Khairul Islam
About
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Email: islamk@fau.edu
Bio: Dr. Khairul Islam is an assistant professor of crisis and risk communication in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He joined FAU from the State University of New York at Oswego, where he served as an assistant professor of public relations.
Dr. Islam’s research focuses on how organizations strategically communicate risk, respond to crises, and navigate recovery. His work examines extreme events such as drinking water contamination, natural disasters, organizational crises, and disease outbreaks. Using a mixed methods approach, he studies both communication processes and message effects.
Dr. Islam has presented his research at major academic conferences, including the National Communication Association, International Communication Association, International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. His work has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Scientific Reports, Communication Studies, Health Communication, The Learning Organization, Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, and the American Water Works Association Journal, among others.
Dr. Islam’s research has received several awards, including the Outstanding Research Award from Wayne State University; Top Paper Awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC); and Top Paper and Panel Awards from the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) in 2023 and 2025. He also received Top Paper Panel Awards from the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference in 2022 and 2024, among others.
Currently, Dr. Islam serves as Chair of the Applied and Strategic Communication Interest Group of CSCA and Secretary of the South Asia Communication Association (SACA). He is also a founding editorial board member of the Crisis and Risk Communication journal.
Dr. Islam is originally from Bangladesh, where he completed his undergraduate and first master’s degree in information science and library management. Also, he worked as a journalist for five years at a national English-language daily in Bangladesh. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his daughter, Aleena, and doing community gardening when the weather is welcoming.