Lucia Cervi

• PG Research Rep for the Organisation Studies Group
• Teaching Champion for the Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability Committee (UEBS)
• Course organiser on Global Diversity and Equality Management (MSc HRM and IHRM)
• Course organiser on Applications of Human Resource Management (UG Hons)
• Course contributor on Methods of Research in HRM (Qualitative Research) (MSc HRM and IHRM)
• PhD dissertation supervisor
• MSc and MBA dissertation advisor
• UG dissertation advisor
• Member of the Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability (B-CCaS)

I am an interdisciplinary academic involved in corporate responsibility and the socio-political dynamics surrounding organisations and organised life. I am generally eager to investigate phenomena that lie at the intersection of the political, the neoliberal, and the corporate, from a qualitative and critical perspective. My work is broadly informed by critical approaches to management studies (CMS), political and agonistic approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), gender and feminist studies, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).

I obtained both my MSc and my PhD in CSR at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) at the University of Nottingham. Prior to this, I obtained my BSc (Hons) in Political Science, International Relations and Human Rights from the University of Padova. I later joined Lancaster University Management School, where I led courses at the Executive, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate levels on corporate responsibility, critical management studies, and organisation studies. I joined the University of Edinburgh Business School in 2022.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a member of the Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability (B-CCaS), and of the Gender, Work and Organization Research Network on Gender and Health at Work. I sit on the Advisory Board for the Executive MSc Behavioural Science at Durham University, where I am also an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Psychology. For the 2023-2024 academic year, I was an Affiliate at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).

My research currently focuses on three streams:

1. the social and organisational implications of digitalisation and AI applications, with a specific focus on the digitalisation of credit and gamification;
2. the political and historical implications of big tech practices, and an overall concern for the erosion of democratic principles and processes; and
3. gender and HR practices.

My research is taking an increasingly interdisciplinary trajectory, with my analytical foci being oriented towards the ethics and sustainability of current and emerging digital practices and technologies, from a critical and political perspective.

I welcome proposals from highly qualified PhD candidates interested in undertaking qualitative research from a critical perspective, and aligned with my research expertise and interests, in the fields of Organization Studies, Critical Management Studies, or CSR.