Sharon Livesey

Sharon Livesey, J.D., is a tenured associate professor at the Gabelli School of Business, where she has served on the faculty since 1996. She has been deeply involved in the development and delivery of the undergraduate minor in sustainable business, a collaborative effort between the Gabelli School of Business and Fordham College at Rose Hill that launched in fall 2011. The sustainable business program reflects Professor Livesey's strong commitment to business that benefits both society and the environment.

Professor Livesey explores this aspect of business by studying the relationship between language and social change. Her published work investigates business-environmental partnerships, corporate social and environmental reporting and business responses to environmental crises. Professor Livesey is researching the relationship between U.S. climate politics and Exxon Mobil's corporate discourse, and her past topics have included water conflicts affecting the California rice industry and municipal water-privatization efforts in the United States. She also authored a Harvard Business School case on McDonald's and the environment, a study of the communication challenges arising from a watershed U.S. business-environmental partnership.

Professor Livesey teaches Gabelli School undergraduates, MBA students and professionals in Fordham's executive-education program. Her MBA-level courses include Cross-Cultural Negotiation and Communication, Negotiation & Conflict Resolution, Management Communication, and the foundation course in Managing and Communicating for Global Sustainability. Professor Livesey won the Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence from Fordham for her graduate-level instruction.

In 2006, Professor Livesey taught in China in Fordham's Beijing International Management program. Prior to joining the Fordham faculty, she taught for six years at Harvard Business School, and before that, she worked for a law firm that represented a variety of unions, from Teamster locals to AFTRA-SAG to school secretaries.

• J.D.: Northeastern University
• Masters: English, Cambridge University
• Bachelors: B.A., English, Smith College/Cambridge University

• Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Discourse, Rhetoric, and Organizational Change
• Business-Stakeholder Collaboration & Dialogue
• Negotiation & Conflict Resolution

• Livesey, S. M., Hartman, C. L., Stafford, E. R., & Shearer, M. (2009). Performing Sustainable Development through Eco-Collaboration. The Journal of Business Communication, 46 (4), 423-454.
• Livesey, S. M., & Graham, J. (2007). Greening Of Corporations? Eco-Talk and The Emerging Social Imaginary of Sustainable Development. In S. K. May, G. Cheney, J. Roper (Eds.) The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Livesey, S. M. 2003. Organizing and Leading the Grassroots: An Interview with Lois Gibbs. Organization & Environment, 20(10), 1-18.
• Livesey, S. M., & Kearins, K. Open and Caring Corporations? A Study of Sustainability Reports by The Body Shop and Royal Dutch/ Shell. (2002). Organization & Environment, 15(3), 229-254.