Climate Science and Digital Culture

DESCRIPTION

This transdisciplinary seminar is designed for graduate students interested in the environmental humanities, comparative media studies, and science communication. A six-week short course, the seminar investigates strategies of and challenges to communicating climate science in the context of digital media developments of the last two decades, with a particular focus on American journalism and social media cultures. Students examine and experiment with a range of media—including documentary, op-ed, data visualization, immersive storytelling, and virtual and augmented reality. The course also considers the media cultures and narrative strategies of communities leading movements for climate justice. Through individual and collaborative assignments, students test out different forms of science communication and experiment with crafting multimedia environmental stories informed by their research and addressed to public audiences.

TEXTS

• Course website with secondary readings and links to assigned online materials
• Candis Callison, How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts
• Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
• Mike Hulme, Weathered: Cultures of Climate
• Lauren Redniss, Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future