Narrative Now is a podcast series that is produced by the Narrative Network in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. It is hosted by Ashley Barnwell and Signe Ravn. The podcast will cover both ‘how-to’ episodes focusing on different approaches to working with narrative and storytelling as well as ‘what’s new’ episodes that dive into new trends in narrative research.
Episode 17: Tellable and untellable stories with Nikki Henningham and Wajeehah Aayeshah
In this episode of Narrative Now we speak to Nikki Hennigham and Wajeehah Aayeshah about the ethical aspects and challenges of telling stories that are silenced, traumatic, or socially taboo. The discussion takes its starting point in Nikki and Wajeehah’s respective chapters in our recent book, Narrative Research Now but also goes beyond these chapters to touch on broader aspects that unite their two chapters. One thorny topic is ownership – who can tell whose stories – while another is the t...
5 May 2025
Episode Sixteen: Trauma-informed storytelling and community co-design with Tare Poole and Trevor Coad
For this episode we speak to Tara Poole, Coordinator of Creative City Ballarat, and Trevor Coad, a project collaborator and survivor, from the Continuous Voices project. Framed as a project that connects trauma and creativity to stand for change and resistance against sexual assault and sexual abuse, Continuous Voices will result in a co-designed memorial to survivors of sexual abuse in the city of Ballarat. The project was unique in its long development time-frame and collaborative, art-base...
20 Jun 2024
Episode 15: Learning from surveillance narratives in literature with Tyne Sumner
In this episode we speak to Dr Tyne Daile Sumner, a literary scholar at the Australian National University. Tyne is currently conducting an ARC-DECRA project called ‘Beyond Big Brother: New Narratives for Understanding Surveillance’ where she looks at how new forms of digital surveillance are represented in literature. We spoke to Tyne to hear more about this project and find out how classic literary narratives - such as George Orwell's 1984 - and new surveillance novels alert us to trends in...
16 Nov 2023
Episode 14: Narrative Medicine and the role of stories in health care with Mariam Tokhi and Fiona Reilly
In this episode we speak to Dr Mariam Tokhi and Dr Fiona Reilly, both clinicians who are also affiliated with the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health sciences. Mariam and Fiona are both involved in Australia’s first university subject in Narrative Medicine and they share what they are trying to teach students in this course. We also speak to them about the role of stories in health care and what allowing room for telling and listening to stories of both patient...
18 Sept 2023
Episode 13: Audio stories beyond the narrative arc with Miyuki Jokiranta
In this episode we speak to radio producer and podcaster Miyuki Jokiranta about audio stories. We discuss the challenges of capturing people’s attention via their ears as well as the seductive power of conventional modes of storytelling. Miyuki introduces us to the ethical imperative to rethink how we structure narratives and who we centre as storytellers. This ‘how to’ episode offers insights into the process of planning and creating stories for audio. For an extra feature of Miyuki’s list o...
19 Jun 2023
Episode 12: Healing Trauma through Creative Writing with Edwina Shaw
For this episode we spoke to Edwina Shaw, who teaches creative writing in schools, libraries and at the University of Queensland, and also is a writer herself. Edwina’s work focuses on the healing power of stories and in this episode we explore how storytelling can be a way of working through trauma. We focus on Edwina’s creative writing sessions with people who grew up in out-of-home care and hear about how imaginative and creative writing exercises hold the potential to tell one’s story in ...
28 Apr 2023
Episode 11: Storytelling through objects with Sophie Woodward
For this episode we spoke to Professor Sophie Woodward, University of Manchester, about her work with object-based methods. We asked Sophie why objects are so good at prompting people to tell stories, and what it is that we can learn from these stories. Sophie took us on a tour from her earlier work on fashion objects to her current project on dormant things we keep in our homes. We also hear about a storytelling toolkit, developed together with a community organisation, which takes these met...
28 Nov 2022
Episode 10: Talking Wounded Storytelling and Vulnerable Reading with Arthur Frank
In this episode we speak to Arthur Frank about his life’s work on narrative. Frank is an Emeritus Professor in Sociology at the University of Calgary, Canada, and has won many accolades for his work on illness narratives and ethics of care. We discuss Frank’s most well-known work The Wounded Storyteller (1995), now a central text in the narrative canon, and why this book became so influential. We also chat about Frank’s new book, King Lear: Shakespeare's Dark Consolations, where he coins the ...
15 Sept 2022
Episode 9: Indigenous Narratives in Colonial Archives with Rose Barrowcliffe
In this episode we speak to Rose Barrowcliffe about changes to how First Nations narratives are collected and archived in settler-colonial countries like Australia. Rose is a Butchulla doctoral researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia and the inaugural First Nations Archives Advisor to the Queensland State Archives. In this role, she has initiated work on new metadata practices, outreach, and self-determination. Rose's doctoral research focuses on the Kgari (Fraser Island...
29 Jul 2022
Episode 8: Narrative research meets creative writing with Barbara Barbosa Neves and Josephine Wilson
For this ‘What’s new’ episode we spoke to sociologist Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves, Monash University, and Dr Josephine Wilson, a Perth-based writer and scholar at Murdoch University, about their recent collaboration. Barbara and Josephine brought together research narratives and creative narratives to experiment with how to best convey the loneliness experienced by older Australians living in aged care. In our conversation with Barbara and Josephine we discussed how they came together over this ...
21 Apr 2022
Episode 7: The 'Dangers of Narrative' with Maria Mäkelä and Samuli Björninen
In this ‘What’s New’ episode of Narrative Now we speak to Finnish narratologists Maria Mäkelä and Samuli Björninen, Tampere University, about their innovative research project named ‘Dangers of Narrative’. Taking a critical approach to the proliferation of storytelling in the public sphere, especially the use of personal narratives, Mäkelä and Björninen devised a new method utilising social media to invite the public to submit examples of such dubious uses of stories. In this episode we ask w...
2 Dec 2021
Episode 6: Delving into ‘deep stories’ with Arlie Hochschild
In this ‘what’s new’ episode of Narrative Now we spoke to Arlie Hochschild, Emerita Professor at University of California, Berkeley and a world-renowned sociologist of emotion. We discussed her widely celebrated 2016 book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, based on her fieldwork with Tea Party Republicans in the US, and specifically the idea of ‘deep stories’ she develops in the book. To open up this concept for narrative researchers, we asked Hochschild ho...
2 Sept 2021
Episode 5: Talking ‘Turning Points’ and Trans Memoir with Yves Rees
In this ‘what's new’ episode of Narrative Now we spoke to Dr Yves Rees about their book All About Yves: Notes on a Transition (2021), just about to be published with Allen & Unwin when this conversation was recorded in August 2021. The memoir recounts the experience of gender transition, and in a move that challenges conventions about memoirs it is written at the age of 30. We chatted to Yves about what it was like to write the book, including some of the methodological and ethical ...
15 Jun 2021
Episode 4: Telling Stories Now & Then with Ken Plummer
In this ‘what’s new’ episode we speak to Emeritus Professor of Sociology Ken Plummer, a legend of narrative research, about his influential research on stories, where the field is at now, and what might be its future. In this quite warm and personal conversation, we discussed the work Ken has done with narrative and stories across the span of his career, from the 1960s to the present; beginning with his first two books, Documents of Life and Telling Sexual Stories, up until his most recent wo...
30 Apr 2021
Episode 3: How to Put Yourself in the Story with Carla Pascoe Leahy and Sarah Rood
In this ‘how to’ episode of Narrative Now we explore a question that may cross the minds of many narrative scholars, that is, how to include the author or researcher in the story that is being told. How we that answer question might also depend on what story is being told. We speak to two oral historians, Carla Pascoe Leahy and Sarah Rood, about their unique approach to this question.
10 Dec 2020
Episode 2: Collective Narratives with Imogen Carr, Julia Hurst and Dave McDonald
In this ‘what’s new’ episode of Narrative Now we dive into collective narratives. We talk to three researchers – Imogen Carr, Julia Hurst and Dave McDonald – who have three very different takes on what collective narratives are and can be helpful for, looking at how collectives feature in their own work. We also explore some of the challenges and opportunities that are part and parcel of working with collective narratives.
24 Sept 2020
Episode 1: How to Story a Book with Rachel Thomson
In this first episode of Narrative Now we explore how to story a book. Working with narrative data provides a wealth of opportunities but also presents the challenge of choosing what or which parts of the stories to focus on and how to curate this story. Storying a book based on narrative data also poses ethical questions around ownership and audience. Ultimately, in this episode, we ask which stories are ‘good stories’?
21 Sept 2020
Episode 0: Introduction
In this very brief introduction to the podcast we speak a little bit about what Narrative Now is intended to be and what you will encounter in this podcast series.
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