Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power Book Launch with Dr. Hanna E. Morris
When and Where
Speakers
Description
The School of the Environment invites you to join us on Thursday, September 18th, 2025 from 5 PM - 7 PM in the Earth Hub Lobby (5 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 3J1) as Dr. Hanna E. Morris discusses her new book Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power.
If you have any questions, or require any accommodations due to accessibility, please contact events.environment@utoronto.ca
About the Book
In Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power (Oxford University Press, 2025), climate media scholar Hanna E. Morris (University of Toronto) reveals how national anxieties following the presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016 have shaped American journalistic and political interpretations of climate change in ways that severely limit how it has come to be known, imagined, and contended with. Looking at climate change reporting across prominent and ideologically diverse U.S. news publications over the past decade, the book traces how news media create an illusion of control in the present through nostalgic and heroic stories of the past. Morris identifies a new mode of reactionary politics called "apocalyptic authoritarianism" to describe the post-2016 alignment of historically privileged figures united by a common enemy of the "new" New Left and a shared appeal to fears of "total crisis." Their antidemocratic paradigm portends national and planetary disarray if progressive social and climate justice "warriors" are not controlled at home and if "unruly masses" of climate migrants are not contained abroad. In addition to contending with the implications of apocalyptic authoritarianism, Morris also calls for more robust forms of climate journalism and politics capable of facilitating—not impeding—radically democratic responses to climate change.
Purchase a discounted copy of Apocalyptic Authoritarianism online
Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power will be available for purchase at the event. You can also buy a copy online ahead of the launch event using this link (Use code AUFLY30 for 30% off)
About the Speaker
Hanna E. Morris is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto and co-chair of the Critical Studies of Climate Media, Discourse, and Power Working Group a part of Brown University's Climate Social Science Network. Her research concentrates on the climate-media-democracy nexus and explores critical questions of power and meaning-making around climate change. She co-edited the book titled Climate Change and Journalism: Negotiating Rifts of Time (Routledge, 2021) and has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals including Climatic Change, WIREs Climate Change, Environmental Communication, Journal of Language and Politics, Journal of Environmental Media, Media Theory, and Politique Américaine.
Event Agenda
| 5:00 PM - 5:10 PM | Opening Remarks and Land Acknowledgment |
| 5:10 PM - 5:45 PM | Book Talk |
| 5:45 PM - 6:00 PM | Q&A Session |
| 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Reception and Book Sale |
Event Poster
The Sustainability Office awards this event with a Platinum Sustainable Event certification.
To learn more about Sustainablility on Campus please see the Sustainable Change Programs offered through the Sustainability Office.