Despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that the climate is changing rapidly, and that it is unequivocally due to human interference in the climate system, there are still large swaths of people who are either unconvinced of the science or who simply do not care. Rather than people not ‘believing’ climate science, my work suggests that people’s relationship to climate knowledge – their climate consciousness – is a historically constructed by the intersecting and deeply embedded ideologies of empire, energy, and progress. In this talk, I will provide a brief overview of the work I have done to date and discuss contours for future research – including constructing a folk archive of climate knowledge.

Dylan M. Harris received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, his masters from the London School of Economics, and his doctorate from Clark University. His work focuses on the stories we tell (and do not tell) about climate change, looking specifically at how ‘climate consciousness’ has formed in the U.S. His recent work examines how ‘Just Transitions’ narratives are being used to stabilize U.S. imperial relations, and how critical attention to the ‘justice’ elements of transition can help avoid the missteps that led to the need for such a transition. His tenure at UCCS began in Fall 2020.

His research interests include political ecology, climate change, climate and energy justice, environmental humanities, experimental methods, queer theory, critical theory, and post-in-other-than-humanism.

For more information and the optional reading go to: https://heller.uccs.edu/salons