Thursday 5th June 2025: 4.00-5.15pm (IST – Irish Standard Time/DST/BST):
Eco-Humanities Public Online lecture
Rosa Rogers (University College Cork)
Storytelling and Co-Design Approaches to Climate Communication
Please note: The event will be online (via Zoom). Please register through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom meeting link.
Drawing on insights from a recent interdisciplinary workshop I ran in collaboration with Dr Sarah Bezan and funded by the Future Humanities Research Institute, this work-in-progress talk will discuss how storytelling and narrative 'transportation' can help us effectively communicate our need for climate action in a way that feels present, immediate and personal. Stemming from Audre Lorde's philosophy of language in her essay, poetry is not a luxury, I will discuss the value of creative writing in helping us put 'a name to the nameless' when facing complex climate issues, thus giving space for thought, and in turn, action.
The talk will explore one of the major challenges in climate communication: overcoming the sense that climate change feels psychologically distant. Scientific reports and expository messaging often fail to engage audiences on a deeper level. Storytelling, however, can make the invisible visible, immersing people in narratives that foster empathy and a sense of urgency. By showing rather than telling, stories help us process complex information in ways that resonate emotionally and intellectually.
Finally, I will discuss the value of co-design—bringing together diverse perspectives to facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. I will share the outcomes of this approach from our climate storytelling workshop, and the value of epideictical or speech and art-driven methodologies to encourage new ways of thinking and communicating about climate action. Rather than focusing solely on solutions, we’ll consider how the act of storytelling itself can spark dialogue, deepen understanding, and ultimately drive change.
Dr Rosa Rogers (she/her) is an Anglo-Irish writer and interdisciplinary artist, originally from Yorkshire. She holds a PhD in The Contemporary Novel for her forthcoming debut, Composition, which explores the coming-of-age tale of a working-class daughter of the Irish diaspora. Her writing has been published widely, including Flash Fiction North, A Personal Anthology, The Menteur, and The Mersey Review, and her multimedia projects have been exhibited at The Photographers' Gallery (London), Reid Hall (Paris), and as part of The Bookshop Podcast's Creative Series (Ojai, California). She is the founder of Poetry Etc, Tales of a Town and former Co-Director of Vortex Gallery, where she has spent nearly a decade advocating in community settings for increased access to arts and literary education. She is currently working on multimedia storytelling and climate change communication as part of Met Éireann's TRANSLATE funded project. She lectures in Creative Writing at University College Cork.
