Rahul Mitra

Faculty Profile

Associate Professor
fl1086@wayne.edu

Honorific

Dr.

Biography

Rahul Mitra (PhD, Purdue University) is an Associate Professor of organizational communication. His scholarship focuses on environmental organizing, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR),and meaningful work discourses. He is a critical-interpretive scholar, and uses primarily qualitative methods, such as ethnography, interviews, focus groups, discourse analysis, and arts-based research methods. His work has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed publications such as Environmental Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Human Relations, Communication Theory, International Journal of Business Communication, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. He also co-edited (with James McDonald) the book "Movements in Organizational Communication Research" (Routledge, 2019). His work has received external funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes Protection Fund, and Waterhouse Family Institute. 

Learn more about his past and ongoing work at www.rahulmitraphd.com.

Area of Expertise

  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Organizational Communication
  • Sustainability & Environmental Organizing
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Research Translation

Degrees and Certifications

Ph.D. - Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (August 2013), Major area of study: Organizational Communication

M.A. - Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH (August 2009). Major area of study: Organizational Communication/ Public Relations

Postgraduate Diploma - Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, India (May 2004), Major area of study: Print Journalism

B.Sc. - University of Calcutta, at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India (May 2003), Major area of study: Economics (Honors)

Recent Publications

Books:

McDonald, J., & Mitra, R. (Eds.). (2019). Movements in organizational communication research: Current issues and future directions. New York: Routledge.

Select Journal Articles:

Nyawaga, C., & Mitra, R. (2024). Black frontline workers navigating everyday workplace tensions through professionalism. Journal of Professions and Organization, 11(2), 118-134. doi:10.1093/jpo/joad022

Lucas, A., & Mitra, R. (2023). Entrepreneurial support organization (ESO) narratives and transitional entrepreneurship in Detroit. New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 26(2), 130-151. doi:10.1108/NEJE-08-2022-0060

Tong, S.T., Stoycheff, E., & Mitra, R. (2022). Racism and resilience of pandemic proportions: Online harassment of Asian Americans during COVID-19. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 50, 595-612. doi:10.1080/00909882.2022.2141068

Stephens, K.K., Jahn, J., Fox, S., Charoensap-Kelly, P., Mitra, R., Waters, E., Xie, B., & Meisenbach, R. (2020). Radically changing work as we know it: Organizational scholars contributing to our future by collectively sensemaking around COVID-19. Management Communication Quarterly, 34, 426-457. doi:10.1177/0893318920934890

Bres, L., Mosonyi, S., Gond, J-P., Muzio, D., Mitra, R., Werr, A., & Wickert, C. (2019). Rethinking professionalization: A generative dialogue on CSR practitioners. Journal of Professions and Organization, 6, 246-264. doi:10.1093/jpo/joz009

Selected Book Chapters:

Mitra, R., O’Leary, B., Dutta, U., Miller, C., & Lucas, A. (forthcoming). Infrastructure communication and social justice. In K. Stephens, & K. Faust (Eds.), Handbook of Infrastructure Communication. Wiley.

Mitra, R., Gaber, N., Bouier, R., & Howell, S. (2023). Contesting institutional narratives and core assumptions on Detroit’s mass water shutoffs: Collaborative writing for water justice. In S. Dempsey (Eds.), Organizing eating: Communicating for equity across U.S. food systems, (pp. 69-94). Routledge.

Mitra, R., Lucas, A., Johnson-Fambro, S., Van Raaphorst, C., & Lasky, S. (2022). A mosaic of researcher “back-stories” and oral history “front-stories”: COVID-19 and Metro Detroit BIPOC entrepreneurs’ resilience. In L. Browning, J-O Sørnes, & P.J. Svenkerud (Eds.), Organizational communication and technology in the time of coronavirus: Ethnographies from the first year of the pandemic (pp. 307-326). London: Palgrave.

Office Location

541 Manoogian Hall

Homepage URL

http://www.rahulmitraphd.com/

Primary E-mail

rahul.mitra@wayne.edu

Research Description

Sustainability, corporate social responsibility, leadership, career and meaningful work, and immigrant workers.

Affiliated Departments