Date of Award
8-1-2025
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Daniel, Joshua
Abstract
Environmental concerns have been a major topic of discourse around the world in the last couple of years. As we are living in the era of anthropocene, where mankind is primarily responsible for the environmental pollution, it is our duty to raise our voice and protect the environment. However, in most cases, any kind of activities involving protecting the environment have been western centric which often neglects the marginalized voices. Furthermore, the rhetoric surrounding the environment is mostly produced by scholars and scientists who often uses heavy jargons, statistics and scientific theory to express their concern. As a result, majority of the common people are unable to access let alone participate in the environmental conversation. To bring effective change in the environment, we need an all-inclusive environmental rhetoric. Multimodality can offer transformative mode of rhetoric that provides immersive experience to the public especially the marginalized people, offering agency and voice to them and prompting change. Furthermore, environmental organization such as green peace and 350.org needs to play a more effective role, working as the bridging block between scholars, policymakers and the marginalized and using innovative multimodal strategies to promote change.
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