A groundbreaking book that combines the environmental humanities and social sciences to study the impact of environmental stories

There is a growing consensus that environmental narratives can help catalyze the social change necessary to address today’s environmental crises; however, surprisingly little is known about their impact and effectiveness. In Empirical Ecocriticism, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder combine an environmental humanities perspective with empirical methods derived from the social sciences to study the influence of environmental stories on our affects, attitudes, and actions.

Empirical Ecocriticism provides an approachable introduction to this growing field’s main methods and demonstrates their potential through case studies on topics ranging from the impact of climate fiction on readers’ willingness to engage in activism to the political empowerment that results from participating in environmental theater. Part manifesto, part toolkit, part proof of concept, and part dialogue, this introductory volume is divided into three sections: methods, case studies, and reflections. International in scope, it points toward a novel and fruitful synthesis of the environmental humanities and social sciences.

Contributors: Matthew Ballew, Yale U; Helena Bilandzic, U of Augsburg; Rebecca Dirksen, Indiana U; Greg Garrard, UBC Okanagan; Matthew H. Goldberg, Yale U; Abel Gustafson, U of Cincinnati; David I. Hanauer, Indiana U of Pennsylvania; Ursula K. Heise, UCLA; Jeremy Jimenez, SUNY Cortland; Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale U; David M. Markowitz, U of Oregon; Marcus Mayorga; Jessica Gall Myrick, Penn State U; Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State U; Yan Pang, Point Park U; Mark Pedelty, U of Minnesota; Seth A. Rosenthal, Yale U; Elja Roy, U of Memphis; Nicolai Skiveren, Aarhus U; Paul Slovic, U of Oregon; Scott Slovic, U of Idaho; Nicolette Sopcak, U of Alberta; Paul Sopcak, MacEwan U; Sara Warner, Cornell U.

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson is associate professor of English and environmental studies at Colby College. He is author of Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture and coeditor of An Ecotopian Lexicon (Minnesota, 2019).

Alexa Weik von Mossner is associate professor of American studies at the University of Klagenfurt. She is author of Affective Ecologies: Empathy, Emotion, and Environmental Narrative and Cosmopolitan Minds: Literature, Emotion, and the Transnational Imagination.

W. P. Malecki is university professor of literary theory at the University of Wrocław. He is coeditor of What Can We Hope For? Essays on Politics and Human Minds and Animal Stories: How Narratives Make Us Care about Other Species.

Frank Hakemulder is affiliated full professor at the Reading Center (Stavanger) and teaches media psychology and communication at Utrecht University. He is coeditor of Science and Humanities: New Research Methods and Muses and Measures: Empirical Research Methods for the Humanities.