P a s t   E v e n t s

2008

September:
Thursdays: 4th, 11th 18th and 24th.

Narrative Analysis workshops.
Time: 4:30 - 6:30pm
Place: Rendevous Hotel Bar, Flinders St. Melbourne (next door to VU City campus, between Elizabeth and Queen Sts.)

22nd July 2008 

'Personal Identities - Cultural Stories'
A symposium of narrative works-in-progress highlighting analytic approaches.

Guest presenter:
Professor Corinne Squire
Co-Director,
Centre for Narrative Research
School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies
University of East London.

Melbourne

5th Feb - 24th March

Narrative Research Methods
in the social sciences

a 12 session course with

Professor Catherine Kohler Riessman
(Boston U)

2007

Narrative Research Convivium

9 August - 18 October

Approaches to Narrative Research
Methods Workshops and Symposia

led by

Melbourne: 29th Jan - 2nd Feb

Canberra: 13th - 16th Feb

Brisbane: 20th-21st Feb

2006

keynote by

Melbourne: April

h o m e

a b o u t     u s

m e l b o u r n e    g r o u p

p a s t    e v e n t s

2009:

Thurs 9th & Fri 10th July 2009

A two day workshop:

A Multi-method Approach to Narrative Research.
with
Professor Greer Johnson
(Griffith U, Qld)

Time: Thurs 9th 10am - 4pm and Fri 10th 10am - 4pm
Place: Victoria University City Campus, Flinders St. Melbourne (between Elizabeth and Queen Sts.)

In this workshop Greer will present aspects of her work on narrative, discourse and identity research. The workshop includes three sessions. In the first session, on the morning of Day 1, Greer explains and demonstrates how narrative inquiry can include aspects of ethnomethodology and critical discourse analysis in the conduct of visual and interview data analysis from a micro-macro perspective. There will be time also for participants to discuss and plan an analytic pathway through some of their data with Greer.
In the second session, following lunch on Day 1, participants will have the opportunity to apply their analytic plan to their data. There is the possibility of working alone or with others on shared data here.
In the final two sessions, on day two, participants will present their analysis-in-process to the group. Greer will act as a discussant to the presentations and respond to further questions.
Overall, the workshop will assist the participants to begin work on what might become a paper for submission to a referred journal or a thesis or book chapter.
Readings will be distributed to registered participants prior to the workshop.

Program pdf
Registration form

Fri 10th July 2009

A twilight seminar:

Biography and Identity Navigation: How narrators navigate
who they are.
with
Professor Michael Bamberg
(Clarke U, USA)

Time: Fri 17th 5pm-6pm
Place: Victoria University City Campus, Flinders St. Melbourne
(between Queen and Elizabeth St.)

This seminar introduces the concept of 'identity dilemmas'. Making use of audio-visual material I will demonstrate how narrators (i) coordinate time, place and characters (often their own selves) in the content of the story told (there & then), (ii) for the purpose of positioning a sense of self in the ongoing interaction (here & now), to (iii) navigate 'identity dilemmas'.

Registration form

Mon 2nd - Sun 8th Feb 2009

Summer Writing Retreat
for Narrative Researchers
with
Professor Catherine Kohler Riessman
Research Professor, Boston College, USA

We invite researchers who are using narrative methods in research to participate in a week long writing retreat in the Victoria Alps.
The retreat is an opportunity for focussed individual research writing, perhaps towards a thesis, article, book etc. The overall structure is flexible and informal, with daily shared discussion to support the creative effort. Professor Cathy Riessman will participate in the evening discussions.
Summer at Mount Hotham offers a quiet solitude and spectacular scenery in good walking country. The lodge has full facilities, including the internet, and is self-catering. The cost includes food for meals (meat and vegetarian). BYO wine and chocolate!!! Cooking and cleaning will be shared. The lodge is approximately a 4.5 hour drive from Melbourne CBD, and 45 minutes from Bright. Car pooling can be arranged.
The retreat will be limited to a total of 8 participants. Early booking is strongly recommended. Bookings must be confirmed with full payment.

Contact Ruth Ballardie(ruthballardie@med.monash.edu.au) for further information and
registration forms. Flyer pdf

Mon 9th - Fri 13th Feb

Five day Intensive Course
In Narrative Research Methods
with
Professor Catherine Kohler Riessman

Time: 9:30 - 5:30 daily
Place: Victoria University City Campus, Flinders St. Melbourne (between Elizabeth and Queen Sts.)

Narrative research methods are increasingly popular across the social sciences and professions. This is not surprising since stories are at the heart of human and social meaning making - and meaning making by individuals and communities, by organizations, institutions and nations can be insightfully explored by an analysis of these narratives. The proliferation of narrative methods offers rich analytic opportunities, yet can be challenging in its specific application to different kinds of research materials and questions.
This five-day intensive course will provide practical experience in several approaches to the narrative analysis of research material/data. Participants will work with their own data and share aspects of this work with other participants. The course will include informal and formal presentations, facilitated group discussions and practical analysis
The course will explore how narrative research has developed as a method and how it sits with other qualitative research methods. It will highlight issues around interviewing and constructing narrative data and differentiate four different ways of undertaking narrative analysis.
Mornings from 10am, will be taken up with a presentation and discussion with Professor Riessman. Afternoons until 3.00pm, will allow participants to work in groups or alone on their own or others data. The final session for each day will be the presentation and discussion of participants’ data, and will conclude at 5pm. Morning and afternoon tea will be provided.
Cathy’s book ‘Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences’, (Sage, 2008) is the text for
the course, and will be on sale for $37.00

Contact Ruth Ballardie(ruthballardie@med.monash.edu.au) for further information.
Program flyer pdf
Registration form pdf.
Final program pdf

Tues 10th Feb

Reassertion of past visions: 'narrative elasticity and historical change'
a seminar with
Dr. Oriana Bernasconi
(Diego Portales University, Chile)

If the self is not conceived of as an immutable substance, with the passing of historical time we might ask:
How do older people react when the apparatus and resources used to produced their bodies, minds and souls, to make themselves subjects of a certain sort, begins to clash with present ways of living?
If older generations need to reassess their moral outlook, what forces drive them to this search? To what extent can older generations review their customised humanity?
For want of a better label, I call this a study on ‘narrative elasticity’. In the exercise of self-interpretation, this refers to the capacity of narratives to stretch the boundaries of the self, "going beyond the normal order of significance" (Pickering 2004). Narrative elasticity refers to the re-assessment of the standards that are deemed worth endorsing or opposing so as to make one's trajectory cohere with the flow of change; a moral renewal that is sometimes accompanied by the incorporation of new practices of the self. But as the term suggests, narrative elasticity also tries to capture the limits of the possibilities of change. Elasticity is about boundaries too. It includes that which renders the self resistant to change and all that is inadmissible, when the coordinates that frame the good life have been modified over time.
These propositions are examined in empirical research with the biographical stories of three successive generations of Chilean families. Biographical accounts bring to the surface intergenerational controversies over the nature of the self as these are embedded in kinship relationships.

Time: 5:30 - 6:30pm
Place: Victoria University City Campus, Flinders St. Melbourne (between Elizabeth and Queen Sts.)

Flyer pdf