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The power of storytelling in climate action - UCC to host workshop
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- UCC workshop to explore how storytelling can enhance climate communication, foster public engagement, and inspire meaningful action.
Researchers, climate advocates, journalists and creative practitioners are invited to a workshop exploring the potential of storytelling and creative approaches to climate communication in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Thursday, 29 May at University College Cork.
This workshop will focus on the ways audiences engage with and respond to different climate narratives — attendees will be invited to play an active role in sharing the kind of climate storylines we should be telling, which will influence future Met Éireann storyline outputs.
The session will consider how we can take an arts-science approach to one of the biggest global challenges facing us today. What can the sciences learn from the arts? What can the arts learn from the sciences? How can we take a dialectical approach to the issue? And what kind of climate stories are audiences most curious to see?
Through presentations, discussions, and interactive worksheets, participants will help shape insights into effective climate communication.
"Inspired by Audre Lorde's philosophy, this workshop invites us to explore how 'putting a name' to the climate crisis and making it tangible through speech, art and human stories, we can thus inspire empathy and action that can in turn address the challenges faced by the climate emergency," Dr Rosa Rogers, UCC's Creative Writing Lecturer in the School of English and Digital Humanities, UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, and workshop lead, said.
The agenda includes:
- Making the SDGs tangible. A panel discussion with Ambassador David Donoghue, Dr John Barimo and Dr Ger Mullally.
- Climate Storytelling Examples and Discussion.
- Interdisciplinary networking break. Time for conversation, and to explore visual art exhibition by Angela Gilmour and film screenings, such as 'Seeding the Future' by Dónal Ó Céilleachair.
- Scientific presentations led by Met Éireann and the Translate team.
- Group co-design based on Translate science and creative questions.
The workshop is funded by Future Humanities Institute and Met Éireann.
To secure your place, please register here.
Given the study component of the session, attendees are encouraged to stay for the full event (11am–3pm).
If you would like to showcase your research at the event with a stall, please contact rrogers@ucc.ie