The Pamplin College of Business recently hosted the Undergraduate Research Summit: Responsible Research for Societal Impact in partnership with Race In the Marketplace Research.

The first-ever event epitomizes Pamplin’s ongoing commitment to provide platforms for emerging scholars to explore and address pressing societal issues while inspiring and educating undergraduate students on the mechanics of formulating positive, societal outcomes through responsible research.

On April 26, Kevin D. Thomas facilitated a lecture titled “Beyond the Bottom Line: Business Research as a Liberatory Practice.” Thomas’ lecture began as a conversation that challenged students, faculty, and staff in attendance to consider the role of business research in advancing social justice and equity, urging a shift from traditional profit-centric models to practices that empower marginalized and vulnerable communities. Using a critical research framework, an approach that is often underutilized in business research contexts, Thomas shared his journey and lived experiences to explain the process of arriving at collective liberation.

Thomas, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, brought a critical perspective to the examination of how race, gender, class, disability, and sexuality are portrayed in marketing and experienced by consumers. With more than a decade of industry experience as a market researcher and co-author of the book “Race in the Marketplace: Crossing Critical Boundaries,” Thomas underscored his steadfast commitment to addressing inequities within market systems.

“As someone who didn’t see themselves represented on TV or in the media growing up, I wasn’t sure where I fit in,” he said. “My journey continually led me to a space of wanting to free myself while recognizing that others who looked like me, or who were marginalized in some way, were also experiencing marginalization. This realization highlighted the importance of using critical theory as a tool for liberation. Critical theory isn’t just about conducting research for its own sake; it’s about promoting justice. This deeply resonated with me because of my own lived experiences.”

Throughout the lecture, Thomas shared perspectives on the role of critical research in fostering social liberation and ethical business practices with attendees. He explained critical research and its methodologies as having an impact on the business world and took it a step further by detailing various research paradigms – positivist, interpretivist, and critical, how each one aligns with varying scholarly ideologies, and how these diverse standpoints can influence organizational approaches that reduce and perpetuate inequalities.

Through historical examples of organizational marketing and advertising tactics, Thomas promoted interactive discussions and further explored how ideology permeates the marketplace, shaping both consumer consciousness and behavior.

Concluding his lecture, Thomas highlighted his organization as co-founder of the Race In the Marketplace Research Network and announced its upcoming research forum in January to be held in South Africa.

“My research is really me-search, as it’s really about trying to get a sense of who I am, how I function in the world, and how people respond to me,” said Thomas. “What I find is that the more I dig into the areas that interest me, the marketplace, also known as any place, where there is an exchange of ideas or commerce, is very much connected. We live in a space where consumer culture is how we express ourselves. So that idea of really trying to understand race as a much more nuanced sense of the intersectional approach to race was something that I did with my dissertation work, moving towards breaking down silos between our sense of identities.” 

Written by A’me Dalton

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