Narrative Inquiry: Breathing Life into Talk, Text and the Visual is the title of a conference to be held in the Faculty of Education on 22 and 23 February 2008.

Narrative Conference for 2008

November 20th, 2007

A burgeoning interest in narrative theory and practice is evident in virtually every area of the human sciences and related professions. One of the reasons for this increased interest is that stories and their analysis can document experiences whilst acting as a catalyst for personal and social change in the lives of those who participate in the process. Stories record, challenge, shape and propel our lives. They can provide an important platform for giving voice to those who are marginalised. As such, narrative inquiry meets the demands of many in the humanities and social sciences regarding empowerment and change in the personal, social and political arenas.

Stories may be spoken, written or expressed in a visual form. More recently, a turn to the visual has meant that researchers are now working with visual images and technologies towards the same ends. The conference will provide opportunities to explore the ways in which stories, whether spoken, written or visual, can be understood and analysed from a narrative perspective.

The keynote speaker will be Professor Catherine Riessman of Boston College, an acclaimed teacher and internationally renowned researcher. The focus of Professor Riessman’s work over a number of decades has been on issues of narrative identity, examining interrupted lives where events have disrupted expectations of continuity. She has studied the narrative accounts that men and women develop to make sense of biographical disruptions such as chronic illness, divorce and infertility. She examines personal accounts as stories that can illuminate the social sources of “private troubles” by drawing connections between biography and society, revealing how identities are constructed narratively.

Professor Riessman has written widely in the field, including three books and numerous articles and book chapters. Narrative Analysis, her well-known 1993 volume, has been widely used across graduate courses in qualitative research methodology across the world. Her much awaited revision of this book, Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, published by SAGE, will be released late in 2007. For further details go to http://www2.bc.edu/~riessman/

Experts in the field, early career researchers and postgraduate students are encouraged to attend. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted by 10 December 2007 (see link to website). This conference is sponsored by the Faculty of Education, CYIRC (Children and Youth Interdisciplinary Research Centre) and LNL (Learning and the Learner). For further information about the conference contact Dr Gillian Vogl: gillian@uow.edu.au.

Last reviewed: 17 December, 2007