Emmy Award-winning Ohio University Professor Coming to Talk about Storytelling and Activism

Ohio University’s Emmy award-winning Dr. Lynn Harter is coming to Augusta University on September 26 to lead a masterclass on storytelling and activism. Her talk is titled, “The Poetics and Politics of Storytelling in Community Engaged Scholarship.”

According to the event description:

Storytelling matters. People derive a sense of what to believe and how to act from stories shared at kitchen tables and on front porches, in classrooms and healthcare clinics, in news reports and through art exhibits. We live, we grieve, and we story with others as we narrate birthing and dying and turning points in between. Join Dr. Harter for an interactive program on the poetics and politics of storytelling in community engaged scholarship. Participants will explore the generative potential of storytelling by focusing on its capacity in brave space-making. Brave spaces are spheres of possibility where participants undo in order to become, unsettle dominant narratives, and imagine otherwise. By extension, brave space-making is a vulnerable, risky, and often tension-riddled process of perspective-sharing, capacity-building, and creative invention. Dr. Harter will draw on her experiences as a researcher, producer and director, and community activist to explore how to create brave spaces for narrative encounters that encourage understanding and connection across differences.

Dr. Harter’s talk will take place on Thursday, September 26 at 1:00 p.m. in the JSAC Coffeehouse. The event is free and open to the public. Augusta University’s Dr. Taylor Walker, from Pamplin College’s Communication Department, was instrumental in getting Dr. Harter to agree to come and talk at Augusta University.

According to Dr. Harter’s bio from Ohio University: Lynn Harter is a Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University. Guided by aesthetic and narrative sensibilities, her work focuses on the communicative construction of possibility as individuals and groups organize for survival and social change amidst profound vulnerability. Her research and creative activity encompass a range of issues including pediatric cancer care, disability-related concerns, and organizing healthcare for historically excluded groups. Lynn is co-producer of the Emmy award-winning documentary series The Courage of Creativity, Senior Editor of the academic journal Health Communication, and co-host and co-producer of the Defining Moments podcast. She has published over 80 journal articles and book chapters and has edited four award-winning scholarly books.  -(https://www.ohio.edu/scripps-college/comm-studies/about/faculty-student/harter)