Using Digital Storytelling to Unlock Grassroots Knowledge

Dr. Antonia Liguori, Lecturer in Applied Storytelling, School of the Arts, English and Drama, Loughborough University, UK, and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow, Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, will lead a two-part Inclusion Imperative Humanities Teaching Lab on digital storytelling and community-engaged research.

Psychologist Jerome Bruner said that narrative is a “principle by which people organize their experience in, knowledge about, and transactions with the social world.” Stories make information more understandable, memorable, and persuasive, unlocking grassroots knowledge and using the power of emotions to shape decisions. Digital storytelling has also emerged as an effective action research method to engage communities in collective participation and action, grounded in their sense of place and their distinctive cultural knowledge. As a tool, digital storytelling can challenge hierarchies of expertise, amplify unheard voices, and convey important emotions.

On Thursday, February 7th, Dr. Liguori will present a public talk on her journey in co-designing and developing digital storytelling projects that foster collective participation in knowledge production and activism. Based on her work with communities across the globe, Dr. Liguori will offer insight into the potential for digital storytelling to unlock shared knowledge and address critical issues such as climate change, public health, and refugee rights. She will reflect on a recent project that combined digital storytelling with songwriting as a way of translating individual stories about people’s relationship to place into something meaningful for the whole community.