Transcriber: Stella Wenjun MIN Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
Hello, everyone.
I'm Amanda D'Annucci and I'm going to be talking to you about
storytelling, conflict resolution, psychology and neuroscience.
Did you know that by telling someone a story,
instead of spewing out a mouthful of data,
that you can engage a much larger portion of their brain?
The art of storytelling has psychological and neurological basis
that scientifically explains the natural human predilection for narrative.
A vast portion of a person's brain
is activated during the listening to, and telling of a story
For instance,
the amygdala hippocampus system,
which is responsible for preliminary encoding
of episodic and autobiographic memories is engaged;
the left perisylvian region
where language is created is engaged;
and also, it has been proven that the same sections
of the brain lights up when the storyteller
or the respective listener interacts.
Quite simply,
narrative engages the entire human brain,
the entire human experience.
If a string of word can affect a person in such a profound way,
how powerful can the art of story be?
Stories can heal, stories can teach,
stories can inspire, stories can enlighten
stories can resolve.
For my master thesis here at Gallatin,
I'm exploring the power of story
and relation to conflict resolution and peace making.
Story is an influential tool which can mold the most obstinate of minds
by means of appealing to an individual's pathos.
By using story as a communication tool,
a pessimist understanding can be made into a relatable situation.
There's an ample evidence of storytelling in a multitude of cultures around mankind.
Individuals and societies of all sorts intertwine narratives
from oral folklore and hunter-gatherer tribes
to the numerous story writers here in New York City,
typing away their stories to become movies, Broadway plays, television shows...
According to Shephren, the stories that we tell about our own and other's lives
are a pervasive form of text, that which we construct, interpret and share experience.
We dream in narrative, day dream in narrative
anticipate hope, remember, despair
gossip, learn, hate, and love, by narrative.
We do all of these things through narrative.
Storytelling has been used to foster peace
in a number of conflict-ridden areas around the globe.
So, why are stories so fantastically successful
in helping reduce conflict?
Stories relate how a series of events occur,
whether fictitious or not.
Additionally, a story does not only lift this series of events,
but it illustrates how these events interact.
According to Van der Rohe,
the goal of narrative comprehension
is to construct a memory representation
which the various individual parts of the narrative
are connected in meaningful ways.
So believe it or not,
there's a researcher named Michael Jackson, at the university of Copenhagen,
and he argues that storytelling offers insight into the way people evaluate,
discuss, and negotiate social and ethical strategies
for making communal life viable in war as well as in peace.
Specifically in Sierra Leone where conflict is high.
The study Jackson performed focuses on storytelling
with the Coronco people in Sierra Leone.
Throughout his storytelling sessions,
the stories told of great political and social significance of the people involved.
And during some of the stories, the storyteller sometimes give
the listeners a chance to participate in their story.
This participatory aspect of this approach gives the listeners a chance
to truly understand the ethical implications
of the politically charged story.
Jackson proclaims that storytelling
does not always work toward a unified opinion of a situation.
However, simply by its being a shared accent of singing together,
sitting together, speaking, sharing various viewpoints,
that makes possible the momentary semblance of a fusion
of desperate and often undisclosed private experience.
The study concludes
that the mutual sharing of stories make the participatants feel more inclined
to be committed to their community.
In addition, the very active participating in a shared event
and referring separate experiences to a common source,
promotes not necessarily a unified opinion
but a strong bond within community ties.
Storytelling promotes the concept of civil society,
free people discussing their common issues,
and it provides individuals the opportunities
for individual expression in a group setting.
A similar technique has been used in studying a case of conflict
between Israeli and Palestinian Israeli students.
Baron discusses the conflict as very much rooted in how each side
sees the other as perpetrator and themselves as the victim.
For the first few sessions, the meeting of the groups
spend significant amount of time
fighting over which side was or had been more victimized by the other.
The storytelling approach used in this workshop made it possible
for the two groups to acknowledge aspects of other stories
that up until the workshop had been unknown to them
or difficult for them to understand or accept.
In her journal, a Palestinian female student wrote:
"When Israeli spoke about her father's feelings
of not being at home in Israel,
I could identify with that feeling,
for the first time I thought that the Israelis are not only enemies,
but have similar feelings to those I have."
The stories that they told
helped the group move beyond this victim/perpetrator dynamic
and into an arena of acceptance.
Stories provide a pathway of connection
for an individual or a community's values, principals, hopes, fears and dreams
that induces respect and acceptance in the listener.
Stories are vehicles that navigate intellectual understanding
but additionally the heart and soul of the reader,
the listener, the inner mind's eye.
Thank you.
(Applause)