UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

2026 – forthcoming

Bartosch, R., & Hoydis, J. (2026). Experience and Extinction in Digital Eco-Games. In U. Heise, K. Rigby & R. Bartosch (Eds.), Unsettling Extinction (pp. 65-80). London: Bloomsbury. [forthcoming]

Gurr, J. M. (2026). Responses to Ecoterrorism in Fiction: An Exercise in Empirical Ecocriticism. In B. Sezer (Eds.). Representations of Ecoterrorism in Anglophone Media. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter [Anglia Book Series]. [under review]

Hoydis, J. (2026). Narrating Human Resilience Amidst Polycrisis: The ‘Ordinary Magic’ of Realism and Routines in Contemporary British Climate Fiction. Anglia, 144(1). [forthcoming]

Schwegler, C. (2026). Beyond the Ad: Multimodal Advertisements and Their Contribution to Modelling Climate Futures on Instagram. HERMES Journal of Language and Communication in Business. [forthcoming]

Schwegler, C., & Landschoff, J. (2026). Polystorying Mobility: Urbane Mobilität in multimodalen Zukunftsvorstellungen auf Instagram. OBST – Osnabrücker Beiträge zur Sprachtheorie 106. [forthcoming]

2025

Bartosch, R. (2025). ‘I would prefer not to’: Resilience and Refusal in Literary Learning. In K. Rigby & E. Zemanek (Eds.), Narratives of Resilience/Narrative der Resilienz (pp. 329–346). Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-71079-1_16 

Bartosch, R., & Hoydis, J. (2025). Climate Fiction as Future‐Making: Narrative and Cultural Modelling Beyond Representation. Future Humanities, 3(1), e70008. https://doi.org/10.1002/fhu2.70008 

Yao, Y., & Pearce, W. (2025). The Visual Vernacular of Climate Change on Instagram: How Modal Convergence Between Image and Text Is Changing the Representation of Climate Solutions. International Journal of Communication, 19(2025), 2221–2246. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/24449/5024 

2024

Gurr, J. M. (2024). Cli-fi Novels as Models of and for Climate Futures. Chapter 5 of Gurr. Understanding Public Debates: What Literary Studies Can Do (pp. 137–170). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003478935 

Pearce, W., Joceli Omena, J., Yao, Y., Schwegler, C., Visser, J., Rommel, L., & Landschoff, J. (2024). Culture-Policy Climate Spaces of COP28: Multimodal Cross-Platform Analysis in TikTok, Instagram and Twitter (X). DMI Wiki, 2024. https://www.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2024multimodalclimate 

Schwegler, C., Landschoff, J., & Rommel, L. (2024). Climate Imaginaries and the Linguistic Construction of Identities on Social Media. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, 54(3), 393–431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41244-024-00348-z 

Bartosch, R., Gurr, J. M., & Hoydis, J. (2025). Introducing the 3T-Approach to Climate Change Literacy. Climate Literacy in Education, 3(1): 1-9. http://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v3i1.6482

Hoydis, J. (2025). The Value of Future Fictions – Showing and Telling the Unseen/Der Wert literarischer Funktionen - Das ‚Ungesehene‘ Zeigen und Erzählen. In: A. Hribernik, M. Grabner & K. Dilena (Eds.): Unseen Futures to Come. Fall. Kunsthaus Graz (pp. 28-34). Wien: VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst.

Balestrini, N. W., Hoydis, J., Kainradl, A.-C., & Kriebernegg, U. (2023). Introduction: Time, Relationality, and Fears of Endings: Encounters between Aging Studies and Ecocriticism. In Aging Studies and Ecocriticism: Interdisciplinary Encounters (pp. 1–19). Lanham: Lexington Books.

Bartosch, R. (2023). Death, Extinction, and the Limits of Literacy. In C. Ludwig & T. Summer (Eds.), Taboos and Controversial Issues in Foreign Language Education. Critical Language Pedagogy in Theory, Research and Practice (pp. 195–205). London/New York: Routledge.

Bartosch, R., Adone, D., Hoydis, J., Junker, K., Kumar, S., & Rigby, K. (2023). Zukunftsgestaltungskompetenz im Angesicht der Katastrophe. Ecological Literacy als mehrdimensionale Herausforderung. In C. Sippl, G. Brandhofer, & E. Rauscher (Eds.), Futures Literacy (pp. 111–122). Innsbruck: Studienverlag.

Hoydis, J. (2024). Parables for Planetary Crisis: Storytelling and Multispecies Migration in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island. Interventions, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2024.2365155

Hoydis, J. (2023). Caring (for) Futures: Intergenerational Justice in Contemporary British Drama. In N. W. Balestrini, J. Hoydis, A.-C. Kainradl, & U. Kriebernegg (Eds.), Aging Studies and Ecocriticism (pp. 147–164). Lanham: Lexington Books.

Hoydis, J., Bartosch, R., & Gurr, J. M. (2023). Climate Change Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009342032

Landschoff, J. (2021). Sprachkritik als Moralkritik: Konsequenzen einer systemtheoretischen Sprachauffassung für Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation. In A. Mattfeldt, C. Schwegler, & B. Wanning (Eds.), Natur, Umwelt, Nachhaltigkeit (pp. 325–350). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110740479-013

Pearce, W., Niederer, S., Özkula, S. M., & Sánchez Querubín, N. (2019). The Social Media Life of Climate Change: Platforms, Publics, and Future Imaginaries. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 10(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.569

Schwegler, C., & Lombardi, A. (2024). Green Italy. Esperienze, media e culture per un turismo sostenibile. In P. Carelli & M. P. Pasini (Eds.), Green Italy. Esperienze, media e culture per un turismo sostenibile (pp. 175–186). Milan: Vita e Pensiero.

Schwegler, C., & Mattfeldt, A. (2021). Nachhaltigkeit und Linguistik. Sprachwissenschaftliche Innovationen im Kontext einer globalen Thematik. Deutsche Sprache, 49(4), 289–290. https://doi.org/10.37307/j.1868-775X.2021.04.02

Schwegler, C., Mattfeldt, A., & Wanning, B. (2021). Natur, Umwelt, Nachhaltigkeit: Literarische, diskurslinguistische, kritische und bildungspolitische Perspektiven auf Sprache und Kultur im Überblick. In A. Mattfeldt, C. Schwegler, & B. Wanning (Eds.), Natur, Umwelt, Nachhaltigkeit (pp. 1–32). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110740479-001

05/2026 Hoydis, J. Imagining Just Futures? Literatur als Modellierung von Klimazukünften und Generationengerechtigkeit (invited talk). Ringvorlesung Klimagerechtigkeit und sozialökologische Krisen, Sommersemester 2026, University of Innsbruck, May 7, 2026.

01/2026 Hoydis, J. Narrative Moments – Literarische Führung zur Ausstellung Unseen Futures to Come. Fall. Kunsthaus Graz. January 14, 2026.

11/2025 Schwegler, C. Demarcation, Support, Solidarity and Allyship. Multimodal Climate Change Discourses on Social Media (invited talk) Winterschool PAL 2025, University of Innsbruck, November 21, 2025.

10/2025 Schwegler, C. Multimodal Recycling and Periodic Discourse Patterns on Instagram (invited talk) University of Bremen, October 23, 2025.

09/2025 Schwegler, C. Linguistic and Multimodal Perspectives on Digital Activism and Climate Futures (invited talk) Anglistiktag 2025, University of Essen, September 22, 2025. 

08/2025 Bartosch, R. The Erosion of Trust in Sustainability Education: The Promise of Radical Reading, ASLE-UKI Biennial Conference Erosion|Creimeadh, NUI Galway, August 12-14, 2025. 

07/2025 Hoydis, J. Blessing or Curse? The Role of AI for Disaster Preparedness in Novels about Environmental Crisis. (paper) MESH Symposium Disaster Preparedness in Multispecies Worlds, University of Cologne, July 11, 2025

07/2025 Schwegler, C. Addressing and Coping with Climate Futures? Multimodal Practices in Digital Discourse (invited talk) MESH Symposium 2025 Disaster Preparedness in Multispecies Worlds, University of Cologne, July 11, 2025.

06/2025 Schwegler, C., Landschoff,  J., and Rommel, L. Repeat Repost Recycle: Climate Change Discourse on Social Media (paper) IPrA Conference (IPC19), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, June 24, 2025.

05/2025 Bartosch, R. Rendering Literacies: Environmental Learning and Climate Action in Inclusive English Classrooms (invited talk), University of Tübingen, May 27, 2025. 

05/2025 Schwegler, C. Climate Futures on Social Media (invited talk). Language Practices in Media Cultures, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), May 10, 2025.

04/2025 Bartosch, R., and S.T. Hussain. Modelling Human-Environment Entanglements. HESCOR Lecture Series Modelling Human-Earth Connections, University of Cologne, April 28, 2025.

04/2025 Hoydis, J. Staging Climate Futures and Intergenerational Justice (keynote). Future Fiction Maker Space, University of Cologne, April 3, 2025.

03/2025 Hoydis, J. Of Doomsteads: Homemaking, Habits, and Habitation in British Climate Fiction (paper). Interdisciplinary Conference Versions of Home: Adapting – Rewriting – Referencing in the Arts, University of Graz, March 28, 2025. 

01/2025 Schwegler, C. Linguistic Discourse Analysis on Sustainability and Climate Futures: an Applied Linguistic Approach meets Environmental Humanities (invited talk). Meta- and Counter-discourses on “X-Washing” in the Context of Sustainable Development, Villa Vigoni, Como, Italy, January 22, 2025.

01/2025 Schwegler, C. Climate Imaginaries on Social Media (invited talk). 18th HEE-Winter Meeting Charting Pathways to Planetary Health: Ecology, Education, and Economics, University of Cologne, January 18, 2025.

01/2025 Bartosch, R. Why (Climate) Storytelling Needs More than Facts and Feelings (invited talk). New Year's Reception of the RTG 2550 Dynamic regulation of cellular protein localization, University of Cologne, January 14, 2025.

08/2024  Bartosch, R. Future Imperfect: The End of the World and the Teaching of English (parallel lecture). The European Society for the Study of English 2024 Conference, Lausanne, August 26-30, 2024.

08/2024 Hoydis, J. The Challenge to Imagine Just Futures: Narration and Intergenerationality in Contemporary Fiction (parallel lecture). The European Society for the Study of English 2024 Conference, Lausanne, August 26-30, 2024. 

07/2024 Yao, Y., and W. Pearce. Innovation at the Intersections: Reimagining Climate Policy and Culture through Text and Image. EASST-4S 2024 Amsterdam: Making and Doing Transformations, Amsterdam, July 16-19, 2024.

07/2024 Higgins, D. ‘And no birds sing’: Ecological Loss in Transatlantic Nature Writing (keynote). Transatlantic Studies Annual Conference, Lancaster University, July 8-10, 2024.

07/2024 Higgins, D. Cultural Modelling and Climate Futures (paper). Interdisciplinary Research Network for Time Seminar, University of Leeds, July 3, 2024.

06/2024 Pearce, W. Network Methods for Analysing Image Collections and Text Together: Studying ‘Pockets of Innovation’ in Culture-policy Climate Spaces. CCVision Network Meeting, University of Exeter, June 25, 2024.

06/2024 Higgins, D. Parenting as the Seas Rise (paper). EASLCE Symposium 2024 Sea More Blue, Perpignan, June 17-20, 2024.

06/2024 Hoydis, J. Fearing the Flood: Modelling Climate Futures in Contemporary British Drama (paper).  EASLCE Symposium 2024 Sea More Blue, Perpignan, June 17-20, 2024.

06/2024 Schwegler, C. Climate Imaginaries – Climate Change, Future Imaginaries and Positioning in Social Media (invited talk). Linguistic Colloquium, University Duisburg-Essen, June 4, 2024.

05/2024 Bartosch, R., and J. Hoydis. Modelling and Futures Literacy with Fiction. STS Conference, University of Graz, May 6-8, 2024. 

02/2024 Bartosch, R. Rethinking Agency in the Anthropocene. Literature and the Anthropocene in Education, Luleå University of Technology, February 20-21, 2024.

02/2024 Higgins, D. Creative Public Engagement and Post-Extractivist Landscapes (workshop). Extractivist Landscapes Project, University College Dublin, February 26, 2024.

02/2024 Hoydis, J. Human Resilience Amidst Crisis: The Ordinary Magic of Realism and Routines in Contemporary Climate Novels (keynote). Conference The ‘Ordinary Magic’ of Resilience in Anglophone Literatures: Past, Present, Futures, University of Stuttgart, February 22-23, 2024.

02/2024 Schwegler, C. Multimodal Ensembles – #climate change (invited talk). Studientag Nachhaltigkeit im Fokus der Linguistik, University of Bremen, February 2, 2024.

01/2024 Schwegler, C. Linguistic Discourse Analysis and Sustainability Communication (invited talk). University of Koblenz, January 24, 2024.

01/2024 Pearce, W., J. Omena, Y. Yao, C. Schwegler, J. Visser, J. Landschoff, and L. Rommel. Culture-policy Climate Spaces of COP28: Multimodal Cross-platform Analysis in TikTok, Instagram and Twitter (X) (poster presentation). Digital Methods Initiative Winterschool DMI24, University Amsterdam, January 12, 2024.

12/2023 Higgins, D. Intergenerational Justice and Climate Inequality (paper). Research Foresight Webinar, University of Leeds, December 5, 2023.

12/2023 Hoydis, J. Realism and Resilience: Narrating Climate Futures in Contemporary British Fiction (keynote). International Workshop How Can We Narrate Climate Change and Climate Grief, University of Prag, December 6-7, 2023.

11/2023 Bartosch, R. Doing Nothing to Save the Planet. Resisting the Solutionist Imperative in Education (invited paper). Unterricht auf einem bedrohten Planeten – Perspektiven und Herausforderungen einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im Unterricht der sprachlichen Fächer, University of Duisburg-Essen, November 3-4, 2023.

10/2023 Schwegler, C., J. Landschoff, and J. Hoydis. Climate Futures in Multimodal Social Media Discourse: A Linguistic Perspective on the Modelling Character of Multimodal Ensembles. (paper). ADDA 4 Conference Contemporary Societies in Digital Discourse, University of Klagenfurt, October 12-14, 2023.

09/2023 Hoydis, J. Encounters Between Aging Studies and Ecocriticism: Futures of Care and Intergenerational Justice in Contemporary Drama. Aging in a Caring Society? Theories in Conversation. Age and Care Conference 2023, University of Graz, September 20-22, 2023.

08/2023 Bartosch, R. Teaching the Future Imperfect: Intergenerational (In)Justice and Future-Making in the Literature Classroom (paper). Transitions ASLE-UKI Conference 2023, University of Liverpool, August 29 – September 1, 2023.

08/2023 Higgins, D., J. Hoydis, and R. Bartosch. (Un)Just Transitions: Modelling Intergenerational Climate Futures in Recent Anglophone Fiction and Non-Fiction (panel). Transitions ASLE-UKI Conference 2023, University of Liverpool, August 30 – September 1, 2023.

08/2023 Higgins, D. Procreation, Modelling, and Uncertainty in the Climate Essay (paper) Transitions ASLE-UKI Conference 2023, University of Liverpool, August 30 – September 1, 2023.

08/2023 Hoydis, J. Resilience, Routines, and the Figure of the Child to Come in Realist Disaster Novels (paper). Transitions ASLE-UKI Conference 2023, University of Liverpool, August 30 – September 1, 2023.

07/2023 Bartosch, R. Reading Rocks! Hermeneutics in the Anthropocene (invited paper). ZfL Ringvorlesung Fokus BNE, University of Cologne, July 4, 2023.

05/2023 Bartosch, R., and J. Hoydis. Imagining Infrastructural Collapse: Modelling Human Survival in Recent Pandemic Fiction (paper). GAPS Conference Postcolonial Infrastructures, University of Konstanz, May 17-20, 2023.

04/2023 Gurr, J. Cli-Fi Novels as Models of and for Climate Futures. University of Cologne, April 25, 2023.

03/2023 Gurr, J., and C. Ulbert. Transformation and Communication (session keynote). Research Day Research for Sustainable Solutions @ UDE, University of Duisburg-Essen, March 2, 2023.

Interviews 

Hoydis, J (quote in contribution by Severine Naeve). Bücher über den Klimawandel: Mit „Climate Fiction“ die Welt retten? Tagesschau, November 11, 2025. https://www.tagesschau.de/kultur/climate-fiction-100.html 

Hoydis, J. Interview with Lisa Kuner (2025). Klimakrise in der Literatur: Können Bücher uns retten? Taz, October 13, 2025. https://taz.de/Klimakrise-in-der-Literatur/!6118509/ 

Hoydis, J. (2025). Endzeit: Utopien als Mangelware. Science@orf.at. April 18, 2025. https://science.orf.at/stories/3229847/

Hoydis, J. Interview with Xaver Forthuber (2025). Wir werden alle sterben! Erzählungen vom Ende der Welt und danach. Sendung „Punkt 1“, Ö1 Radio. April 18, 2025

Bartosch, R., Interview with Christel Wester (2023). Der Schwarm und die Climate Fiction. WDR, March 6, 2023. 

Bartosch, R., Interview with Marion Schmidt (2023). Das Phänomen Maja Lunde. Klimawandel als Bestseller. arte, May 10, 2023.

Hoydis, J., Interview with Cornelia Grobner (2023). In der Literatur hat uns die Apokalypse längst eingeholt. Die Presse, November 11, 2023.
 

Other Activities

Cultural Climate Models Project at Digital Methods Initiative (DMI)
University of Amsterdam, January 8-12, 2024.

Carolin, Jöran, Jasmijn, Leyla, Warren, and Yuting (from the project’s Work Package 2) attended the Digital Methods Initiative Winter School and Data Sprint 2024 at the University of Amsterdam, January 8-12, 2024. The team, including members from the University of Cologne, Graz, Heidelberg, Sheffield and Warwick (collaborator Janna Joceli Omena), investigated policy and culture spaces of climate change on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter during the COP28 talks in Dubai, 2023. Innovatively, this one-week intensive project studied how text and image work ‘together’ to co-construct future ways of living being articulated across social media platforms. The group presented two posters summarising the methodology and findings. The work was also published as a project report.