The Story Society – Bath Spa University

The Story Society – Bath Spa University
The Story Society
An international Research Centre that investigates and maps the many uses and values of ‘story’ across cultures.
In this section
Team and members
Programmes
Research groups
The Writing Platform
The Story Society is one of three university-wide Strategic Research Centres tasked with enhancing research activities across and beyond Bath Spa University.
Key to its approach is the practice of fieldwork – getting out into the real world to collaborate with communities, companies and creatives both in the UK and across the globe. The starting point is the recognition that stories, whilst universal, are made, consumed and interpreted in different ways across cultural and educational borders.
Vision
One world, many stories.
Mission
Design and deliver innovative research programmes that facilitate making and listening to stories across borders.
Research objective
Expand public understanding of the many uses of Story as a skill, mode of thought, evidential basis, creative medium and cultural frame.
Social purpose
Our research programmes and projects seek to understand and leverage the power of Story for the public good; that is, to tackle the most pressing challenges of today, such as AI, climate, conflict, diversity, and the future of work and education.
Team and members
Led by
Bambo Soyinka
, Professor of Story, The Story Society currently has a core team of twelve members of staff. A network of advisors, editors and consultants support the core team. They can be drawn upon for short-term tasks or long-term projects when Story research and expertise is required. In addition, The Story Society has a wider membership of over 80 associates and partners.
The Story Society’s team and members come from a range of professional backgrounds. We are scientists and practitioners, researchers and makers, creative thinkers and performers, technologists and entrepreneurs, arts organisations and social enterprises — anyone who uses Story to imaginatively connect and create change across cultures.
Research projects
DESTIN
Thinking Doing Talking Science
Attachment Aware Schools
Beyond East and West
Attachment Awareness
Programmes and activities
Our core team collaborates with members and partners to explore story, support talent, produce new work, develop cultural infrastructures and share replicable models.
We run several innovative programmes, including
StoryArcs
,
Paper Nations
and the Story Foundry (where we offer
low residency
and
distance learning
liberal arts PhDs for International Students). Through all these activities we seek to enable our members to produce original work, celebrating the art of co-creation and facilitating innovative ways of thinking and making together across more than one culture, epoch, subject or location.
In conversation with...
What creative careers are open to you, if you study a creative writing degree?
In this podcast, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Lucy Sweetman
discusses how Bath Spa nurtures creativity and collaboration in its students, highlighting The Story Society's Paper Nations project, which reaches out to schools and young people across the UK.
Find out more
Research groups
You might be interested in...
Research and Enterprise
Research Centres
Research Strategy
Our projects