A performance by writer and singer Samira Dainan will kick off a conference of four days on stories and storytelling at the Grolsch Veste in Enschede on Monday 2 July. During “Narrative Matters: The ABCs of Narrative” scientists and artists from 35 countries investigate the role that stories play in our society. Stories are not only innocent fun, but they can also be of vital importance. Stories can be used to distort the truth, but are also much needed to improve the world. But how do stories actually work? Why are stories to be regarded as essential for our humanity? And does it matter whether a story is told in the old-fashioned way around a campfire, or with the latest technology?
Psychologists, sociologists, literary scientists, computer scientists, philosophers, pedagogues, health scientists, historians and artists will discuss these questions during the conference. Through a varied selection of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and interactive sessions they look at how stories can make a difference in care, education and society.
Understanding ourselves
In addition, internationally renowned experts will give keynote speeches about the role of stories in our society. Lora Aroyo (Free University Amsterdam) explains how crowdsourcing can involve the public in research, so that the outcome is not unambiguous and simplifying, but rather complex and consisting of many individual interpretations of stories. Halleh Gorashi (Free University Amsterdam) shows that stories can offer a counterweight to the exclusion of migrants and refugees. Arie Rip (University of Twente) deals with the question how stories form part of maintenance and change in social and moral orders. John Bateman (University of Bremen) shows the possibilities and limitations of telling stories in different media, from language and images to computer games. Marco Caracciolo (University of Ghent) and Daniel Hutto (University of Wollongong, Australia) are discussing whether stories can contribute to a better understanding of ourselves and others, led by Mark Freeman (College of the Holy Cross, USA).
Story lab
Narrative Matters is a biennial international conference that focuses on the state of the art in research on stories and applications of stories in healthcare, education and society. The theme "the ABCs of narrative" refers to the role of alpha, beta and gamma sciences in a better understanding of stories, but also to learning to make use of stories in a responsible way. The conference was organized by the Story Lab of the University of Twente in collaboration with the University of Groningen.
