Camillia Matuk

Personal information

First name

Camillia

Last name

Matuk

Institutional affiliation

Northwestern University

Narratological interest

I am interested in the stories that the general public use or construct in order to explain and understand science. I study how visual representations can elicit or reinforce certain kinds of narratives, and thus certain kinds of understandings. Currently, I am researching the interaction between culturally shared canonical narratives of scientific concepts - folk theories of science, such as those of evolution, or of how viruses make people sick - and people's interpretations of visual representations (e.g., animations, diagrams, illustrations, sequential art, etc.). In short, how do visual representations affect folk narrative explanations of science, and how can they be better designed to facilitate understanding of scientific concepts?