Preferred Name
Kristopher Samuel
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-6-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
School of Communication Studies
Advisor(s)
Pete Bsumek
Paul Mabrey
Carlos Alemán
Abstract
In 2019, Greta Thunberg delivered her “How Dare You” speech that captivated the social and political world. Throughout her speech she tethered ideas of extinction, future generations, and coalitional movements. These topics encouraged the Political and Social world to contemplate the reality of climate crisis and generated support for the Youth Climate Movement. However, Thunberg garnered a lot of attention that ultimately overshadowed the worksof other youth activists, particularly BIPOC activists. I analyze the rhetoric of fellow climate activists Hilda Nakabuye and Autumn Peltier utilizing psychoanalytic terms and analysis. Nakabuye and Peltier advocate for climate justice through a lens of racialization and experience with the climate crisis. Psychoanalysis is utilized because their rhetoric wrestles with anxiety and loss of self-hood. Moreover, I wrestle with the differences that occur within these three rhetors and ultimately point to their rhetoric as producing a “coalitional moment,” in which the three rhetors are able to produce a unified movement.
Recommended Citation
Samuel, Kristopher, "Youth as coalitional possibility in the Youth Climate Movement: An analysis of the climate justice rhetoric of Hilda Nakabuye, Autumn Peltier, & Greta Thunberg" (2021). Masters Theses, 2020-current. 106.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029/106
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons
