Ezra Grosz
Ezra was an intern at the Intellectual Forum in 2023. He is an undergraduate at Jesus College studying Geography.
Within his Geography degree, Ezra is interested in how understandings of nature influence the way in which we address the climate and ecological crisis. He is particularly interested in literary geographies and more-than-human geographies.
His research at the Intellectual Forum investigated eco-anxiety and climate-related emotions in higher education professionals, and their links to perceptions of institutional and government action.
Going forward, he hopes to pursue research on how literature can help us live through environmental change.
We spoke to Ezra about his project and about how his IF internship has prepared him to pursue research after university.
What are you working on?
I’m working with Sarah Steele to look at eco-anxiety in higher education professionals and the links between negative climate emotions and people’s perceptions of how much their institutions and governments are doing about the climate crisis. We’re looking specifically at those perceptions and the implications for how public policy is made around climate to bring a more human-focused lens into policy-making.
Who participated in the survey?
We tried to get as representative and diverse a sample as possible. By the time we closed the survey, we had over 500 responses with over 200 long-answer responses from a huge range of countries.
One thing that’s exciting about the data set is that we’ve over-collected in terms of scope. We’ve collected a lot of demographic information about age, gender, institution, sexuality, if someone considers themselves to be disabled, neurodiverse—lots of information that I’m not looking at this stage. We think there’s a lot more pieces of writing that can come out of this data.
What is eco-anxiety? Is it a constructive phrase to use to describe climate-related emotions?
On a personal level, I don’t think eco-anxiety best describes what I feel. I think I feel more ecological grief, and much more of a sense of sadness and loss. On a wider societal level, it doesn’t adequately capture the full set of entitled relations to land and land as more than human. But there is value to using it to talk about other emotions and emotions that might be more interesting, like for example eco-rage. I think eco-anxiety can be quite depoliticizing by its associations with individual mental health problems. The solution to eco-anxiety is not pathologizing it, nor is it telling individuals to go take action, but it’s to implement systemic changes that lead to changes in the environment, both the social and policy environment, but also in ecological conditions.
Were you surprised by any of the results?
I think our data feels very powerful. On the one hand that’s exciting, but on the other hand it’s a little bit scary because the levels of negative climate emotions are so high. The levels of betrayal, distrust, anger, lack of faith in government—we’re getting very high percentages across the board. It’s powerful data but it’s scary, especially since a lot of the responses we’ve had are from people who work in climate-related professions. If these people feel unheard by decision-makers, that’s concerning, as it suggests that the escalating risks that they're communicating are not being taken seriously. We don't want academics to become apathetic and disengage from their crucial environmental research - that leaves us all in a worse position.
What has the experience of doing this project been like for you?
I think my method has just been to throw myself in the deep end and figure stuff out. I’m going into third year and I have no research experience in writing papers and doing academic work at this calibre, so it’s been a bit of watching and learning what Sarah does. I’ve had to shed some of the Cambridge perfectionism and just write and trust my gut. I think as students we get trained to write in certain ways and get quite set in it. I’m okay arguing my point, but how do I make it meaningful and make sure that I’m actually contributing to something? It’s thinking in research mode and not student mode, which has been a shift.
How has the IF helped you carry out this work?
There are often a lot of opportunities in the sciences to do internships as a student, but there is a dearth of opportunities in the humanities for students to go get research experience and work very closely with professionals. I’m so grateful, even if it has felt like being thrown in the deep end at times, to have the kind of support and guidance and opportunities offered by the IF and Sarah. I think it’s been very good for my development in all senses and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested.
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