Research Seminar - Designing engagement for coral reef rescue

Designing engagement for coral reef rescue

Presented by: A/Prof Elske van de Fliert and Dr Skye Doherty

Date: Friday 8 August 2025
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)

Abstract

The Coral Reef Rescue project aims to foster community resilience in countries where ocean conditions mean coral reefs are less exposed to climate change stress. These ‘climate refuge reefs’ are concentrated in six countries – Fiji, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Indonesia, Tanzania and Madagascar – and the core objective the CRR project is to strengthen community capacity to ensure the survival of both the reefs and the people who depend on them. This year, the Centre for Communication and Social Change was contracted by UQ International Development to design and deliver a series of workshops for country teams to help them develop communication and engagement strategies for national hubs tasked with delivering the broader project. The CfCSC team ran three communication strategy co-design workshops focused on designing communication for social change. Over three days, participants learned methods for engaging stakeholders, imagining futures and reframing issues, and identified the components needed for an effective communication and engagement strategy within their respective contexts. In this seminar, we outline the project, how we combined approaches from social change and design, and offer insights from participant evaluations. We will also discuss how a consultancy exercise like this can contribute to our ongoing research. 

Presenters

Elske van de Fliert is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Arts and Director of the Centre for Communication and Social Change, The University of Queensland (UQ). She came to academia after two decades working in research, development, and teaching positions in international organisations in the Global South. Her research focuses on the analysis of frameworks for participatory communication for social change, and models for transdisciplinary research for development and impact assessment. Her work finds application across several disciplinary fields, in particular, rural and community development, agriculture, and energy poverty.

Skye Doherty is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication and Arts at UQ. She uses creative and design-led research methods to explore alternative futures and address wicked problems. Her work has addressed issues in bushfire resilience, water security, journalism, law, education, and energy, among others and has led to both conceptual and practical outcomes. She leads the Global Change Scholars Program for the UQ Graduate School and is a member of the Human-Centred Computing Research Group in the School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.