Monthly Archives: January 2015

Why beliefs matter with climate change

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

I wish I knew more about climate change. Problem is I’m occupied with discourse—the stories we grab from headlines, television and Twitter. How do we (I mean discourse) talk about climate change? What occurs in my circles is the sheer … Continue reading →

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Uncle Silverback

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

Uncles are important in my family. My mother had two brothers and my father had four, and uncles would hang out at our house, bringing doughnuts and helping with weekend chores. In the Osage language the word for father is … Continue reading →

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Missing truths

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

As a kid growing up in Southern California (we moved overseas when I was 10) we visited missions that dot the west, built by Spanish priests centuries ago. I remember the missions reverently: made of adobe and tile that cooled … Continue reading →

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Name your demon

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

I heard a comic declare, “no good story ever began with the phrase I was eating a salad.” My story begins in the bathroom, not at the dinner table. I was lounging in a hot bath and catching up on … Continue reading →

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The problem with science communication

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

The problem with science communication is that its essence is tethered to the premise that people are rational and want to make rational choices. In fact, our communication is based on the premise that if you provide people with the … Continue reading →

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Science as a verb

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

When I looked into how the news stories were framed over the Havasupai case, I learned that science is used as a verb. Sciencing—an ersatz verb—means to science, I argue. Here’s an example: in the Havasupai case, the Indians of … Continue reading →

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But is it science?

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Cynthia Coleman Emery

The movement among scholars of science communication—non-Indian and Indians alike—has been to elevate Native science to the same level as Western science. Like Laurie Anderson’s song, typically science is considered Big Science. Science with a capital S. Native science, on … Continue reading →

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