Fiction and Lies in the Shadow of Climate Change

This talk considers the role of fiction as a form of resistant truth telling in an era of lies, bullish*t, propaganda, GenAI fakes and conspiracy theory, and in the shadow of climate crisis. In our media atmosphere filled with falsehoods, fiction becomes a means of capturing messy realities unassimilable to propaganda. Moreover, the flexibility of fictional imagination allows for social responses to radical uncertainties, via new genres of storytelling that call climate-change publics into being. In this talk, we'll consider stories of megafire.

Stephanie LeMenager is Professor in English and Affiliate Faculty of the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon. She held the Moore Chair in English from 2014-2024. LeMenager is author of several books, including Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century (Oxford University Press, 2013). Her work on climate change and the humanities has been featured in The New York Times, ClimateWire, Science Friday, NPR, CBC, and other public venues.

Free and open to the public. Accommodation requests related to a disability or health condition should be made by April 14 to the Simpson Center, 206.543.3920, humanities@uw.edu.