Storytelling for Change: Narratives that Shape our Perception of Others and Ourselves — Symposium
About
The symposium brings together scholars from multiple disciplines, creators, and professionals to discuss the multifaceted role of narratives in fostering connection across diverse groups and understanding our own life experiences. In an increasingly polarized world, stories, delivered through various media—from literature to digital platforms and immersive experiences—possess unique properties of bringing (mediated) individuals in (vicarious) contact. Stories aid in (re)shaping our past experiences, identities, and making sense of them. The symposium presents contributions from those who work with stories and their effects on a daily basis (researchers, but also authors and professionals in reading organizations). The event offers a space for open discussion and contamination, critically examining the inherent challenges in utilizing storytelling for social change, for example, the potential for reinforcing rather than dismantling prejudices and stigma. Storytelling for Change aims to inspire innovative approaches and provoke thoughtful dialogue on how we can harness the transformative power of storytelling to build a more inclusive and equitable society.
Venue and date
- Date: 31/10/2025
- Venue: Agora 2, VU Main Building (Address: De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam)
- Route inside the building: From the main entrance of the Main Building, turn left toward the 6-lift group. You can ask a VU host for directions. Please note that you will need to pick one of the lifts to your right to be able to exit on the third floor. When you exit there, you’ll see the Agora meeting room complex on your right. We will be there with a registration desk.
Registration
Registration is closed.
Program
31 October, Friday
- 08:40 – 9:00 Registration
- 09:00 – 9:30 Opening by Katalin Bálint (VU, The Netherlands), director of VU StoryLab and Drs. Giulia Scapin (VU and University College Dublin)
Session 1: Chaired by Katalin Bálint
- 09:30 – 10:00 Jonathan Cohen (University of Haifa, IL): Creating and Validating the Narrativization Scale
- 10:00 – 10:30 Melanie Kreitler (University of Groningen, NL; University of Giessen, DE): Structures of Experience: Mental Illness and Narrative Complexity
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
Session 2: Chaired by Giulia Scapin
- 11:00 – 11:30 Federico Pianzola (University of Groningen, The Netherlands): The Lives of Wattpad Readers
- 11:30 – 12:00 Elise Talgorn (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands): Storytelling for Collective Care in our Neighborhoods
- 12:00 – 12:30 Laurence Scherz (VU Amsterdam): The Machine as a Villain: Narrative Empathy and Characterisation of (Emotive) Robots in Speculative Fiction
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break
- 13:30 – 14:20 Akke Visser (Culturele Apotheek, Shared Reading organization, Amsterdam, NL): Experiencing Shared Reading
14:20 – 14:30 Break
Session 3: Chaired by Federico Pianzola
- 14:30 – 15:00 Tine Riis Andersen (Stavanger University, Norway): From Resistant to Interested: Can Shared Reading Change 5th Graders’ Attitudes on Reading for Pleasure?
- 15:00 – 15:30 Paul Sopcak (RWTH Aachen University, Germany): ‘Fictive Reality’ vs Simulation – Differentiating Forms and Models of Narrative Engagement
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
Session 4 (hybrid): Chaired by Frank Hakemulder
- 16:00 – 16:30 Moniek Kuijpers & Pema Frick (University of Basel, Switzerland): The Changing Reading Habits of Young Adults in Online Spaces (online)
- 16:30 – 17:00 Raymond Mar (York University), Shihara C. Fernando (University of Western Ontario), & Enny Das (Radboud University): Confronting Death, and Appreciating Life, by Reading and Writing Obituaries (online)
From 17:00 Closing session and borrel
Times are Central European Time (CET, UTC+1). Schedule and speakers subject to change.
Abstracts
Jonathan Cohen: Creating and Validating the Narrativization Scale
The results of a series of studies attempting to create a measure for a new construct “The Narrativization of Life” will be reported. Based on prior theoretical and conceptual work, a definition of narrativization as the tendency to interpret one’s reality using narrative templates was initially established. Six dimensions were hypothesized, and 6 items were created for each dimension. Next, based on survey data, the original group of dimensions and items was reduced to measure three dimensions using 15 items (11 original + 4 new ones). The scale was shown to be reliable and empirically separate from four concepts that could be seen as overlapping. Finally, several studies attempted to demonstrate predictive validity but no evidence for predictive validity has yet been established. The difficulty in establishing predictive validity and its implications will be discussed.
Melanie Kreitler: Structures of Experience: Mental Illness and Narrative Complexity
The relationship between mainstream media and mental illness is fraught. Especially films are deemed to misrepresent and sensationalize non-normative mental states and thereby solidify harmful attitudes in their audiences. Since the mid-1990s, a heterogenous group of films has departed from such time-honored tropes, offering alternative ways of visualizing and narrating non-normative mental states. Subsumed under the headers of puzzle and impossible puzzle films, these productions strategically use their narrative structures to evoke in viewers an experience similar to that of the neuro-non-normative protagonist. Drawing from cognitive media studies, narrative theory, and cultural studies, this presentation explores what I term ‘structural audience address’: the narrative hurdles that complexity introduces to viewers’ meaning-making efforts pool their cognitive resources on modes of storytelling and immerse them into characters’ minds and world(view)s. This form of cognitive alignment sidelines culturally mediated ways of understanding characters and their mental states, disclosing alternative narratives of mental illness.
Federico Pianzola: The Lives of Wattpad Readers
In the 21st century, there is a wealth of data coming from digital platforms that offer an unprecedented insight into the lives of readers. In this presentation, by focusing on Wattpad, I show what online comments can tell us about how teenagers read and what impact fiction has on their lives. For this, I use computational methods, a survey with Wattpad users, and a focus group with graduate students.
Elise Talgorn: Storytelling for Collective Care in our Neighborhoods
Can neighborhood stories become tools for building collective care—a practice of shared responsibility for social and health challenges (Raap, 2022)—by strengthening connections and revealing interdependencies? In Amsterdam Nieuw-West’s Wildemanbuurt, residents face structural health inequalities, social fragmentation, and stigma, yet the neighborhood also hosts rich informal care practices, cultural knowledge, and resilience. Through Stadsreporters, residents—including seniors, unemployed youth, and others—are trained to document positive local health initiatives on film. Prior research shows this improves mental health, reduces loneliness, and fosters belonging among storytellers (Kapteins, 2023). Here, we examine how these films can also benefit the broader community by connecting residents, organizations, and public spaces through shared narratives. Four films are co-created with local partners and shared in neighborhood “health kamers,” forming repositories of collective narratives. Using interview and story analysis, systems theory, and the Louis Bolk Institute’s Framework for Positive Health, we trace how stories ripple outward—shifting perceptions, strengthening networks, and activating acts of collective care across the physical, mental, social, and (natural) environment dimensions of health. Our objectives are applied—building local networks, reducing stigma, improving access to resources—and methodological—showing storytelling as a powerful tool to create, measure, and communicate impact in collective care.
Laurence Scherz: The Machine as a Villain: Narrative Empathy and Characterisation of (Emotive) Robots in Speculative Fiction
What happens to our empathy towards machines upon seeing them portrayed as villains in speculative fiction? And how, exactly, does an author or storyteller use narrative tools to achieve narrative empathy? This presentation compares horrific characterisations of (AI-controlled) robots with more emotive examples found in the novels Little Eyes (Samanta Schweblin, 2018) and Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021). To truly understand how narrative empathy works, the poetics of the text itself are studied, drawing on the expertise of creative writing practices. Keeping in mind that only well-crafted stories affect a reader’s cognition, we look at how authors employ various stylistic techniques (POV, voice, characterisation) to elicit empathy or disgust. Whose perspective do we take, and why? Do we perceive a big, bad machine, or something to cherish?
Akke Visser: Experiencing Shared Reading
Shared reading is a practice that has attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners in recent years. Akke Visser will host a shared reading session in which a number of people can participate, to experience firsthand what this practice entails. With the larger audience, we will reflect on this type of shared, reading-aloud experience and the effects it can have on participants.
Akke Visser is the founder and director of Stichting Culturele Apotheek (the Cultural Pharmacy Foundation). In 2018, the organization introduced shared reading in the Netherlands and now runs over 100 reading groups in community centers, libraries, healthcare institutions, and Odensehuizen (meeting places for people living with dementia) throughout the country, together with over 150 voluntary reader leaders. Reading groups are also held in Frisian.
Tine Riis Andersen: From Resistant to Interested: Can Shared Reading Change 5th Graders’ Attitudes on Reading for Pleasure?
This study explores whether Shared Reading can (re)ignite reading interest among 5th-grade pupils. PIRLS 2021 (Wagner & Støle, 2024) revealed a stark decline in Norwegian 10-year-olds’ interest in reading, frequency of leisure reading activity and overall reading enjoyment. Contributing factors may include increased digital media use and school practices focused on performance and assessment. While initiatives like silent reading (Lund, 2022) aim to promote engagement, they may fall short for pupils without prior positive reading experiences or low attention spans. Shared Reading (Davis, 2009) is an experience-based reading activity where people read and talk about stories and poems together. It may serve as a valuable supplement by offering a safe, pressure-free space that supports basic psychological needs (Andersen, 2022; Mortensen, 2022), needs that are foundational to motivation and learning processes (Ryan & Deci, 2017). The study follows an educational design research (EDR) approach (van den Akker, 2006) using the four-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006) as a theoretical framework to explore the impact of an 8-week Shared Reading intervention on students’ reading interest, attitudes, and habits. In addition to assessing outcomes, the study seeks to identify what elements within the activity, such as the questions asked by the facilitator or the type of texts, may trigger and sustain interest, and whether additional motivational triggers may be needed.
Paul Sopcak: ‘Fictive Reality’ vs Simulation – Differentiating Forms and Models of Narrative Engagement
Research on the impact of narratives on identity and empathy, as well as social cognition and social understanding, abounds. The empirical evidence, almost exclusively interpreted through simulation-plus-projection models, remains somewhat inconclusive. This presentation theoretically explores – and provides empirical evidence for – a mode of narrative engagement that is distinct from simulation and arguably better suited to explain the more impactful narrative experiences and outcomes.
Moniek Kuijpers & Pema Frick: The Changing Reading Habits of Young Adults in Online Spaces
As young adults are increasingly more involved in digital social reading practices, it is important that we obtain an understanding of how online platforms are used, and through what mechanisms these types of reading activities affect readers’ reading habits and even their sense of well-being. In this presentation, we will present the results of a Q-methodology interview study with young adults (between 18 and 25 years of age), who are self-proclaimed avid users of online platforms to discuss their reading or partake in other activities surrounding the act of reading. We use a technique called Q sorting, whereby participants are asked to sort authentic statements about a particular aspect of subjectivity (in our case what it is like to participate in digital social reading practices) in a bell-shaped grid ranging from “not at all like my everyday experience” to “very much like my everyday experience”. The Q-sort will allow us to collect both rich descriptions of shared opinions on digital social reading, as well as issues within digital social reading that divide or bring together our participants. We hope to demonstrate the usefulness of Q-methodology as an approach to the study of young adults’ reading behavior, decreasing “the risk of adult perspectives overshadowing those of young adults in social research” (Kuzmicova et al., 2022).
Raymond A. Mar, Shihara C. Fernando & Enny Das: Confronting Death, and Appreciating Life, by Reading and Writing Obituaries
Our lives are made meaningful in part by their finite nature. It is our mortality that brings import to how we choose to spend our (limited) time in existence. However, confronting this mortality is also challenging, as our eventual deaths bring a host of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and angst. Coming to terms with our own mortality should lead to a better appreciation of our lives, and one way to achieve this may be through stories. Obituaries—the life stories of those who have passed—are a unique form of story that contextualizes lives in terms of their finite nature, but also highlight what can make a life meaningful. Two studies examining the role of obituaries in producing meaning in life are discussed. The first asked undergraduate participants to write their own ideal obituary, imagining that they had lived a long and meaningful life. A second examined psychological constructs associated with an interest in reading obituaries, and possible outcomes.
This symposium is supported by the Network Institute, the Department of Communication Science, and the Digital Media and Behavioral Lab. Organizers: Katalin Bálint, Giulia Scapin, Lotte Mastenbroek, Margriet Schager, Sylvia Gielink and Frank Hakemulder