Full-Circle Climate Communication Workshop

There is a circular form on the far-right of the image with a spectrum of color from yellow to violet. The spectrum makes the circle appear spherical

Those who acknowledge that global warming is real, human-made, and potentially disastrous, know that current efforts to curb it are insufficient. The Full-Circle workshop is an opportunity for climate scientists, social scientists, humanists, culture producers, and policy experts to integrate their knowledge to imagine and design new ways of communicating to accelerate and broaden our human response to climate change. We are seeking interested participants and also speakers. Please see below for eligibility.

The diverse knowledge and expertise present in the workshop will enable participants to utilize current climate research data and findings to develop innovative and viable communication strategies, which are the intended outcome of the workshop and will be made public. The work will be informed by knowledge of human behavior, cultural dynamics, narrative and rhetoric. Strategies will include how they will be given form through visualization, creative inquiry, and arts expertise.

Workshop Dates: Jan 13-17, 2025 (minimum 3-day commitment required for participants)

Location: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

Sponsors: The Institute for Harnessing Data and Model Revolution in the Polar Regions (iHARP) and the Imaging Research Center (IRC) at UMBC. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Cost: There is no cost for the workshop for USA-based participants. Travel and lodging expenses will be covered for USA-based participants, excluding iHARP scientists and UMBC participants.

Workshop Goals

  • Produce viable and actionable communication strategies to increase the influence of climate change research on policymaking and people’s individual choices.
  • Model, in a scalable way, the broadly transdisciplinary, impact-oriented work universities can do to optimize the impact of their research.
  • Experience the transformative practice of integrating your knowledge and expertise with that of others whose work is very different from your own but equally essential for meeting challenges and seizing opportunities of our time.

Participant Eligibility

This is the first Full-Circle workshop and the number of participants we can host is constrained by available funding. Use this form is to communicate your interest and available to the planning team, along your thoughts about what you would hope to bring to and take home from the workshop. We seeking approximately 40 USA researchers and scholars in the following and related areas who are interested in integrating their knowledge and expertise with that of colleagues in different fields, and who are passionate about curbing climate change:

  • Climate Sciences
  • Geography
  • Computer Science
  • Data Science
  • Machine Learning and AI
  • Information Systems
  • Human-Centered Computing
  • Media Arts
  • Data Visualization
  • Story, Narrative, Rhetoric
  • Behavioral Science
  • Social-Community Psychology
  • Anthropology
  • Political Science
  • Public Policy
  • Public Health

To be considered for participation in the workshop, use the link below to learn more and complete THIS FORM  by the current  due date of 11/8/24.

We are Seeking Speakers

We seek speakers who can deliver a fairly broad primer in general aspects of their field, attuned to the workshop task of designing innovative climate change communications. These broad areas are:

  • Current climate science related to the causes and mechanisms of ice cap melt and sea-level rise, and their likely impact on people and their communities
  • Politics and policies, including beliefs and attitudes of general populations and other political forces that determine policymakers’ initiatives and their success or failure
  • Social and psychological factors in human behavior
  • Culture, history, geography as factors in human behavior
  • Media arts and communication theory for achieving measurable impact
  • Rhetoric as sense-making, and narrative structure

Selected speakers will be paid an honorarium to deliver a 45-minute slide presentation.

If you have any questions please email info@irc.umbc.edu and put “FULL-CIRCLE” as the subject.