During their first year away at NYU Madrid, Class of 2026 students Emily Wang and Emma Gómez Domingo coauthored and published an article on climate communications with liberal studies professor and energy humanities researcher Dr. Daniel Wuebben. The article, “Diverging Paths, Converging Goals: Framing Crisis to Kairos in Bill Gates’ and Greta Thunberg’s Climate Discourse,” was issued in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Research & Social Science.
The article presents nine climate communication frames for analyzing nonfiction books about climate issues. The vast array of published writings on the climate crisis, many of which use different approaches to tackle the issue, inspired Wuebben to pursue this research, with Bill Gates’ and Greta Thunberg’s works as primary examples. “What particularly fascinated me was how two such different voices—Gates with his techno-optimism and Thunberg with her moral urgency—could contribute to this conversation in complementary ways,” says Wuebben. “Their contrasting approaches offered a solid case study in how different rhetorical strategies reach different audiences.”
Wuebben noticed Emily and Emma’s enthusiasm for this topic right away during classroom discussions at NYU Madrid. Their coursework evolved into a research project that continued even after the semester’s end. “Emily and Emma showed a keen interest in understanding how different rhetorical approaches could mobilize different audiences,” Wuebben says. “This aligned well with what I hoped to explore in comparing these two voices in climate communication.”
The three continued to meet when the class ended to keep their research and analysis in motion. “We discussed the qualitative codes applied to each chapter of Gates’ and Thunberg’s books, and then I asked them to draft specific sections of the article,” explains Wuebben. “What impressed me most was their ability to maintain momentum even after the semester ended.”
Emily, a Public Policy and Data Science double major, and Emma, a Global Public Health and Nursing major, presented their research at the Undergraduate Research Conference in New York City last spring after returning from their first year away. In response to the achievement of the two students, NYU Madrid Director James D. Fernández remarks: “Our top-notch faculty and small class size allow us to foster undergraduate research, even though students are only here for a semester or a year. Emily and Emma’s accomplishment—publishing an article in a top-tier journal as first-year undergrads—is truly extraordinary.”
Eager to find satisfying responses to the climate crisis, Wuebben believes more undergraduate students can and should write for publication. For students at NYU Madrid, he is there to offer mentorship. “I’ve been fortunate to share classroom discussions with exceptional students,” he says. “I hope I can keep providing a little initiative and guidance so they take advantage of opportunities to earn and share hope.”