Emma Frances Bloomfield

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Associate Professor of Communication Studies

Expertise: Science communication, Environmental communication, Scientific controversies, Climate change, Sustainability, Intersection of science and religion, Strategies for combating misinformation and talking with skeptics, Social media, Storytelling

Biography

Currently an associate professor at UNLV, Emma Frances Bloomfield studies science communication and public interactions and engagement with science. She is interested in a variety of intersections of science with religion, technology, politics, the economy, digital spaces, and news media.

Bloomfield has published about various scientific topics and how the public understands and responds to them, including topics such as climate change, the environment, evolution, science education, birth control, and religion in politics. As a communication scholar that focuses on rhetoric, she attends to the ways that people use symbols, such as language, to persuade, influence, and make connections with others — particularly in situations where this use of symbols leads to controversy, deliberation, and public concern.

In addition to studying scientific controversies and why they emerge, Bloomfield also researches strategies to curtail the spread of misinformation and strategies to engage science skeptics.

Education

PhD Communication, University of Southern California

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communication, public speaking, relationships, science & technology, social issues, sustainability

Emma Frances Bloomfield In The News

‘People will die’: Nevadans on high alert to extreme heat, UNLV survey shows

Nevadans are feeling the effects of extreme heat in their lives and on their wallets, a newly published UNLV report reveals.

A new approach to personal climate action: ‘Climatemaxxing’

Grist

You’re probably familiar with the concept of a carbon footprint: a personal tally of transgressions that contribute to planet-warming emissions. The “carbon footprint” is well established in the climate movement’s lexicon, despite the guilt and shame that it evokes — and despite the fact that many people now know the term was popularized in an ad campaign by the oil company British Petroleum, a shockingly effective gambit to put the onus of addressing the climate crisis on individuals, not the corporations or governments that have contributed the most to the problem.

Forget about your carbon footprint. Try ‘climatemaxxing.’

There’s now an easy way to turn any aspect of life into something to optimize — just add “-maxxing.” Gymmaxxing is about getting ripped. Moneymaxxing means accumulating wealth as fast as possible. Over the past couple of years, this social media-driven wellness fad has spread to more and more activities: Tanning is sunmaxxing; drinking plenty of water is watermaxxing. Even at night, the grind for self-improvement continues, with sleepmaxxing hacks designed to help you achieve peak rest.

Forget about your carbon footprint. Try ‘climatemaxxing.’

Grist