Cultural-Climate-Models.org
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This project investigates how culture models climate futures. It brings together literary studies, linguistics, science and technology studies, and literature pedagogy to analyse how texts move between seemingly neutral climate facts (“models of”) and normative social values (“models for”). It understands the qualitative cultural modelling of climate change as an important complement to dominant quantitative scientific climate models. It comprises three work packages focused on climate futures and intergenerational justice in different kinds of texts: dramas and essays (WP 1); social media (WP 2); and pedagogical (WP 3).
Project outcomes include open-access publications, and a website documenting the research process and disseminating results as a virtual exhibition. The team are based in the UK, German, and Austria and represent a range of complementary specialisms: David Higgins (PI UK) in culture and climate change; Julia Hoydis (PI Austria) in risk theory and climate change narratives; Warren Pearce in digital methods of image analysis in social media; Carolin Schwegler in multi-modal sustainability communication; Roman Bartosch in educational research on the modelling of environmental literacy; and Jens Gurr in interdisciplinary model theory. The website is curated and designed by the project’s artistic director, Jasmijn Visser.
The project brings together research centres at the Universities of Cologne (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities – MESH), Duisburg-Essen (Futures Research in the Humanities), Klagenfurt (Cluster Sustainability), Leeds (Priestley International Centre for Climate), and Sheffield (Digital Society Network). The project is funded by the AHRC (UK), the DFG (Germany), and the FLF (Austria).
Research Associate (Austria)
funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
University of Klagenfurt/Department of English
University of Heidelberg/German Institute
PhD-Candidate in German Linguistics
funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
University of Klagenfurt/Department of English
University of Heidelberg/German Institute
PhD-Candidate in German Linguistics
In his PhD-Thesis, Jöran Landschoff analyses a German Twitter-Corpus, aiming at detecting interactional communicative patterns, argumentative strategies and opinion communities in regard to attitudes toward climate, Covid and the candidates for the German Chancellorship in 2021. Apart from this, the Philosophy of Language and questions of discourse and power are his constant companions.
Project Co-I (Germany)
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
University of Cologne,
MESH & IdSL1
Postdoc in German Linguistics/Sociolinguistics
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
University of Cologne,
MESH & IdSL1
Postdoc in German Linguistics/Sociolinguistics
As a postdoctoral researcher, she engaged in interdisciplinary publication projects in the fields of environmental humanities, environmental linguistics, and eco-linguistics as well as international interdisciplinary projects. Carolin’s current research focuses on communicative practices of (climate- and health-related) prediction, risk, and prognosis, future-oriented language, and prospective communication.
Project Co-I (Germany)
funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) University of Cologne
Department of English II and Research Hub for MESH
Full Professor of English.
funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) University of Cologne
Department of English II and Research Hub for MESH
Full Professor of English.
In the project, he will work with Jens Martin Gurr on WP3 to examine notions of modelling and modelling practices in literary criticism and educational research and materials. It seeks to survey how modelling is used and understood in these different fields, and how questions of intergenerational justice affect online readerships and classroom interactions.
Project Co-I (Germany)
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
University of Duisburg-Essen
Department of Anglophone Studies, Full Professor of British and Anglophone Literature and Culture
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
University of Duisburg-Essen
Department of Anglophone Studies, Full Professor of British and Anglophone Literature and Culture
His monograph Charting Literary Urban Studies: Texts as Models of and for the City (Routledge, 2021) synthesized some ten years of research in literary urban studies. Pointing forward to the Just Futures project on cultural modelling, it explored the usefulness of model theory to literary studies. In the project, he will work with Roman Bartosch on WP3 to examine notions of modelling and modelling practices in literary criticism and educational research and materials.
Project PI (Austria)
funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
University of Klagenfurt
Department of English, Full Professor of English Literature
funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
University of Klagenfurt
Department of English, Full Professor of English Literature
In the project, she will work with David Higgins on WP1 to examine focuses on textual models of climate futures in Anglophone dramas and personal essays. It explores especially how these genres model intergenerational justice and issues such as reproductive futures and relationships between parents and children.
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Project PI (UK)
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
University of Leeds
School of English
Full Professor of Environmental Humanities
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
University of Leeds
School of English
Full Professor of Environmental Humanities
In the project, he will work with Julia Hoydis on WP1 to examine focuses on textual models of climate futures in Anglophone dramas and personal essays.
Project Co-I (UK)
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
University of Sheffield
iHuman & Department of Sociological Studies
Senior Lecturer in Digital Media & Society.
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
University of Sheffield
iHuman & Department of Sociological Studies
Senior Lecturer in Digital Media & Society.
Warren co-leads WP2 with Carolin Schwegler, investigating how different communication modes (e.g. image, text, sound) found on social media platforms (e.g. TikTok, Instagram, Twitter) are used to model climate futures.
Artistic director
(The Netherlands)
funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Independent artist/designer.
(The Netherlands)
funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Independent artist/designer.
The development of the visual identity is a part of work package 1, in consultation with David Higgins and in collaboration with Ingmar König.
He collaborates with Jasmijn Visser on developing the visual identity of CCM.
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We are delighted to announce the inception of Just Futures? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cultural Climate Models, a research project funded by the AHRC (UK), DFG (Germany), and the FLF (Austria).
Over the next three years, the project will investigate climate modelling beyond the scientific realm, focusing especially on how different kinds of texts model climate futures and intergenerational justice. Its findings will be disseminated via open-access publications and a virtual exhibition.
This international project involves researchers from the Universities of Cologne, Duisburg-Essen, Klagenfurt, Leeds, and Sheffield.
Lieven, A., Gurr, J.M., Buchenau, B. (2023) Narrative in Planning: A Practical Field Guide. Transcript [OA].
Hoydis, J,, Bartosch, R. Gurr, J.M. (2023) Climate Change Literacy. Key Elements in Environmental Humanities Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [OA].
Buchenau, B., Gurr, J.M., Sulimma, M., eds. (2023) City Scripts: Narratives of Postindustrial Urban Futures. The Ohio State University Press [OA].
Schwegler, C. (2024) Climate Imaginaries and the Construction of Identity in Social Media. LiLi – Journal for Literary Studies and Linguistics 3 [Special Issue: Media Identities – multimodal and multilingual].
