Stories to Live By: Narrative and Identity

Organised in the beautiful city of Groningen (Netherlands), this interdisciplinary, week-long course is meant for students and professionals in the arts, literature, theology, philosophy, business, journalism, psychology, coaching, politics, and any other field in which narrative and storytelling play a role.

The context for our winter school is an increasing body of research, across academic disciplines, on how narrative serves as a means to map how we relate to ourselves and to the world around us. Meanwhile, outside the academy, storytelling has become the focus of attention in many professional practices, such as psychology, counselling, medicine and health, and journalism. These practices put to work the fact that when we express who we are, in relation to what and whom, we often tend to do so through storytelling. Our perception of ourselves, of others, and of our place in the world, becomes meaningful through the stories we tell, and those that are told to us. Thus, narrative and identity – both personal and collective - are strongly intertwined.

The winter school is devoted to studying the many forms and shapes of narrative identity in a wide variety of media and settings and from different perspectives. With an intensive, week-long programme that also pays attention to the potentially negative effects of narratives on our sense of self, we will be offering participants an enticing week. The Winter School will be closed by a one day symposium on “Peripheral Narratives and Minority Identities”.

Our speakers are specialists in art and literature, cognitive science, minority studies, media studies, and religious studies and include Barend van Heusden, Liesbeth Korthals Altes and Goffe Jensma.