Microbes Making Misinformation: Flipping the Script on Science Communication for AMR

I was thrilled to be invited to lead an interactive workshop yesterday for the 2025 Global AMR Youth Summit, organized by the World Health Students’ Alliance. 

"The Global AMR Youth Summit will unite students and young professionals from health, agricultural, and life sciences to advance a unified One Health response to AMR. 

Under the theme 'Innovate. Integrate. Implement: Youth Driving One Health Action on AMR,' the Summit shifts focus from awareness to accountability—empowering youth to engage in national AMR action plans, influence policy, and lead community initiatives. 

Aligned with World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2025, the event calls on young leaders worldwide to drive innovation, collaboration, and action to protect our shared future from AMR."

The interactive workshop "Microbes Making Misinformation: Flipping the Script on Science Communication for AMR" engaged medical, dental, veterinary and pharmacy students from around the world. 

250+ participants was by far the largest group I've ever led on a "citizen science fiction" adventure, and it was an inspiration to hear their intensely creative ideas on how microbes could conduct "Bio PsyOps" against humans, making memes and misinformation to accelerate antimicrobial resistance. 

Here's hoping none of them go viral!

Resistance Reimagined: Storytelling Meets Science

I'm excited to be convening an event for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week featuring two leading science museum curators and three creative teams that emerged from our powerhouse workshop Through the Petri Glass at Wellcome in London exactly one year ago. 

"Awareness alone isn’t enough. We need connection. This session showcases how artists, designers, and storytellers are inspiring action through creative approaches that bring AMR to life. 

Through the Art x AMR initiative at the Global Strategy Lab and Immersive Storytelling Lab, comics, games, and immersive storytelling are transforming complex science into shared understanding and collective motivation. These creative voices remind us that art can move hearts as powerfully as data moves minds, helping people everywhere see that their choices and actions matter."

Our incredible lineup of artists and storytellers will include Kanpong Boonthaworn, Julian Brigstocke, Bhakti Chavan, Rosie Hunter, Lucinda Jarrett, Madhushree Kamak, Sara Kenney, Vanessa Carter, Mercy Kukundakwe, Becky McCall, Danielle Olsen, Sheldon Paquin, Rob Purdie, Emily Scott-Dearing, Sarah Hyder Iqbal, Michael Mensah-Bonsu, and Mairéad Ruane.

Join us by registering for the November 20th webinar here: 

https://amrpolicy.org/events/world-amr-awareness-week/

Electronic Literature Organization Conference

For its 25th anniversary, the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) held an international in-person conference and media arts festival themed “Love Letters to the Past and Future.” 

ELO25 @ 25 was a joint hosting between the University of Waterloo and York University, and I had a blast helping our fearless leaders Caitlin Fisher and Lai-Tze Fan coordinate it. 

ELO@25

I also led a workshop on the first day at the University of Waterloo titled "The Undergrid: DIY VFX for Citizen Science Fiction," the first public event for my new project! 

Huge thanks to Sean Sollé and Rhys Mendes for thinking through the tinkering with me, even if at the last moment I decided to go with off-the-shelf components from Ikea on this initial outing, to keep the number of variables in check. 

Here's the abstract for the workshop: