The Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media works with an exceptional group of student researchers in various capacities. We aim to foster interest in the science of communicating climate change science and adjacent research areas. We have a rich variety in research topics and projects amongst our student researchers. Please see below for more on our current undergraduate and graduate student research projects.

Undergraduate Research

Annika Sheridan
Undergraduate Research PURM Intern Summer 2024
Research Project: Annika is interested in the intersection of political affiliation and climate change perceptions/beliefs. Annika’s project focused on evaluating the differences in tweet content based on certain location variables such as state political affiliation, climate change vulnerability index, and coastal versus inland states. Specifically, she used tweet content from Twitter data to research how belief in the climate crisis, sentiment, willingness to support pro-climate policy, etc., differs based on regional differences.
Bio: Annika Sheridan is an undergraduate summer research assistant working for the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media through the Penn Undergraduate Research Center (PURM). She is a rising junior pursuing a dual major in Environmental Studies, concentrating on sustainability and environmental management, and Economics, minoring in Spanish. Her specific interests include shifting the conversation away from doom-and-gloom messaging, climate anxiety, and addressing the ever worsening water crisis.

Graduate Research

Lotus Kaufman
Undergraduate Research Intern Summer 2023 & Current MES Student
Research Project: Lotus is interested in the polarization and politicization of climate change science and communication. Her project focuses on climate change communication on social media before and after major platform policy changes. Lotus has rolled her Summer 2023 project into her MES Capstone project and will be working with PCSSM to conduct the research.
Bio: Lotus Kaufman is a second year student in the Master of Environmental Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania. Lotus was the undergraduate summer research assistant for the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media in Summer 2023. She holds a B.A. in Communication with a Politics and Policy concentration from Penn (Class of 2024). Her interests lie in the ways climate communication has contributed to the political polarization of climate change and strategies to bridge the partisan divide.

Emily Stephens
Current MES Student
Research Project: Emily is interested in highlighting the critical role of trust in shaping Gen Z’s engagement with sustainability-focused influencers on social media platforms. Her project intends to demonstrate a comprehensive exploration of the factors influencing trustworthiness in social media influencers that specialize in sustainability, “green” influencers, and how successful they are at changing intentions to adopt sustainable behaviors.
Bio: Emily is a second year student in the Master of Environmental Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Sustainability. Her interests include corporate sustainability, climate change communication, value creation, and sustainability reporting. She has a professional background in public relations and received her B.A. in Communication Rhetoric from the University of Pittsburgh. She hopes to leverage these skills to explore the ways in which we communicate about sustainability and how we can influence companies and the public to become more involved in environmental sustainability.