Shima Saniei

Shima Saniei is a communication scholar focusing on participatory communication, community building, and community mobilisation for advocacy and social change. She also examines how new and emerging communication discourses and practices shape ethical communication in public relations and advocacy.

 

Shima completed her PhD at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her doctoral research, Community-Led Issue Framing: Exploring How Community-Led Activist Groups Co-Create Their Narratives with Community Members, examined how grassroots activist groups define issues, build collective identity, and foster social capital to sustain their advocacy.

 

Shima’s research has been published in leading journals, including Public Relations Review and the Journal of Communication Management, and presented at international conferences such as the International Communication Association (ICA) and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

She coordinates and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and leads course design and curriculum development initiatives.

 

Shima is a researcher at RMIT’s Communication & Change Co-Lab (3C) and a member of the Communication and Public Relations Australia (CPRA) Victoria network.

 

Before joining academia, she worked in stakeholder-engagement roles in the government sector.