Current Research



Biodiversity loss is a major environmental issue worldwide and Australian threatened species are in particular need of conservation research and management. Successful threatened species conservation often depends on public support in the form of individual behaviour change, provision of funds to research or conservation groups, or advocacy. In order to secure public support, message design is increasingly being used by organisations to encourage pro-conservation attitudes and behaviours, including framing, strategic and persuasive communications techniques. Yet research into appropriate strategies is lacking for biodiversity conservation.

My PhD research explores strategic communications as an avenue for increasing public engagement with threatened species conservation, with focussed work on:

  1. Ethical considerations for conservation messaging
  2. Identifying psychological barriers preventing public engagement with biodiversity conservation
  3. The influence of species common names on audience willingness to conserve species
  4. How we can think more strategically about communications planning and design for biodiversity (e.g. how do we talk about COVID-19 and nature together?)

Throughout this interdisciplinary conservation science project I use a strategic communication lens; however, I also draw from other relevant disciplines, such as behaviour change, social marketing, conservation psychology, and ecolinguistics. I aim to frame my research in a way that is directly relevant and as useful as possible to on-ground conservation organisations, and to the threatened species they are working to protect.

Other research interests:

  1. Whether the use of passive language and nominalisations (e.g. habitat loss) reduces agency and perceptions of risk and importance around biodiversity loss
  2. Audience segmentation for improved audience understanding and targeting of conservation messages (e.g. Situational Theory of Publics)