More knowledge about climate change does not automatically result in more (or better) action to address climate change. More knowledge about climate change can sometimes lead to increased fear, hopelessness, anxiety, lethargy, and polarization, especially for young people (Doyle, 2019; Kahan, 2012, 2014, 2015; Ojala, 2012; Majeed et al., 2017; Wu et al, 2020). To bridge the gap between knowledge and constructive action, therefore, climate communication and education need to do more than give people high-quality information. It needs to open up pathways for embodying and activating this information. Best practices in climate communications include co-creating narratives with audiences, harnessing emotion, and engaging media (Boycoff, 2019; Peters and Salas, 2022; Peters et al., 2022 ). This talk will highlight methods for engaging climate data within climate communications.

Drawing from four ongoing ethnographic projects conducted with youth and communities in Philadelphia and Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Badaki will highlight ways in which climate data can be used in creative and multimodal ways to engage and mobilize communities for climate action. The talk will focus specifically on the work of the Body-Ecology Lab (BEL), which draws from ethnographic, performance, and multimodal methods to address the question: what stories can our bodies remember, as well as reimagine, about our relationship with the land? During the talk, Dr. Badaki will share examples from the lab’s emerging work centering four communicative methods: (1) Climate storytelling, (2) Performance and exhibition, (3) Community mapping, and (4) AI chatbots.

Dr. OreOluwa Badaki is a Research Scholar with the Digital Futures Institute (DFI) at Teachers College and the Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP) Center. Rooted in multimodal ethnographic methods, Dr. Badaki’s work is at the intersection of education, environmental studies, and communication studies. She directs the Body-Ecology Lab (BEL) and her current projects examine how power moves through bodies and spaces within food and land systems. As a writer, movement practitioner, researcher, and educator, Dr. Badaki works with youth and their communities to explore food and environmental justice through the creative and performing arts.

Time: 12:00-1:30 pm EST

Free!

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