Story-making workshop
Are you a scientist, a researcher in the arts, humanities, or the social sciences interested in Antarctica or wider issues of climate change?
Are you interested in exploring, in a friendly environment, artistic ways to think about your research?
Are you interested in exploring how non-human perspectives and elements such as ice, water, rock, scientific data and equipment, animal lives, historical artefacts, and artistic responses can be included in a collaborative story-making process?
Would you like to join a free, five-day story-making workshop in Oxford, starting on Monday 7th April 2025? (No prior experience with story-making is required.)
Register your interest by 20th December 2024 using our online form.
What is story-making?
Story-making is a method of creative practice as research. It involves elements of story structure and iterates between versions of stories and modes of expression. Stories may be told through writing, visuals, sounds, movements, or objects, both digital and tactile. The story you make will be yours, and you can decide when and if the story will be shared outside of the workshop process.
What will the workshop involve?
During the workshop, you will be invited to take part in various creative activities designed to help you devise, refine, and craft a story about a more-than-human aspect of Antarctica of your choice. These activities might be individual or collaborative, and could include drawing, painting, collage, writing, working in small groups to dramatise a story, dancing, making objects, digital photography, audio recording and digital animation. There are many possibilities, and we are looking for makers who are open to experimentation and critical reflection.
What are the benefits of taking part?
- As well as helping to explore how story-making methodologies can be adapted to the stories of non-human entities, your contribution will help lay the foundations for wider questions about interdisciplinary research on Antarctica and climate change.
- If you choose, you can share your story with your networks to stimulate discussion on issues and questions that are important to you.
- As a story-maker, you will be invited to screen your story during a symposium at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing in June 2025.
- We also hope you will find your participation in the project interesting, enjoyable, and beneficial to your research and/or creative practice. The workshop and symposium may spark new ideas for you and introduce you to people you might not otherwise meet.
Who is leading the workshop?
The workshop will be co-produced and facilitated by Dr Katherine Collins and Dr Joanna Wheeler.
What are the goals of the research?
Until now, storytelling and story-making research has concentrated on human stories. However, in this workshop, we want to explore how the methodology can be adapted to tell stories of non-human entities and objects. By this, we mean a story that draws on your experiences and knowledge but also uses your creativity and imagination to represent nonhuman elements as integral to the overall story. We hope to demonstrate the potential of more-than-human story-making in answering wider research questions on extractivism in Antarctica and through Antarctica.
This workshop is funded by a British Academy Wellcome Trust Small Research Grant, reference: SRG24\240086.
Approved by the Social Sciences and Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee at the University of Oxford, reference: R94093/RE001.
Logistics
- Workshop dates: Monday 7th to Friday 11th April 2025.
- Workshop location: Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building (access information).
- Catering costs for the workshop are covered but we cannot cover travel expenses.
How to apply
Register your interest by 20th December 2024 using our online form.
We will be in touch in January 2025.
