About

Ganga Dhanesh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland and serves as Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the same department. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Relations from the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic communication across issues, publics, cultures, and geographies. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Business Horizons, Journal of International Management, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review. A bibliometric analysis in Public Relations Review recognized her as one of the top two most productive scholars on CSR within public relations research. Dr. Dhanesh has received multiple research awards, including the Bob Heath Top Paper Award at the International Communication Association conference in 2012 and the Best Paper award at the European Public Relations Education and Research Association congress in 2021. She has also delivered keynote speeches at industry events such as the EUPRERA congress in 2023. Her professional activities include serving as Associate Editor for the Journal of Communication Management and participating on editorial boards for several other journals. Bridging academia and practice, she actively consults for national and multinational organizations on strategic communication, and has contributed to initiatives such as the partnership between Zayed University and the Unstereotype Alliance UAE chapter, which was convened by UN Women. Her research has informed gender stereotyping guidelines for the advertising industry in the UAE and contributed to the first Global Capabilities Framework study in the Middle East. Prior to her current role, she was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore and an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at Zayed University in the UAE.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Public relations
• Psychology
• Telecommunications
• World Wide Web
• Business
• Multimedia
• Art

Selected publications

• Social media engagement with organization-generated content: Role of visuals in enhancing public engagement with organizations on Facebook and Instagram

  Public Relations Review · 2022 · 69 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  DOI

• Who cares about organizational purpose and corporate social responsibility, and how can organizations adapt? A hypermodern perspective

  Business Horizons · 2020 · 47 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Public relations
  • Business
  DOI

• Visual communication and public relations: Visual frame building strategies in war and conflict stories

  Public Relations Review · 2020 · 52 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Computer Science
  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Gaelle Duthler

  Zayed University

  5 shared

• Sharath Sasidharan

  Marshall University

  3 shared

• Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

  University of Colorado System

  2 shared

• Jia Yun Wong

  National University of Singapore

  2 shared

• Gaelle Picherit‐Duthler

  Zayed University

  1 shared

• Soojin Kim

  1 shared

• Kang Li

  First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University

  1 shared

• Nadia Rahman

  University of Kentucky

  1 shared

Labs

• Center for Political Communication & Civic LeadershipPI

Education

• Ph.D., Public Relations

  National University of Singapore

Awards & honors

• Bob Heath Top Paper Award at the annual conference of the In…
• Best Paper award at the annual congress of the European Publ…
• Keynote speech at the annual congress of the EUPRERA (2023)

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