“Negotiating Digital Space in Culturally Significant Storytelling” is a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary webinar series organized by the Canadian Centre for Mindful Habitats in association with the Bachelor of Media Production and Design Program, School of Journalism, Carleton University (Ottawa) and the Bachelor of Interior Design Program, Algonquin College (Ottawa). The seven-part webinar series, supported by a SSHRC Connection Grant, runs from June 16 to July 28 and will explore the multi-faceted concept of storytelling and how digital technology is expanding on the storytelling toolkit. 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.

In our present-day, mono-narrative is under siege by pluralistic dialogue, empowered speech, and alternate/traditional modes of knowledge. If defined as a repository of the individual and collective experiences, storytelling offers a powerful strategy and tool to inform an inclusive approach to create a space for alternate modes of thinking or practice, enrichened and driven by digital tools. Is it possible to reconstruct this relationship instead of criticizing the confluence and negotiate the space of the digital in culturally diverse storytelling examining methods of integration and collaboration?

In “Negotiating Digital Space in Culturally Significant Storytelling,” we pose the opening questions: What role can digital storytelling play when contemplating the promotion and preservation of Oral traditions of knowledge transfer? Can the digital create a parallel space for storytelling and its impact on the roles of the author, narrator, reader, storyteller, and story keeper? What are the frameworks within which stories operate, and what happens when the digital tools are put to play? What dimensions are added with the introduction of culturally significant and diverse forms of storytelling?

In the seven sessions of the webinar series, these questions and others will be explored through conversations with invited speakers from diverse fields within academia and industry. Join us as we explore how to negotiate the digital space.

Learn more about each session and register here: https://www.mindfulhabitats.ca/conversations/negotiating-digital-space-in-culturally-significant-storytelling