The purpose of Responses to Greta Thunberg in International Media is to engage undergraduate students in teaching and learning about youth climate/environmental activism as well as writing and rhetoric through a comparative cultural lens. The project was established in 2020 through a Directed Undergraduate Research course at St. Olaf College. The first cohort of students developed introductory lessons on Greta Thunberg’s activism and rhetoric, as well as an introductory lesson on climate change. These lessons were developed with a young audience (Grades 7–12) in mind. The lessons were piloted by a group of students from Arcadia Charter School in Northfield, Minnesota. This group of students also conducted the initial research that led to the development of a publicly available Zotero library that serves as a database of opinion writing on Thunberg and Fridays for Future.
This database was then expanded during a Collaborative Undergraduate Research Institute project that was carried out in summer 2022. Three undergraduate students edited, sorted, and expanded the Zotero library, which now includes folders for opinion pieces originating from different countries, enabling research on how Thunberg’s activism has been received in different social and cultural contexts.