Responding to climate change and other environmental crises will require understanding the science and associated human behavior, social systems, and communication. Students and faculty working with the Center for Science Communication Research (SCR) focus on collaboration to span boundaries between theory and practice. Our mission is to make complex science useful to society. To do that, we take a holistic approach that brings together experts and students from different areas -- communication, psychology, documentary filmmaking, environmental science, and others – to conduct research and prepare students for the science communication careers of the future. 

Our work responds to local needs, such as PNW issues of wildfire, smoke, and earthquakes. After 2020’s devastating fire season, for example, faculty from the SCR worked with partners from the Northwest Fire Science Consortium to produce The Fire Story podcast that provides expert answers to Oregonians’ questions. In our science communication minor, students enrolled in The Science Story can learn to tell engaging stories about life in a flammable forest. 

Our work also responds to national needs, such as those at the nexus of climate and health, with multidisciplinary partners, including academia, medicine, federal agencies, and other organizations.

My research focuses on how communication plays a role in how people understand, talk about, and respond to environmental crises. Communication is a process that can be rife with inequities – through technological privilege, language, and access to information – but it can also serve as an avenue for creating more just and livable futures through collaboration, listening, and co-production. Much of my work focuses on how environmental issues are framed in dominant areas of discourse, such as media coverage and public policy, and what stories are not being told. Dominant narratives are often limited and offer little opportunity for dialogue or diverse perspectives. 

When looking at communication processes, we must ask questions about barriers, access, and equity. If communication can build capacity and resilience, we must first understand how communication systems and messages operate in our society. We then need to know how that relates to our collective capacity to prepare for and respond to environmental crises. In my science and environmental communication courses, we look at communication outcomes and the systems that undergird communication processes. By looking at dominant systems of discourse, I hope that students can investigate and participate in communication in ways that yield more equitable outcomes in the future.