Dr. Sharon Wright Austin is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and has also taught courses at the Universities of Louisville, Michigan, and Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Austin received a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1993. Her teaching interests are in American Government, Urban Politics, and African American Politics and her research interests are in African American mayoral elections, African American/Caribbean American political relationships, rural African American political activism, and African American political behavior. Her first book, Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis was published in 2000 by Garland Publishing. She has also published scholarly articles in the National Political Science Review, The Journal of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, The Journal of Black Studies, and Politics and Policy and has written several book chapters. Her second book, The Transformation of Plantation Politics in the Mississippi Delta: Black Politics,Concentrated Poverty, and Social Capital in the Mississippi Delta , was published by the State University of New York Press in 2006. Her third book, The Caribbeanization of Black Politics: Race, Group Consciousness, and Political Participation in America was published by the State University of New York Press in 2018.
