Global Cultural Studies

Block 4
Mon, Wed, Fri, 9:00-10:20 am (NY)
(4:00-5:20 pm, Kyiv/St. P)

Over the past forty years, storytelling has emerged as a transformative tool, introducing innovative methodologies across various disciplines within the Social Sciences and Humanities. This course explores these methodologies and showcases practical examples where storytelling expands both theoretical and applied dimensions of academic work. Departing from Eurocentric frameworks, the course highlights global perspectives, engaging authors who critique or reimagine dominant narratives about their communities. Overall, this course invites participants to embrace storytelling as a dynamic and inclusive research methodology, encouraging critical engagement and creative expression in addressing the complexities of our world.  Class 1: Cultivating Stories in Unexpected Spaces and Themes  This session explores the stories participants aim to develop and introduces three key avenues through which storytelling has entered the Social Sciences and Humanities. We’ll discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with these approaches, alongside practical tools to overcome obstacles like writer’s block, impostor syndrome, and the intimidation of a blank page. Various writing styles will also be examined to inspire creativity.  Class 2: Storytelling with Archives We will investigate how storytelling reshapes historical research and our understanding of the past. This session focuses on critical methods that reimagine archives. Topics include the tension between fact and fiction, different types of archives, and the uses of storytelling the past in research and political activism. Participants will reflect on the archive’s role in storytelling and its broader implications for political narratives.  Class 3: Critical Life Storytelling Life history methods have become central to Social Sciences and Humanities research. This session examines how trans/feminist/queer and postcolonial/de(s)colonial life histories challenge discriminatory representations by academic, medical, and political elites. Emphasis will be placed on maintaining critical perspectives, asking who tells the stories, for whom, and to what ends. Participants will explore the ethics and politics of life storytelling as a tool of resistance.  Class 4: Political Storytelling in Common-Unity This session highlights examples of research that actively supports communities in resisting structural domination. Discussions will center on speaking with communities rather than about or for them, as well as navigating insider, outsider, and intermediary roles. We’ll address issues like unequal labor distribution in collaborative projects, ethical paradoxes in the field/in politics, and ensuring equitable sharing of the benefits derived from community efforts.  Class 5: Fabulative Storytelling Fabulative storytelling provides a space to imagine alternative worlds and futures. This session examines how authors use speculative narratives as tools for liberation, moving beyond dystopian sci-fi to focus on transformative possibilities. Participants will consider the contexts in which fabulation thrives and explore techniques for “writing into existence” while avoiding the traps of false and cruel optimism.