Chloé Alexandra Wake

Dr Chloé Wake

Small Group Project 2021-22

Exploring youth-led imaginaries during climate crisis

How do young people orient themselves towards climate change and debates on climate change responses? This interdisciplinary group project investigates how literature and politics enrich one another, leading to new understandings of the relation of young people to the climate crisis. This project brings together the co-investigators, Dr Chloé Germaine Buckley and Dr Benjamin Bowman, who have expertise in youth literature and politics, with a small group of young people as co-researchers to analyse the role of creative fiction in the development of political subjectivities and attitudinal transformation.

More information

Research outcomes

Hayes, T., Walker, C., Parsons, K. J., Arya, D., Bowman, B., Buckley, C. G., Lock, R., Langford, S. C., Peacock, S., & Thew, H. (2022).

In it together! Cultivating space for intergenerational dialogue, empathy and hope in a climate of uncertainty. Children s Geographies, 21(5), 803–818.

Areas of interest

English Literature Creative Writing Game Studies Climate Change Culture Climate Crisis Literary Criticism Literary Theory Children's Literature

Cohort

FG7

Biography

Dr Chloé Alexandra Wake is a Reader in the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she researches and teaches across Literature, Creative Writing, and Game Studies. She is Co-Director of the Manchester Game Centre, a cross-faculty research group bringing together work on games from across the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business and Management, Environmental Sciences, and Computer Science. Her research investigates how culture, creativity, and play can address climate change and other social issues, with a particular focus on the imaginative challenges posed by environmental crisis and feelings of powerlessness among marginalised groups. Since completing her PhD in literary studies in 2016, she has developed expertise across three interconnected areas: literary criticism and theory, applied in Gothic Studies and Children's Literature; co-production and participatory research methods in support of young people's climate politics; and Game Studies, where she is building a reputation in game design for sustainability and social impact.

Biographical details correct as of 27.04.26