1. Documentary Poetics and Narrative Identity: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study
The project is designed to explore how documentary film-making can inform the empirical and theoretical work I do. The intern will select two artists, one Latin American one Canadian, who have engaged in documentary film-making to record their work and their identities. These documentaries will be analysed according to literary and rhetorical tropes as a means to understanding the artistic process and its relationship to the construction of identity. The student will then engage with a local artist to produce a short documentary in line with the analysis. The process will itself be documented and the implications for narrative research evaluated.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: My specialized area is narrative theory and research and in my research I focus on the construction of narrative identity, particularly among populations whose identity is marginal and vulnerable - for example, people experiencing Body Integrity Identity Disorder, marginalized religions and spiritual groups, Other-than-human identites and so on. I am also currently involved in a digital storytelling project with older adults and their companion animals, producing short videos illustrating the human-animal bond. In my published work, I explore the relationship between narrative and experience, drawing on Ricoeur, and the porosity of boundaries between 'Fact' and 'fantasy'.
Student roles:
The student will be involved in all aspects of the project: identifying the initial two artists, acquiring the relevant documentary materials, analysing the documentary materials (possibly using a qualitative data analysis package such as MAXQDA), recruiting a local artist, working with the artist to shape a documentary around her/his/their artistic work and identity, storyboarding, filming, editing and post-production. Finally, the student will engage in analysing the material for implications for narrative theory and research in relation to the study of identity.
Skills required:
An interest and high level skills and knoweldge in film-making
An interest in narrative research
High level of competence in English
Flexibiilty
Self-motivation