How (Not) to Respond to Climate Change Denial
UK Climate Week Teach-In 2019

This presentation and role-playing activity provide a crash course in how to talk with climate change deniers in order to have productive conversations about climate change. It begins with a brief overview of climate science, then provides a taxonomy of climate change denialist talking points. Following that, I review three major challenges to talking about climate change, then offer strategies for responding to each of those challenges. We conclude with a role-playing activity in which partners get to know each other in an attempt to find shared values on the basis of which to have a conversation about climate change.

Evaluating and Addressing Climate Awareness and Water in Kentucky
KWRRI Symposium 2019

This presentation reports on a project that seeks to increase climate awareness, particularly as it relates to Kentucky’s water resources. Specific objectives are to 1) develop a consortium of Kentucky climate researchers and educators to promote collaboration and information sharing on climate awareness issues, 2) develop a website linking Kentucky’s citizens, students, and teachers to the consortium and Kentucky-focused climate resources, 3) evaluate current levels of climate awareness in Kentucky’s population (eastern, central, and western regions) with a focus on water resources, 4) develop a set of training materials, based on

Distributed Accountability: Technical Communication and the Non-Human Environment
ATTW 2019

This presentation addresses technical communication’s accountability to and for a non-human stakeholder: the environment. Material analyses of the environment are well-established in rhetoric of science, indigenous studies, and science and technology studies (see e.g., Druschke & McGreavy, 2016; Kimmerer, 2013; Latour 2014); extending these analyses to TC provides a productive approach to understanding the complexity of accountability across TC’s many iterations. This presentation focuses on the critical gap between conceptions of “accountability for” and “accountability to,” which offer different models for understanding our relationships as scholars  (and more broadly, as humans) with the environment.

Geoscience, Political Controversy, and the Public Interest
Kentucky Geological Survey
Stakeholder Seminar Keynote 2019

This presentation provides a brief overview of rhetoric and the psycho-social factors that make communicating about controversial science so challenging. After establishing that most science communication problems can't be solved by simply explaining the science better or clearer or more loudly, I offer a concept from rhetoric to help manage communication about controversial science. "Stasis theory" is a way of analyzing arguments and articulating exactly what the points of disagreement in them are. Using a case study of debates about solar energy in Kentucky, I argue  that if we can figure out exactly where we disagree, perhaps we can collaboratively deliberate about a way forward.

Service Learning as a Model for Legitimizing Rhetorical Evidence in Transdisciplinary Partnerships
ARSTM@NCA 2018

Using a specific example course in which I partnered with the Kentucky Division for Air Quality, I argue that service learning offers RSTM an accessible model for developing transdisciplinary relationships; these relationships can provide structured ways for partners to engage with us and co-develop evidentiary approaches that are relevant to our field but also useful for theirs. The familiarity of service learning pedagogy may help RSTM scholars to make inroads as they work to legitimize rhetorical methods and evidence for far-flung fields.

Civility and Climate Change: How (Not) to Talk about Scientific Controversy
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University Forum Lecture Series

Climate change is one of the most controversial scientific topics in politics and the public sphere. Despite strong scientific evidence, people still wonder if the anthropogenic climate change is real. Just as contentious are debates about what mitigation and adaptation strategies are feasible and desirable, given their political and economic ramifications. This lecture surveys some of the reasons that climate change has become so controversial and provides productive ways of talking about climate change that draw from rhetorical and ethical theory.


lauren.cagle@uky.edu | 859.257.1115