Brigitte Nerlich
Abstract
In this presentation I will explore the nature of communication during extreme weather events, examining both practical information-sharing strategies and the underlying metaphorical language patterns that shape our understanding and response. Based on four case studies of recent disasters— the 2021 German floods, 2022 New Mexico wildfires, 2024 Valencia floods, and 2025 Southern California fires—I discuss how in/effective crisis communication operates on multiple levels.
I will first address practical communication challenges, community engagement approaches, and the timing of climate change discussions during disasters. In a second part, I examine the linguistic frameworks through which we conceptualize these events. I focus on the use of both traditional metaphorical mappings, where human or animal attributes are mapped onto disaster events, and on what I call 'reverse metaphorical mappings', where attributes of natural disasters are mapped onto descriptions of social responses, for example solidarity or discord. By integrating insights from communication studies and cognitive linguistics, I attempt to understand and, if possible, improve, crisis communication during extreme weather events and to contribute to community resilience in an era of increasing climate instability.
Biography
Brigitte Nerlich is Emeritus Professor of Science, Language and Society at the Institute for Science and Society at the University of Nottingham's School of Sociology and Social Policy. She studied French and philosophy in Germany and gained a DrPhil in French linguistics. After a postdoc in general linguistic at Oxford, she came to Nottingham, where she moved into the field of Science and Technology Studies and gained a DLitt. Her research focuses on the cultural and political contexts in which metaphors and other framing devices are used in public, policy and scientific debates around climate change, infectious diseases, genetics, genomics, synthetic biology, epigenetics and nanotechnology. She has been writing a blog 'Making Science Public' since 2012 and her publications can be found on ORCID.
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