Researcher

Dr Rebecca Green

My Expertise

Influence of visual communication on trust, misinformation, climate change communication, the role of emotion in campaign messaging, visual symbols, sustainability and design

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Visual communication design (incl. graphic design), Sustainable design

Biography

Dr Rebecca Green (PhD) is a Lecturer and researcher at UNSW Art & Design (Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture) and an experienced graphic designer and illustrator. She has qualifications in graphic design and sociology. Her research into the visual communication of Climate Change highlights the significant influence that the language of graphic design can make on the uptake of, and trust in strategic climate messaging. As Academic Lead,...view more

Dr Rebecca Green (PhD) is a Lecturer and researcher at UNSW Art & Design (Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture) and an experienced graphic designer and illustrator. She has qualifications in graphic design and sociology. Her research into the visual communication of Climate Change highlights the significant influence that the language of graphic design can make on the uptake of, and trust in strategic climate messaging. As Academic Lead, 2021 Global Engagement Program at the International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA), this research is currently at the forefront of IUCA Global Climate Talks and University Hackathon environments. This research is key to similarly complex scientific issues such as vaccination uptake and COVID-19 messaging, and to types of misinformation prevalent on social media. Given the rapid advancement of digital media technology, which has led to the dominance of an even more image-based style of visual communication, the role of the graphic designer in translating these important messages becomes more important every day.

Rebecca has worked as a graphic designer for more than twenty years, moving to academia in 2012. Her experience extends from app design, websites, cartooning and interactive museum exhibitions to 2D and 3D animation, and a later move to sustainable design practice. She was recently selected to speak in a series of UNSW talks and interviews about visual communication in the digital space, predicting drastic change by 2020, with much of the world’s populations indoors and communicating on screen, and that climate change would become a much more salient issue. She has written articles on symbology in digital media, early visual communication of COVID, and on climate change communication.

 


My Grants

Gordon Andrews Scholarship, Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA), 2007

UNSW Philanthropic Grant for Early Career Researchers, 2021


My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (design and sociology), Queensland University of Technology  2016

Master of Design, Queensland College of Art (Griffith University)  2007

Associate Diploma of Art & Design (Graphic Design), Canberra Institute of Technology  1996

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)


My Awards

Griffith University Award for Academic Excellence (2007)

 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

I am currently available for joint supervision for candidates who are researching areas such as visual communication, graphic design, trust, sustainability, comics, climate change communication, semiotics, trust, aesthetic style and visual rhetoric. Other projects also be considered, especially traditional research projects involving qualitative and quantitative methodologies, phenomenology, cultural studies and visual analysis.

 

 


Currently supervising

Carly Hare
Typographic artefacts in film (PhD):
The aim of this research project is to make explicit how the role of graphic designer and graphic prop contribute to a fictional film’s visual narrative.

David Wilkins
Reducing Risk of Serious Injury in the commercial Aviation Industry: An exploration of Motion Capture and 3D visualisation design in immersive Virtual Reality Training (PhD)


My Engagement

Academic Lead, 2021 Global Engagement Program, International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA)

 


My Teaching

SDES9760 Introduction to Graphics Media

SDES9761 Contemporary Typography

DDES4101 Design Honours Studio Research Project 1

View less

Location

UNSW Art & Design
1-37 Greens Road
Paddington NSW 2031

Videos