Antonia Liguori / Participatory Storytelling

Building Bridges: A New Partnership Between Teesside University and the University of Macerata

This week marked an important milestone in a journey that began almost a year ago with conversations, shared interests, academic exchange and a growing recognition that two universities from different countries had much to learn from one another.

I am delighted to share that Teesside University and the University of Macerata have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), creating a framework for collaboration in research, education and knowledge exchange. To formalise the MoU, I had the pleasure to meet Professor John McCourt, Rector of the University of Macerata and discuss more in detail the next phase of our collaboration. The partnership will support joint research projects, staff and student mobility, collaborative publications and new opportunities for international engagement.

Storytelling as a Transformative Practice: An Invitation to Think, Do, and Co-Create

On Monday the 15th of June at 4pm CEST (3pm UK time), I have contributed to an international webinar hosted by the TransPath Project, exploring a topic that has been central to my research and practice for many years: storytelling as a transformative practice.
This session brings together an interdisciplinary and international community to reflect on the relationships between people, water, and transformation, three deeply interconnected dimensions that invite us to reconsider how we engage with place, environment, and collective futures.

Photo from Antonia Liguori’s personal archive taken in Colombia
during a PARAMO project workshop in 2019

Beyond storytelling as representation
In much of my work, storytelling is not approached simply as a means of representation or communication. Instead, it is understood as a relational and participatory process that enables individuals and communities to make sense of their experiences, negotiate meaning, and imagine alternative possibilities.
Storytelling becomes transformative when it:

Creates spaces for voice and listening, particularly for under-represented perspectives,
Supports co-creation and shared authorship, rather than extractive narratives,
Acts as a catalyst for reflection, dialogue, and action.

New Book: Storytelling Research Methods. Meaning Making and Interdisciplinary Knowledges across Borders

I am very happy to share the publication of our new book, co-authored with Michael Wilson and Emily Underwood-Lee. This work brings together years of collaboration, experimentation, and dialogue across disciplines, cultures, and research traditions.

Storytelling Research Methods establishes the methods, subject matter, tonal qualities, and philosophical underpinnings of Storytelling Research, while distinguishing it from its close relatives in Narrative Research, Narrative Inquiry, Performance Research, Autoethnography, and Qualitative Methods. The book includes philosophical discussion of Storytelling Research alongside practical advice on how to conduct storytelling research and international case studies from storytellers, scholars, and thinkers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America examining how storytelling methods have been used in practice.

For me personally, this book continues an ongoing commitment to participatory storytelling as a way of working across borders – disciplinary, cultural, institutional, and civic – to co-create understanding and imagine more just futures.

More info on Routledge website.

New Book: Story Work for a Just Future

Delighted to announce the publication of our open access book Story Work for a Just Future: Exploring the Plurality of Knowledge and Method within the Digital Storytelling Community.

This collection from 47 authors in 15 countries represents the diverse voices of our international Digital Storytelling community, both in style and content. We hope it will inspire deeper connections, fruitful collaborations, and the creation and sharing of new stories that together will build a just future.

You can explore the book here: https://doi.org/10.5479/si.30758276

Very grateful to everyone who contributed to this important piece of work and to the Smithsonian Scholarly Press (SISP) for giving us the opportunity to publish with them.

12th International Digital Storytelling Conference: The playlist of the Virtual Sessions is now online

StoryCenter have just published the recordings of the virtual sessions at the 12th International Digital Storytelling Conference, including my opening talk on “Listening as a Duty. How Digital Storytelling transformed my life… and many others”.

This is the link to the full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOMFplNt-JE_F2VbDjS8NN6x-2TxlCtdg