Expanding the Narrative of Climate Change Conversations

This presentation and discussion will focus on “cli-fi” as an emerging literary genre that has the ability to expand climate change narratives and put the “human” into human-induced climate change.

Author James Bradley argues that “fiction allows us to hold ideas in our heads about time and space and causality and connection that are difficult to articulate in other ways.” This discussion explores how the psychology behind our responses to climate change is complex, and how narratives found in climate novels help with expansion of the cognitive tools needed to bridge the gap and make our collective climate future more comprehensible. This event is free and open to the public.

Ted Martinez is a senior lecturer in the NAU Honors College where he uses climate change novels (cli-fi) to create expanding conversation about climate change.