Marek Oziewicz
Climate literacy; climate justice; story systems; climate and sustainability education; ecoliterature and ecomedia for young audiences; teacher training; cognitive poetics; anticipatory imagination; hope studies; ecological civilization
Background & Expertise
Marek Oziewicz is the Sidney and Marguerite Henry Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature and chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. He is the founder and director of the Center for Climate Literacy, senior editor of Climate Literacy in Education and editor-in-chief of Climate Lit: a resource hub for teaching climate literacy through children’s literature and media. Specializing in the cultural work of story systems, Oziewicz studies the anthropocene as a challenge to the stories we tell and enact in our lives. His research explores how narratives empower young people to develop a multicultural mindset, global citizenship and climate literacy. Oziewicz believes that K-12 education is ground zero for empowering young people with the skills, values and knowledge they will need to help accelerate the transition to an ecological civilization. He coordinates international efforts to advance universal climate literacy education as a foundation for ushering in the green, clean, just and sustainable world.
Welcoming the 2019 Class of IonE Affiliates
In recent weeks, quick glimpses of TV screens — and, for some, harrowing views from windows — have depicted flames ravaging the Amazon rainforest; hurricane-force wind and rain assailing the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States; and insidious, unseen forces weakening ice sheets and deepening an ever-expanding Arctic sea.