Last week, Professor Andrew Jones from the Department of Contemporary Communication and a senior student Anastasiia Synhaivska, participated in the International Conference “Visuality 2019: Creative Communications in the Emerging Constellations” hosted by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. Anastasia presented her thesis “Zero Waste Hype: Starbucks’ Preemptive Image Restoration in the Face of Man-made Ecological Disasters” during the conference, as it was connected to the research Dr. Jones conducted 10 years ago that focused on man-made ecological disasters.

“I had already been researching the topic of environmental and crisis communications for some time when I found out that Dr. Jones had studied these areas as well. Building on his analysis of British Petroleum and their loss of reputation during the Deepwater Horizon, I proceeded with my own research on Starbucks’ preemptive image restoration attempts in the face man-made ecological disasters. I was thrilled to find out that we were invited to present our joint work at the International Conference ‘Visuality 2019’. This was my first international conference, so my top priority was to make sure that the research I was conducting as a part of my Bachelor’s thesis would be worthy of a widely respected audience’s attention. Having that in mind, I managed to produce research that I am truly proud of, and that served as a great motive to make connections with academics and practitioners who visited the conference.” - Anastasiia Synhaivska