Hello everyone! My name is Kate Nicole Hoffman, and I’m so excited to be the new postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Public Engagement with Science (PEWS). I’m grateful to Meg Corcoran, the previous postdoc, for all of her amazing work with the Center, and for helping me to get set up. I’m looking forward to continuing and expanding her efforts, as well as thinking up new initiatives that will further the reach and impact of PEWS.
Like several of the people involved with managing PEWS, I’m a philosopher by trade. I recently received my PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where I worked primarily in environmental philosophy and philosophy of science. I received my MA in Philosophy at York University in Toronto, and my BA in Philosophy and Music (classical voice) at SUNY Potsdam and the Crane School of Music.
A lot of people think of philosophy as a rather isolated and sedentary endeavor. As much as I love my armchair philosophizing, my experience as a philosopher has been much more active. I wrote my dissertation on concepts of nature and naturalness, exploring what it means for humans to have a healthy relationship with the non-human world in the modern day. I was interested not only in the more theoretical aspects of that question (are humans fully part of nature, or is there a sense in which we have broken with the rest of the natural world?) but also the more practical. How can we investigate people’s current relationships with nature, and what will it take to make those relationships stronger and healthier?
This question took me to the Galápagos Islands, where I piloted a project which used street theater to help kids connect with and share local stories of cultural and environmental importance. Elders in the community would tell their stories to a group of local kids and teens, who would then be guided into creating their own plays based on those stories. It’s perhaps an unconventional way of engaging the public on environmental issues, but, as someone with a background in music, theater, and dance, I’ve become increasingly interested in the potential of the arts to act as a bridge connecting the public with both environmentalism (more specifically) and science (more broadly). Back home in Philadelphia, I collaborated with a poet to develop a series of workshops that used arts-based techniques to encourage creative thinking about our environmental future. I also worked with the Resilience Frontiers Initiative, a project sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to design a pavilion on arts and environmentalism for COP28.
My experience doing this kind of work has made me a true believer in one of PEWS’ core tenets: that engaging the public in scientific questions, environmental or otherwise, is not just a matter of cramming facts down someone’s throat (more professionally put as the “deficit model” of public engagement with science). Instead, the interface between science and the public involves trust, collaboration, and, I believe, creativity. I’m looking forward to bringing my own experience and interests to the table in my new role as a PEWS postdoc, while also using this as an opportunity to engage more deeply with PEWS’ unique model of public engagement and science communication.
One of the things that I’m most excited about is getting to know PEWS’ many partners and collaborators across both UC and the community. I am eager to learn more about the important work being done throughout Greater Cincinnati, and to get involved in whatever ways I can.
Let’s be in touch! If you’d like to learn more about PEWS and opportunities for collaboration, or would like to just touch base and say hello, please email me at engagingscience@ucmail.uc.edu.
