Arunima Krishna
Associate Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations
Arunima Krishna, PhD is an associate professor of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at Boston University College of Communication. She joined Boston University College of Communication in 2016 after completing her PhD at Purdue University. Dr. Krishna’s research focuses on understanding public perceptions of controversial social issues. Drawing from communication, public relations, business, and social psychology literatures, her scholarship explores how publics respond to and communicate about controversy-causing social problems, as well as factors shaping their perceptions of such issues. The situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) forms a foundational theoretical framework in her scholarship, and her work has helped advance communication theory by integrating the STOPS with consumer and social psychology literature, social identity theory, and narrative persuasion scholarship. Her research so far has focused on two broad categories of controversial social issues: (1) issues stemming from questions related to science and the veracity of scientific fact, including climate change denial and vaccine hesitancy, and (2) issues stemming from questions of morality and justice, such as workplace discrimination and corporate misconduct.