Telling Stories: The Humanities in an Age of Planetary Agenda Setting

What is the role of storytelling in planetary agenda setting? In May 2023, Dr Ina Linge and Professor Paul Young organised a symposium to bring together academics from across the University of Exeter to address the importance of humanities research in addressing problems of a global scale.

They commissioned illustrator and visual communicator Laura Miles-Boardman to create an illustrated summary of each panel discussion. You can find them below – we hope you enjoy them.

The event in Exeter was followed by a symposium and workshop organised by project partner Professor Jodey Castricano (University of British Columbia), which took place in July 2023 in Kelowna, British Columbia, on the Unceded Territory of the Syilx People of the Okanagan Nation.

Both events were part of a larger public-facing collaborative initiative between the University of British Columbia (Okanagan campus, Canada) and the University of Exeter, which aims to include Arts/Humanities in local and planetary agenda setting with respect to ongoing climate crises, rather than situating them as contextual “add-ons” to the concerns of the scientific community.

Find out more about the project

Do you want to find out more about the project and its activities? You can find our online exhibition Wicked Problems here. Project interns Hattie Butler and Orianna Xu documented our film series Sustainability on Screen, which took place at Exeter Phoenix in 2022, in three blog posts, which you can find here, here and here.

Want to get involved?

Join our animal studies reading group at Exeter and check out our partners at UBCO and their Post-Anthropocentrism and Critical Animal Studies Research Group.

The Illustrations

Narrating Life on Land featured talks by Ada Cheong and Professor Paul Young, with Professor Jo Bowtell as respondent.

Illustration by Laura Miles-Boardman, 2023.

Narrating Climate Action featured talks by Dr Ina Linge with Professor Jana Funke, as well as Professor Hugh Roberts with Dr Sally Flint and Dr Eliana Maestri, with Associate Professor Angela Cassidy as respondent.

Illustration by Laura Miles-Boardman, 2023.

Narrating Biodiversity featured talks by Professor John Clarke and Dr Katharine Earnshaw, with Professor Tim Lenton as respondent.

Illustration by Laura Miles-Boardman, 2023.

Narrating Reduced Inequalities featured talks by Professor Stacey Hynd and Dr Katie Natanel, with Professor William Gallois as respondent

Illustration by Laura Miles-Boardman, 2023.

Illustrations were made possible through the LCVS Strategic Budget Fund.