Sadia Cheema, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Media and the Arts

Sadia Cheema, Ph.D. is a strategic communication scholar who draws from theories of psychology and mass communication to test the impact of media messages on an individual's engagement in collective action. Her research spans topics that intersect stakeholder relationships, organizational advocacy, and passionate activism. In particular, she is interested in examining media messages that impact youth’s evolving activism/advocacy practices, the psychological and behavioral processes that underlie these, and how they shape young people’s broader involvement in various forms of collective action.

Her work encompasses three broad areas: activism/advocacy from the lens of public relations, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and organizational advocacy; and socio-psychological processes such as identity-related passion and critical consciousness (CC) shaping stakeholder responses to organizational advocacy efforts.