About

Arunima Krishna, PhD, is an associate professor of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at Boston University College of Communication. She also serves as the college's associate dean for faculty development. She joined Boston University in 2016 after completing her PhD at Purdue University. Her 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 work, which has helped advance communication theory by integrating STOPS with consumer and social psychology literature, social identity theory, and narrative persuasion scholarship. Her research has concentrated on issues related to science and the veracity of scientific facts, such as climate change denial and vaccine hesitancy, as well as moral and justice issues like workplace discrimination and corporate misconduct. Most recently, she developed a typology of misinformation-susceptible publics, classifying publics based on their susceptibility to misinformation, attitudes, and knowledge. Krishna serves as a senior editor for Health Communication, associate director for Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability, and on the Advisory Committee for the International Public Relations Research Conference. She teaches courses including Corporate Communication, Crisis Management and Communication, and The World of Communication.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Computer Security
• Advertising
• Business
• Computer Science
• Marketing
• Public relations
• Virology
• Pathology
• Immunology
• Psychiatry
• Economics
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Public Relations in the African Context

  2026-02-20

  book-chapterSenior author

  This chapter reviews public relations scholarship centred on African nations and contexts indexing 37 journal articles and nine book chapters published in the last 25 years, followed by an in-depth analysis of these articles and book chapters. Four themes emerged, highlighting the diversity and cultural viewpoints of African scholarship in public relations: 1) Challenges and relevance in applying Western-centric models of public relations in the African context, 2) Training and evolution of professionalism in public relations in the African context, 3) Locally led approaches to enable public relations activism in the African context, and 4) Employee activism and internal communication as public relations practice in the African context. We also found that scholarship in the African context has primarily focused on the practice of public relations with some recent efforts in theory building in the field. We close this chapter with directions for future scholarship.

  PublisherDOI

• Perceptions and Adoption of AI in Public Relations Innovation Attributes, Threats, and Practical Implications

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Editor’s Essay: Rinse, Repeat, Research!

  Journal of Public Relations Research · 2026-01-02

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Beyond technology determinants of energy efficiency in Saudi residential buildings: socioeconomic factors, awareness, and barriers

  Energy Conversion and Management X · 2026-05-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Of demographics, technology, and geography: The social determinants of energy consumption patterns and user behaviour in Saudi Arabia’s residential sector

  Energy and Buildings · 2026-01-26 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Editorial

  Journal of Public Relations Research · 2026-05-04

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Online vaccine misinformation and susceptible publics: Understanding the differences between misinformation-immune, -vulnerable, -receptive, and -amplifying publics’ perceptions and behavioral intentions

  Telematics and Informatics · 2025-04-25 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Bridging Theory and Practice in Prosocial Communication: Navigating Social Responsibility in a Complex Global Landscape

  Journal of Public Relations Research · 2025-08-20

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Evolving Identities and Engagements: New Frontiers in Public Relations Practice and Scholarship

  Journal of Public Relations Research · 2025-11-02

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Vulnerabilities of War, Violence, and Virus

  2025-06-26

  book-chapterSenior author

  In this chapter, we present the lessons we learned over the course of our collaboration with everyday Liberian citizens as part of the Purdue Peace Project, a locally led peacebuilding initiative. Our projects in Liberia encompassed the vulnerabilities of a post-civil war society, political violence, and the widespread devastation caused when the already-weakened healthcare system was faced with the Ebola virus. We leverage what we refer to as the relationally attentive approach to articulate what we have learned about research design and execution while working with Liberian communities, interrogating and recognizing the multiple layers of marginalization and vulnerabilities in the Liberian people.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Soojin Kim

  21 shared

• Jeong‐Nam Kim

  13 shared

• Stacey L. Connaughton

  8 shared

• Jasmine R. Linabary

  7 shared

• Michelle A. Amazeen

  Boston University

  6 shared

• Soo Hyun Park

  Yonsei University

  5 shared

• Kelly Vibber

  University of Dayton

  4 shared

• Liliya Yakova

  3 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Mass Communication

  Boston University

  2008

• M.A., Communication Studies

  University of Texas at Austin

  2003

• B.A., Communication Studies

  University of Texas at Austin

  2001