Dr. Antonia Ligouri – From Personal to Collective

On February 7 2019,   Dr. Antonia Ligouri spoke at UMBC at an event sponsored by the Dresher Center.  Dr. Ligouri is a Lecturer in Applied Storytelling School of the Arts, English and Drama at Loughborough University, UK and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow at the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access. Antonia works extensively with digital storytelling in community contexts world-wide.  

From Personal to Collective: Using Digital Storytelling to Unlock Grassroots Knowledge Psychologist Jerome Bruner said that narrative is a “principle by which people organize their experience in, knowledge about, and transactions with the social world.” Stories make information more understandable, memorable, and persuasive, unlocking grassroots knowledge and using the power of emotions to shape decisions. Digital storytelling has also emerged as an effective action research method to engage communities in collective participation and action, grounded in their sense of place and their distinctive cultural knowledge. As a tool, digital storytelling can challenge hierarchies of expertise, amplify unheard voices, and convey important emotions.