Student-Led Research
I have mentored many graduate and undergraduate students completing their own research in the field of corporate social responsibility. Below, you will find descriptions of the most recent research projects students have conducted.
Christina Harisiadis (Graduate)
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Christina is a MA candidate. Research interests: Public relations/organizational communication; DEI & CSR communication.
Christina is a 2nd year masters student. Her thesis has three interconnected goals: 1) to identify how corporations communicate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and accountability in the specific context of racial diversity; 2) to assess how stakeholders’ evaluate corporate DEI claims and 3) to understand how stakeholders’ intend to hold corporations accountable with racial diversity efforts.
She brings together literature about corporate historical responsibility and corporate social advocacy to understand how the two concepts converge and diverge in corporate communication about racial diversity.
Christina uses qualitative methods to examine stakeholders’ interpretations of corporate DEI communication, behavioral intentions in response to DEI communication and how those responses may be different from their responses to CSR and CSI activities.
She presented her research at the Organizational Communication Mini Conference at the University of Texas-Austin in September 2022.
Sumaya Luger (Undergrad)
Sumaya completed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in the spring of 2023. The project examined how the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) engages in CSR as a means to revitalize the Iron Range economy.
Sumaya conducted archival research focusing on the history and current activities of the IRRRB. From this, she provided historical context behind the IRRRB’s activities on the Range, a timeline of their major developments and a graphical presentation of their financial ventures from 2017-2022. The data collected showed the IRRRB shifting their economic priorities from iron ore mining to taconite processing and then to new mining technologies. Also observed was that a sizable amount of IRRRB resources goes to education on the Range with the goal of keeping communities up-to-date on developments in taconite mining.
She presented her research at the Spring 2023 Research Symposium held in the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union on campus.
Max completed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) research project in the spring of 2023. His project was an extension of my research that examines the relationship between the mining industry and mining communities.
Max examined the history of a unionized workforce on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Through archival research of local Iron Range newspapers, he constructed a timeline that mapped the modern relationship between a local union and a mining corporation (from 1986 to today). This provided an important look into the evolution of the unionized workforce on the Iron Range.
He presented his findings at the Spring 2023 Research Symposium held in the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union on campus.
Max Martinson (Undergrad)
Shayla Miller (Undergrad)
Shayla completed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) research project in the summer of 2021. Her project was an extension of my research that examines the relationship between the mining industry and mining communities.
Shayla conducted extensive archival research. From those findings, she created timelines of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities conducted by the mining companies on the Iron Range between 2018-2021. Her goal was to depict the instances of CSR in a manner that can be transferred to and utilized in published works. Shayla presented her findings at the Fall 2021 UROP research fair held in McNamara Alumni Center on campus.
