ENGL 3795 - Communicating Climate Change

(ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) (CU-SBY)

Fall or Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

This course counts toward the Literatures of the Americas and the post-1800 requirements for English majors.

C. Levine.

There is a lot of consensus about the science of climate change. But many members of the public remain confused or uninformed about the severity of the situation. Some are paralyzed by fear. Others are blissfully ignorant. What are the best ways of communicating climate change to a variety of audiences? Should we tell stories? Make documentaries? Dramatize the science? This course will ask you to read, write and design many different forms and genres in order to experiment with the problem of communicating climate change, from pie-charts to science fiction and from photography to TED Talks. What can each form tell us about climate change that the others cannot? We will take on a real-world communication project over the course of the semester.