Story

Call for Papers

Storytelling is inextricably linked to the history of human beings in a bewildering variety of oral and visual formats. Storytelling is a fundamental tool in recording personal, familial, communal and national narratives. But it can also be linked to a process of expressing and working through trauma, of breaking silence, of finding a voice for suffering and pain as witnessed in the growth of “communal digital storytelling” embodied, for example, in the rise of shared storytellings of trauma such as #MeToo and #TimesUp. The ability to tell other people about what has happened to you brings into focus the uses of storytelling as narrative therapy for traumatic experiences from childhood to adulthood as well as from the personal to the collective.

Storytelling and Trauma seeks to explore both Storytelling and Trauma with particular focus on the inter-relatedness of the two. Stories and images of trauma surround us all the time, to the point of almost desensitising us to the suffering of others and the empathy and compassion we should naturally feel. Storytelling and trauma forces us to face, confront and resolve the suffering and pain of others—a process that involves the acknowledging of the trauma/traumatic event, bearing witness and a working through the trauma and the disruption caused to and in their lives. Thus the response to Storytelling and Trauma engages all levels of human living and thinking, individually and collectively, locally and globally.

Bringing the two together implies an interdisciplinary engagement with a spectrum of disciplines, art forms, geographical and historical contexts as well as multi-lingual and multi-cultural perspectives. Our first global gathering aims to examine the dynamics of Storytelling and Trauma in all its permutations. We welcome and encourage interdisciplinary proposals from all disciplines, professions, NGOs, voluntary sector, artists, scholars, workers, professionals, musicians, to name a few. It is the aim of the conference meeting to provide an interdisciplinary nexus which binds all these layers of theories and practices together in a safe and respectful sharing space.

Unlike other conferences or gatherings, our Event proposes to step outside the traditional conference setting and offer opportunities for artists, photographers, practitioners, theorists, independent scholars, academics, performers, writers, and others to intermingle, providing platforms for interdisciplinary interactions that are fruitful and conducive to broadening horizons and sparking future projects, collaborations, and connections. We are excited to accept proposals for presentations, displays, exhibits, round tables, panels, interactive workshops and more. Below is an indicative but not exhaustive list of possible approaches, all of them residing at the point of connection between Storytelling and Trauma:

• Oral / written / visual narratives of identity, belonging, im/migrations
• Literary, artistic and filmic storytelling
• Life writing genres (autobiography, memoirs, letters, ethnography, etc.)
• Testimony as storytelling trauma: fiction vs. non-fiction, official history vs. reality
• Truth and Reconciliation
• Private and personal storytelling and trauma
• Public, political, religious, activist storytelling and trauma
• Social media: twitter, Facebook, Youtube
• Trauma and memory
• Writing trauma: healing and transformation
• Healing: survival and resilience; forgiveness and reconciliation
• Therapy
• Abuse, bullying; the workplace
• Dis/abilities
• Sex and sexuality; rape, sex crimes, gender crimes
• Empathy, allyship, solidarity, activism
• Popular culture and media
• Social justice and human rights: war, civil war, conflict
• Violence, torture, and atrocity
• Pedagogy, education, and social awareness
• Digital spaces
• Comics, graphic novels, animation
• Young adult literature; children stories
• Power, resistance, rebellion, revolution
• Shame, taboo, and suffering
• Wounding, loss, death, grief and mourning
• Spectral spaces, haunted geographies, memorialization
• Fake news

Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chair and the Project Administrator.

Organising Chair: Cristina Santos 

email: cristina@progressiveconnexions.net 

Project Administrator: budapeststory@progressiveconnexions.net