Lecture by Marek Oziewicz (University of Minnesota)

In this talk I share a vision of how studying children’s literature today can make a difference for the Earth’s future. I suggest that we have the opportunity—a narrow window of perhaps a decade—to lay foundations for an ecological civilization and one way to achieve it is to leverage public education into an unstoppable force of societal transformation.

I discuss the power of cultural narratives to frame parameters for cultural change and I highlight the advantages of climate literacy education conceived as a broad socio-cultural (rather than a narrow technical) competence nourished through engagement with stories, especially children's literature and media. I suggest that we, the children’s literature people, have an important role to play in helping build a climate literate society.

The talk concludes with an overview of the hows and whys of climate literacy education, drawing on the work of the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Practical info

Lecture climate literacy

Friday 26 april 2024, 1-2 p.m.

UAntwerpen City Campus, Room C.002
Building C, Prinsstraat 13
2000 Antwerpen