Presenters:
- Tyler Quiring, Research Associate, New England Sustainability Consortium, UMaine
- Bridie McGreavy, Communication & Journalism, UMaine
Sustainability science is an innovative field that relies on collaborative connections among a broad range of academic disciplines, community partners, and public stakeholders. But how can sustainability science produce outputs that tap into the diversity of these connections to promote engagement within and among such varied audiences? Through its projects on Safe Beaches and Shellfish as well as the Future of Dams, the New England Sustainability Consortium is using a range of online platforms to share its work. These online archives focus on using storytelling to provide opportunities for stakeholder engagement in sustainability science. We will overview the development and deployment of two such online archives for NEST: A completed transmedia storytelling website called Safe Beaches, Shellfish, and You and an in-development communication decision support system on NEST’s second project about the Future of Dams.
Tyler Quiring is a research assistant on the New England Sustainability Consortium’s first project on Safe Beaches and Shellfish. He has been deeply involved in NEST’s communication research as well as its public engagement and outreach efforts. His work on transmedia storytelling uses online platforms and media production techniques to tell engaging stories about the work of NEST as well as the contributions of its stakeholders. Tyler holds a master’s degree in communication from the University of Maine and a bachelor’s degree in media production from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee.
Bridie McGreavy is an assistant professor of environmental communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods to study communication within sustainability science and coastal and freshwater management contexts. She is currently a lead investigator on a project funded through NSF’s EPSCoR program to advance a four-year study examining the future of dams in New England. She received a Ph.D. in Communication with a concentration in Sustainability Science from the University of Maine.