Climate, Communities, & Collaborative Action: Lessons from Shakespeare’s Theater

LAS Dean's Lecture

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Lecture Series highlights faculty excellence in learning, discovery, and engagement in Iowa State’s most academically diverse college. Each semester, the dean invites LAS faculty of distinction to present lectures from their areas of expertise on topics of interest to the general public, designed to stimulate high-quality, intellectual discussion among faculty, staff, students, and community members. Lectures are held during the fall and spring semesters during the academic year.

Linda Shenk, professor in the Department of English, was selected by Dean Benjamin Withers to deliver the fall 2024 LAS Dean’s Distinguished Lecture. In her research, Shenk applies methods from her training in Shakespeare and performance to foster collaborative storytelling among researchers and community members that supports climate action and resilience. In particular, she works with women farmland owners in Iowa—some of the most potentially powerful but often unheard of land stewards in the Midwest. She co-leads multiple transdisciplinary research projects, including as a Lead PI for "Central Midwest Climate Opportunities & Learning: CO-Learn," a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Partnerships Project.

Shenk's lecture bridges the humanities and the sciences to explore how practices from Shakespeare and his theater support climate research that fosters collaborative, community action. These practices allow communities and researchers to tell stories with each other rather than simply to each other, thereby weaving together their diverse understandings and experiences into coherent, productive action. Shenk has conducted this research for nearly ten years, including currently as a Lead Principal Investigator of a $6M NOAA Climate Adaptations Project for the Central Midwest. She has worked with communities as diverse as middle-school youth in inner city Des Moines and women farmland owners throughout Iowa.

Sprinkling her talk with stories of action, Shenk will include how she came to realize the storytelling connections between Shakespeare's "playbook" and climate work. She will share the way some of these techniques can enable all of us—from campus to community members—to be better collaborators who learn with and from each other. A live Q&A session with Shenk will follow the lecture.

This lecture will be recorded and ready to view on the Available Recordings page approximately 24-36 hours after the conclusion of the event.