Dr Johanna Fawkes is now Principal Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She is Principal Investigator in a 2-year, university-funded research project to create a global capabilities framework for the public relations profession. Working with Professor Anne Gregory, a team of leading academic advisors from around the world and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management (GA), the project aims to deliver a usable framework for professional bodies, practitioners and educators.
The project was launched at the World Public Relations Forum in Toronto, May 2016 (see news item: project launch). For more details, go to
Johanna will also be working on her own research projects, including a chapter on PR ethics, an Encyclopedia entry on ethicist Seyla Benhabib and variety of conference and journal papers. She is also preparing a book proposal on PR, culture and performance.
From November 2011 to March 2016, Dr Fawkes was Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Charles Sturt University, Australia, where she re-structured and led the Doctor of Communication, supervised several PhDs and contributed to the undergraduate review of courses. At CSU, she completed her first book, Public Relations Ethics and Professionalism: the Shadow of Excellence (Routledge, 2015) and was the driving force behind MASK, a creative, transdisciplinary symposium on performance, communication and the professions in May 2015, which encouraged researchers to revel in the exchange of ideas.
From 1990, following fifteen years in British local and national public sector PR, Johanna devised and delivered some of the first PR degree and professional courses at three UK Universities. She ran the largest PR degree in Britain for many years at Leeds Metropolitan (now Beckett) University until becoming an independent researcher in education, health communication and housing communication. She was Chief Examiner for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and advised on education policy, before completing her PhD in 2011.
In addition to her book, which is part of the Routledge New Directions in Public Relations Research, Johanna has written papers for a variety of international journals and conferences (including two prize winners), and contributed several chapters to leading PR text books (see Publications for details). Johanna is a member of the Institute of Communication Ethics (ICE) Advisory Board, the editorial board for the Public Relations Journal of Inquiry, Persona Studies, the online journal fusion and was book reviews editor for the Journal of Communication Management 2007-10 and External Examiner for the PR courses at Stirling University from 2011- 2015.
Contact: j.fawkes@hud.ac.uk
Mobile: +44 (0) 7725606810
Johanna Fawkes Research 
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