Anat Shenker-Osorio is a communications consultant, researcher, and author, who applies tools from cognitive science and linguistics in her work with progressive organizations globally. She believes the current crisis in human rights results in part from poor framing and choice of language on the part of advocates, who have failed to provide a clear values-based pitch to animate and sustain support for these rights. As part of her fellowship project, she will analyze materials from advocacy, opposition, traditional media, social media, and popular culture, in order to reveal promising and problematic frames and word choices. She is also conducting a series of in-depth interviews with a variety of subjects to identify promising metaphors that will avoid the traps of current practice and embolden base audiences to prioritize human rights while persuading skeptics toward their view.
In addition to running her own firm, ASO Communications, she is the author of Don't Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About the Economy. She has advised the AFL-CIO, the Democracy Alliance, Centre for Australian Progress, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and the State and House Democratic Caucuses (US) on messaging and narrative strategy. Shenker-Osorio has an MA in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, extensive training in applied cognitive linguistics, and a BA from Columbia University.
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