Karen LunsfordMany students ask us how we became interested in science communication, and we don't have a single answer. The assumption is that we have all earned advanced STEM degrees. But our faculty have taken interdisciplinary paths, like many science communicators. Think about Lulu Miller, the child of both a humanities professor and a science professor, who experimented with several careers before working at Radiolab and writing Why Fish Don't Exist (Miller, 2020). Or David Wallace-Wells, who earned a degree in history but then wrote The Uninhabitable Earth (Wallace-Wells, 2023) and served as a vital voice on climate change. Or Alan Alda, the actor who gradually shifted to science communication after working on the PBS show Scientific American Frontiers and who now runs a program in science communication at Stony Brook University.
In this collection, we present the perspectives of seven different writing instructors from backgrounds ranging from comparative literature, creative writing, English, history, and writing studies. We all work in the University of California, Santa Barbara writing program, which has multiple upper-division science writing courses and a professional writing minor track in science communication. Our community of instructors has a great deal of autonomy to develop curricular initiatives. For example, Karen and Amanda developed an upper-division science writing for the public course ten years ago, which has been taught successfully from a variety of instructional perspectives. We also offer courses about sustainability, the environment, the health professions, and academic science writing.
Our varied backgrounds have motivated us to work together, meeting biweekly to discuss readings and pedagogical successes and challenges. These discussions, as well as the contemporary science communication landscape, have inspired the following narratives. They share some core themes: Kali and Kenny focus on how science writers can address the public's trust in science communication. Rebecca and Amanda explore how science communication instructors can nudge STEM students away from an unfounded certainty about audience and scientific findings. Kara Mae and John examine the impact of disciplinary boundaries and the benefits of moving beyond them or aiming for mutual exchange (rather than writing in service of STEM). Karen and Kenny examine how informal science learning can shape classroom pedagogies.
We share our different pedagogical reflections, as well as specific assignments, with you to illustrate a range of interdisciplinary lenses that can be brought to the classroom. We hope these narratives inspire steps toward a broader community of science communication instructors.
