Sarah Shugars
Assistant Professor of Communication
Faculty, PhD COM Faculty
Biography
Sarah Shugars' work focuses on how everyday people talk about, engage with, and collectively shape the modern world around them. Bringing together computational social science and the principles of deliberative democracy, they develop new text and network methods for examining the relational nature of public life, the linguistic modes through which people express themselves, and the technological affordances that shape digital discourse.
Their work has been published in numerous top journals including Social Media + Society, the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, EPJ Data Science, and the American Political Science Review. Additionally, their work has been recognized by the Organizational Communication division of the National Communication Association, as well as by the Political Communication and Political Networks division of the American Political Science Association. In 2025, they received the award for Distinguished Achievement in Research from SCI's Department of Communication as well as the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from SCI's Doctoral Students Association.
As a first-generation-to-college student, they are deeply committed to increasing access and equity in higher education. To this end, they have conducted numerous introductory workshops on computational methods and published training guides aimed at demystifying computational social science. They have also published resources on thriving in academia, including contributing to three chapters in the guidebook "Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond."
Education
Ph.D., Network Science, Northeastern University
M.A., Integrated Marketing Communication, Emerson College
B.A., Physics (major) and Asian Studies (minor), Clark University