Storytelling for Researchers

Aims

We humans are storytelling animals. We have evolved with and through stories, sharing vital information about food sources and dangers but also morality and values, thereby bringing communities together. In this information age, can the ancestral practice of storytelling help researchers to better communicate their work?

In this workshop, participants will learn to apply the canonical storytelling elements to their research with the objective of enhancing the impact of their research communication in a variety of contexts, from public engagement events to job and grant interviews.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to

• create a variety of stories describing their research
• adapt their science stories to their medium
• adapt their science stories to their audience
• avoid the flaws of scientific storytelling

Content

With a mix of theories and practical exercises, we will explore:

• the origin and function of storytelling
• the classic story-arc
• the message of the story
• metaphors in science communication
• the role of the protagonist
• the relative relevance of storytelling elements for different media (talks, podcasts, videos, written articles)
• the limits of storytelling
• the power of narratives

Methods

This workshop will be very practical. Each participant will use his/her research as a starting material to create a number of stories, story-arcs and structured arguments.

Target Group

All Doctoral Candidates & Postdocs

About the Trainer

Dr Samuel Lagier is a public speaking trainer and coach. He founded and manages SamSpeaksScience.com whose mission is to help experts talk about their knowledge. He runs workshops in higher education institutions across Europe and coaches researchers interviewing for Swiss and European grants. Sam coached, curated and hosted the TEDxLausanne conference for 7 years. He is a member of the science-entertainment collective The Catalyst and the improvised comedy troupe the Renegade Saints, with whom he taught improvisation and runs seriously fun workshops for non-profits and corporate clients.
In his scientific career Samuel studied sensory perception in the normal and schizophrenic brains in France, the US and in Switzerland.

Workload

8h workshop

Feature

Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis.

Course places/places on the waiting list will be confirmed by e-mail. Course registrations can only be canceled before the registration period ends (send an e-mail to grace@unibas.ch). Full course attendance is mandatory. Participants who fail to attend a course without prior notification or withdraw after the registration deadline are subject to a fee of CHF 30. In addition, participants who cancel their course registration at a later point in time, are absent without an excuse or do not attend the entire course will, for reasons of fairness, not be considered for course registration in the following semester and will be removed from other courses offered in the same semester. Please find the detailed regulations on the Transferable Skills Homepage.