About Prof. Travis L. Dixon

A Career Built on the Intersection of Race, Media & Public Communication

Travis L. Dixon is the David L. Swanson Professor of Communication and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is one of the most widely cited and recognized scholars working at the intersection of media studies, race, and communication theory in the United States today.

For over two decades, Prof. Dixon has studied how racial stereotypes are produced and reproduced in mass media — and, critically, how those stereotypes shape the way audiences perceive race, crime, justice, and public policy. His longitudinal content analyses of television news have become landmark studies in the field.

In 2019, Prof. Dixon made history as the first African American scholar inducted as a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), the highest honor the communication discipline can bestow.