Dr. Aurora MacRae-Crerar is a lecturer in Penn’s Critical Writing Program. Skilled at making complex and technical topics accessible to mainstream audiences, “Dr. Mac” has written extensively for mainstream media on everything from the signals of blue whales and double-crossing ants, to the engineering design process, along with presenting and publishing scientific research in such journals as Nature and Science. She earned her doctorate in biology from Penn, where she studied soil microbes and climate change in Mongolia. She is the recipient of NSF, EPA, and AAAS Fellowships, and has shared her research with diverse audiences, from preschoolers to prison inmates. A skillful writer and teacher, Dr. Mac has taught writing and conducted writing workshops on and off Penn’s campus. An experienced author of a wide range of genres, from grant proposals and academic papers to science news stories for the NPR station of Northern California, she is known for her inspiring teaching as she draws upon her writing and science background to present the fundamentals and subtleties of writing for a range of audiences and venues.
PROW 1000: Fundamentals of Professional Writing
Science Accessibility in India | Fulfills writing seminar requirement
Spring 2025
Critical Writing; School of Arts and Sciences
Travel to India
Priority will be given to first-year students, but all students (except graduating seniors) who have not yet taken a writing seminar are eligible to apply.
India is home to an incredible amount of diversity, from its abundant wildlife to its kaleidoscope of cultures. In the face of global warming, this dynamic country is experiencing significant change. In this writing seminar, we will hone our science communication skills across international borders in order to explore the intertwined effects of climate and culture in India and beyond. To ground the course, we will read the book Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis by Vandana Shiva, an internationally acclaimed environmental activist. As a Penn Global Seminars course, we will travel to Navdanya, the eco-education farm Shiva founded outside the city of Dehradun, India during spring break. From her farm to the city, we will meet with a diverse range of people including organic farmers, scientists and politicians fighting for a better world in the face of climate change. Located in the foothills of the Himalayas, Dehradun is home to the Wildlife Institute of India and the Forest Research Institute, which we will also tour as part of the course. We will take the lessons learned from our visits to Navdanya Farm and other ecologically focused institutions to inform how we discuss the impacts of climate change with diverse audiences, including yoga practitioners and visually impaired high school students from the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities, one of India’s the premier institutions promoting inclusive disability practices.