DENVER — University of Denver (DU) assistant professor of marketing, Gia Nardini, planned to study how the Marriage Equality movement was successful. Then, Black Lives Matter protests broke out across the country in summer 2020.
Her team pivoted and began to look at the social justice movement in real-time.
"It’s when we can kind of change the norm and make this the norm, social justice, that we begin to see policy follow suit," she said.
Since her specialty is marketing, Nardini took tools from her field and applied them to the protests -- things like consumer psychology, decision making and social norms.
"Some of which include really nurturing grassroots leaders and connecting people to the movement and within that movement, connecting people to each other," she said.
Nardini hopes to inspire researchers in other fields to focus on this kind of research.
"To recognize the connections and the ability to make a difference even in a discipline that might not seem related," she said.
And to help future activists understand that society is rarely changed overnight.
"I hope it’s helpful for activists, I hope it’s helpful for scholars, and I hope it inspires people," she said.
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