On monday, 24 October, literary scholar and current Visiting Professor for Public Humanities at Wissenschaftsforum zu Köln und Essen Ursula K. Heise visited KWI to give a talk on „Environmental Crisis and the Problem of Realism“. In this lecture, Heise explored the controversies about what kinds of realism are appropriate and effective in environmental communication today, and argued that the narrative strategies of science fiction, traditionally considered a secondary or minor genre merely designed for entertainment, offer the most interesting foundations for thinking and talking about global environmental change. The event was moderated by Roman Bartosch of the „Climate Change Literacy“ Project at University of Cologne.
The event was the result of a cooperation between the Institute for Anglophone Studies of the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Cologne, the Wissenschaftsforum zu Köln und Essen, the Rhine-Ruhr Center for Science Communication Research (RRC), and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen.
