd ed.). Routledge.
Aghazadeh, S.A. (2021).“Recovery Warriors.” The National Eating Disorders Association’s
online community and rhetorical vision. Public Relations Inquiry.
Aghazadeh, S.A., & Aldoory, L. (2020).“Health literacy for all”: Exploring the feasibility of an
intervention to reduce health disparities among rural children. Journal of Applied Communication
Research, 48(4), 478-495.
Aghazadeh, S.A., Aldoory, L., & Mills, T. (2020). Integrating health literacy into core curriculum: A
teacher-driven, pilot initiative for second graders. Journal of School Health, 90, 585-593.