By Jena Lynde-Smith
Carleton University’s Media Production and Design (MPAD) program is set to host a groundbreaking webinars series that will explore the role of digital storytelling.
Professor Katie Graham
Negotiating Digital Space for Culturally-diverse Storytelling is a seven-part webinar series running from June 9 to July 28 that will explore the multi-faceted concept of storytelling and how digital technology is expanding the storytelling toolkit. The series is co-created by MPAD professor, Katie Graham, who was awarded a SSHRC Connection grant for the project.
“The grant will allow us to curate a diverse cast of speakers and hire BMPD and Algonquin students to help promote the event through digital storytelling on the web and social media,” Graham said.
Graham partnered with Dr. Pallavi Swaranjali on the project, a professor in Algonquin College’s School of Media and Design. Graham and Swaranjali began their PhD studies together, each looking at storytelling in architecture from different perspectives.
“Although we wanted to work together in the past, this webinar series will be the first opportunity for us to bring our different storytelling perspectives together,” Graham said.
Negotiating Digital Space aims to explore how digital and traditional storytelling are interwoven through various themes relating to storytelling. The series will be broken into seven sessions. Each session is set to include two professionals presenting on common theme – such as documentaries, screens, soundscapes, immersive storytelling, translation, pluralities, materiality, and authorship.
“The goal and hope of the webinar series is to foster lively discussion that questions how we think of storytelling and the digital – looking at it both critically and exploratory,” Graham said.
The project is running in partnership with The Canadian Centre of Mindful Habitats, a non-profit organization that engages in thoughtful conversations regarding mindfulness in areas including storytelling and digital technology.
Graham said she hopes the series will evolve into something more because there is a lot of research to be done.
“While digital tools bring new ways to tell stories and remove limitations of access, a multitude of ethical and technical issues arise – such as those of ownership, appropriation, inclusion, and dissemination,” she said.
“We hope to develop Negotiating Digital Spaces into a journal publication and further research into how traditional and digital storytelling interweave.”
More information on how to register will be available shortly. Keep an eye on our website for updates, or follow @BMPD_CU on Twitter.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022 in General, Media Production News
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