Laugh, and the World Laughs With You? The Comedic Turn in Environmental Education Research

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Despite the affective turn in environmental education, limited attention has been given to the ways in which humour has been used in the field, and to what effects. This symposium brings together scholars from Australia, Austria, Canada, the UK, and the USA who are researching humour in a variety of contexts, including secondary and post-secondary settings, outdoor education, and public pedagogy sites like media (news, television, digital games) and activism. The papers use a variety of theoretical frames and methodological approaches, drawing on relevant EE research as well as scholarship in anti-racist and Indigenous education, climate change communication, critical pedagogy, ecocriticism, feminist theory, humour studies, language arts education, media studies, philosophy, psychology, and science education.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Environmental Education

Chair

• Justin Dillon, University College London

Papers

• I Am Not a Camper: Confessions of an Indigenous Urban Environmental Educator - Shannon Leddy, University of British Columbia

• Humor and Relational Pedagogy in Critically Conscious Environmental Education - Juan Miguel Arias, Colorado College

• Students and Professional Comedians Co-Creating Climate Comedy - Beth Osnes; Max Boykoff; Patrick Chandler; Ben Stasny, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Management Students Create Comedy Scripts on Sustainability Issues: Course Design, Results, and Outcomes - Andre Martinuzzi; Angelo Spoerk; Florian Findler, PWC Germany

• Learning With Student Climate Strikers' Humor: Toward Critical Affective Climate Justice Literacies - Eve Mayes

Discussants

• Constance Russell, Lakehead University

• Patrick Chandler