Speaker: Cristina Loi @CristinaLoi
Affiliation: Digital Humanities Lab, University of Basel
Title: Shared Reading meets Empirical Ecocriticism: Presenting a SR program on Climate Fiction for Young Adults
Abstract (long version below): This symposium is focused on the topic of Shared Reading. It showcases different empirical methods - both quantitative and qualitative - that can be used to investigate the effects of Shared Reading or look at how Shared Reading can be incorporated into research designs within empirical literary studies. We hope to inspire a discussion on the different choices of experiment designs: measures, stimulus materials, observation methods, as well as analytical approaches (coding schemes, statistical tests, etc.). The possibilities of using Shared Reading as a method for data collection will also be discussed.
Long abstract
Climate anxiety, defined as emotional distress in response to climate change, is on the rise, and the most affected people are young adults (Clayton, 2020). Multiple calls for action are urging researchers to investigate how to inspire pro-environmental behaviours in young adults, while simultaneously enhancing their mental well-being (Wu et al., 2020). Answering these calls, I will present the design and implementation of a Shared Reading (SR) program for young adults, with a focus on climate fiction. The therapeutic effects of SR on mental health have been demonstrated (Billington et al., 2013), but the methodology has not been applied in the field of empirical ecocriticism yet. This project takes on that challenge, drawing from previous research which has shown that reading climate fiction can prompt pro-environmental behaviours, although these effects are usually short-lived (Schneider-Mayerson et al., 2023). Therefore, a six-week SR intervention might reveal whether repeated exposure to climate fiction leads to long-term transformative effects on pro-environmental behaviors and mental health (Loi et al., 2023a; 2023b). Additionally, the SR methodology will be adapted to suit the needs and reading practices of young adults, thus including digital narratives alongside traditional print fiction. As the intervention will be ongoing at the time of the conference, this presentation will focus on the design of the program, discussing principles for text selection, session structure, and especially the challenges involved in adapting an established methodology while maintaining its core principles and benefits. Furthermore, the presentation will report the results of a survey distributed to young adults aged 18-22 (N= ~1000), across various educational settings in Switzerland, which measures baseline data on pro-environmental behaviours and climate anxiety. At this stage, peer-discussion is crucial for the success of this project, which ultimately aims at bringing its results to the attention of policy makers in education.
References
Billington, J., Davis, P., & Farrington, G. (2013). Reading as participatory art: An alternative mental health therapy. Journal of Arts & Communities, 5. Reading as participatory art: An alternative mental health therapy | Intellect
Clayton, S. (2020). Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. Journal of anxiety disorders, 74, 102263
Loi, C., Hakemulder, F., Kuijpers, M. and Lauer, G., 2023. On how Fiction Impacts the Self-Concept: Transformative Reading Experiences and Storyworld Possible Selves. Scientific Study of Literature, 12(1), p.44–67.DOI: https://doi.org/10.61645/ssol.181
Loi, C., Lusetti, M., Kuijpers, M. (2023). “Investigating the impact of reading climate fiction. A case study in empirical literary studies using online book reviews”. In Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive science. (in press).
Schneider-Mayerson, M., Gustafson, A., Leiserowitz, A., Goldberg, M.H., Rosenthal, S.A., & Ballew, M. (2023). “Does Climate Fiction word? An Experimental Test of the Immediate and Delayed Effects of Reading Cli-Fi”. In Scheider-Mayerson et al. (Eds) (2023). Empirical Ecocriticism. Environmental Narratives for Social Change. University of Minnesota Press. pp: 121-151.
Wu, J., Snell, G., & Samji, H. (2020). Climate anxiety in young people: a call to action. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(10), e435-e436