Elizabeth Sharrow

Director of Faculty Research, ISSR
Associate Professor of Public Policy and History
634 Thompson Hall

Elizabeth Sharrow (they/she) is associate professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of History. They specialize in the gendered politics of public policy and how policy has shaped intersectional meanings of sex, race, sexuality, disability, and class in US politics over the past fifty years.

Sharrow’s research interests are in the politics and history of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the politics of gender and race in US politics, the politics of the family, and the politics of college athletics. They are co-author of Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX's Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sport (Cambridge University Press). Their scholarship has been published in many scholarly forums. Their work has also been featured by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and has received multiple awards.

Sharrow’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Association of University Women, the American Political Science Association, the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School, the Myra Sadker Foundation, the Gerald Ford Presidential Foundation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. They currently sit on the editorial board of the American Political Science Review and Politics & Gender.

They teach courses on the politics of public policy, and gender and race in policy history, history, and serve on the UMass Public Engagement Project Steering Committee..

Sharrow received their PhD in political science with a minor program in feminist and critical sexuality studies from the University of Minnesota. They hold a master’s in public policy with a focus on gender, law, and sports policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.


ISSR Scholars Project (2016): From Athletes to Citizens: Title IX’s Unanticipated Consequences