INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL OF NARRATIVE INQUIRY -FOR LOVE OF THE WORLD

We are delighted to invite scholars working with narrative inquiry to the west coast of Norway, Bergen, 11 - 15 August 2025.

The International Summer School of Narrative Inquiry is a unique opportunity for scholars to come together and explore the possibilities of narrative inquiry. This summer school is dedicated to an exploration of narrative inquiry as a unique way to understand life experiences. Narrative inquiry is based on the idea that people's experiences are lived, organized, and understood through stories.

We invite participants to consider how experiences shape research, practice, and policy through inquiry into their experiences. As part of the summer school, we will explore wonders, such as:

What does narrative inquiry offer concerning social problems and neglected narratives?
How can narrative inquiry, across generations, provide insight into people’s lives and their sense of belonging in places and cultures?
What relational ethics are required when engaging with participants across diverse ages, life events, and transitions?
How are intergenerational experiences shaped by cultural, institutional, social, linguistic, and familial narratives?
How do lived and told stories of experience evolve and circulate across generations, cultures, and geographical borders?

By exploring these wonders and possibilities, the summer school aims to bring together both novice and experienced researchers, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and community members interested in narrative inquiry. We welcome people with an interest in early childhood educational studies, educational science, public health studies, gerontology, as well as community members from diverse backgrounds. We believe that diversity enriches our learning environment and disciplines. As we think with Arendt’s ideas, particularly For Love of the World, in narrative inquiry, we will explore the possibilities for narrative inquiry in co-creating hope, and in sharing relational responsibilities that create sustainability.

We ask participants to write a short response to the following questions as part of their applications (no more than ½ page).

Why do you want to come to the Summer School?
What do you want to gain from the Summer School?
Please also provide a short description of your current or proposed research (no more than ½ page).

Registration for the summer school is now open. Application deadline is March 1, 2025.

https://hvl.forms-eu.com/view.php?id=22331

Vi encourage applicants to register as early as possible. You can also contact us: Hanne Israelsen (norbarn@hvl.no) and Elin Eriksen Ødegaard (elin.eriksen.odegaard at hvl.no) for questions and queries.

The summer school will have a cost of NOK 15,000 per person, which covers course fees, board (three meals), snacks, and lodging all days. The summer school is suitable for researchers at all stages of their career, who use Narrative Inquiry (NI). Therefore, we welcome PhD students, supervisors and other junior and senior researchers. Invitation to the course will be shared in international networks, but research school participants, who use NI in their dissertation work, will have their course fee, board and lodging covered at the summer school. The number of participants is limited to a maximum of 20 participants.

The Summer School is an experiential institute which will involve time spent reading and responding to various assigned readings and engaging in response groups with each other’s writings. Each day there will be time for writing. We will also spend some of our time together each day learning about narrative inquiry, discussing theoretical ideas that inform narrative inquiry studies, and thinking with past, or ongoing, studies. Vera, Jean and Bodil will also be available for one-on-one conversations. Your days will be filled by being in conversations in small and large groups, in writing, and in quiet times that allow for ongoing reflections. We encourage you to bring your stories, experiences, and ideas. We will tailor the course to who participants are and what they bring. Prior to the time we will be together, we will send specific readings that will get us ready.

Jean Clandinin is a Professor Emerita at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Jean Clandinin has a lifelong engagement with stories of teachers, children, physicians, and families. Her recent work alongside Indigenous children, youth, and families and her work alongside refugee families has added to her understandings of narrative inquiry. She is the author of Narrative Inquiry (2000) with Michael Connelly and author of Engaging in Narrative Inquiry in 2013/2022. She edited the 2007 Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology and co-authored Narrative Inquiry - Philosophical Roots (2022) with Sean Lessard and Vera Caine.

2. Vera Caine, Professor, School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Canada

Vera Caine has a long-standing interest in narrative inquiry. Her research focuses primarily on the relationship between the social determinants of health and people living with HIV and people who are refugees. She is interested in how experiences unfold over time and shape identity making and agency. She is interested in the relational and ethical aspects of narrative inquiry, as well as community based and participatory research methods and methodologies.

3. Bodil H. Blix, Professor, UIT - the Artic University of Norway and the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway

Bodil H. Blix’s research interests are in the intersections of critical gerontology, narrative gerontology, and healthcare service research, with a particular attentiveness to inequities in health and healthcare. She is interested in the lives and experiences of older adults in general, Indigenous Sami older adults in particular, family caregivers, and health and care professionals.

Blix, B., Clandinin, D. J., Steeves, P., & Caine, V. (2023) Entangling reciprocity with the relational in narrative inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 30(3-4), 275-281.

Caine, V., Clandinin, D.J., & Lessard, S. (2022). Narrative inquiry: Theoretical roots. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Clandinin, D. J. & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Clandinin, D. J., Caine, V., & Lessard, S. (2018) Relational ethics in narrative inquiry. London: Routledge

The summer school will take place outside Bergen, at Fana Folkehøgskole.

Adress: Mildevegen 190, 5259 Hjellestad, Norway.

Modified 04.12.24