Critical stories are more than just anecdotes or tales. They are narratives that raconter, or recount, the author’s own experiences, situating them in broader cultural contexts. Just as the autoethnographer situates the self in relation to the “others” of which the self is both a part and from which it is distinct, the critical storyteller situates his or her story of conflict in relation to the broader reality from which the conflict arises. The key is the reality that is being related and the perspective from which it is being shared. In Critical Storytelling in Millennial Times, marginalized, excluded, and oppressed people share insights from their liminality and help readers learn from their perspectives and experiences. Examples of stories in this volume range from undergraduate perspectives on financial aid for college students, to narratives on first-hand police brutality, to heartbreaking tales about addiction, bullying, and the child sex trade in Cambodia. Undergraduate authors relate their stories and pose important questions to the reader about inciting change for the future. Follow along in their journeys and learn what you can do to make a change in your own reality. Contributors are: Ben Brawner, Dwight Brown, Bryce Cherry, Kaytlin Jacoby, Jimmy Kruse, Dean Larrick, Bric Martin, Kara Niles, Claire Parrish, Grace Piper, Claire Prendergast, Alexsenia Ralat, Alec Reyes, Stephanie Simon, S. H. Suits, Katy Swift, Morgan Vogels, and Brittany Walsh.

The poems, personal and visual narratives in this edited book, Critical Storytelling: Multilingual Immigrants in the United States, are symbolic of the resilient, transformative experiences lived by multilingual immigrants in the United States.

Critical Storytelling in Uncritical Times shares the stories of undergraduate students and educators in U.S. higher education. Storytellers in this volume grapple with issues of bullying, stigma surrounding mental health, cultural barriers, gender inequity, and other forms of struggle in educational settings. The disciplinary backgrounds of the authors are diverse, including Psychology, English, Communication Studies, Business, and Educational Foundations. The authors write stories about their role(s) in resisting (or failing to resist) oppressive conditions in schooling, and their contributions draw attention to critical problems in 21st century. This anthology was planned, written, and edited by students and four faculty members. The stories shared in each chapter were completely at the discretion of the contributor. By making themselves vulnerable, participants investigated stories of personal and social import. This book engages a community of critical voices in an age where critical storytelling has never mattered more. “Critical Storytellling in Uncritical Times is a pulsating work of self and social discovery, where autoethnographic accounts of high school students, pre-service teachers and teachers are assembled into a ‘cut and mix,’ a flux-and-change ethnographic prism that enables readers to view students as educators and educators and future educators as students. It is a book that shows how alliances for social justice can be formed that transcend race, class, age, gender, sexuality and social capital. All of us in the teaching profession would do well to read this book together with their students.” – Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor, Chapman University

What does power abuse look and feel like in the academic world? How does it affect university faculty, students, education and research? What can we do to counteract and prevent power abuse? These questions are addressed in this collection of autobiographical poems, essays and illustrations about academia. The contributors reflect on individual experiences as well as underlying institutional structures, providing original perspectives on bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, and other forms of power abuse in academic workplaces. They share their stories in order to break the culture of silence around power abuse in academia and point out pathways for constructive change.

In this volume of Critical Storytelling , female incarcerates and undergraduate writers share insights from their liminality of living with/from behind/within invisible bars, posing important questions about how to incite change for the future.

Critical Storytelling in Urban Education shares poems and stories written by college students attending Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The poets and storytellers in this gripping volume address challenges they have faced: issues of sexual abuse, racial politics, cultural identity, stigmatization of marginalized communities, immigration, and other forms of struggle within and outside of urban educational settings. They are students in Education, Communication Studies, Business, and English, among other disciplines. Academic writing has been frequently reserved to professors and doctoral students. This collection is different in that the writing of undergraduate and master students is featured. In a world of unrest, strife, and division, critical stories are sacrosanct.

This collection of critical stories emerges as a timely confession from marginalized imagined communities at the physical and metaphorical Mexican-American border.

Berea College, founded in 1855 on the principles of socio-educational equality, is an institution devoted to giving voices to the oppressed. This book, Critical Storytelling during the COVID-19 Pandemic, is a tribute to giving students from a variety of backgrounds a voice for the displacement they felt during the raging spikes of the early pandemic period. Each student offers their take on the pandemic itself, how it affected their education, as well as how it displaced them. From stories of exile to those of triumph, this work is a heralding account of dozens of students’ experiences.

Embraces the fierce urgency of the year 2020. Authors bravely offer their perspectives to us—their stories ring out beyond the written page.

A uniquely interdisciplinary look at storytelling in digital, analogue, and hybridised contexts, this book traces different ways stories are experienced in our contemporary mediascape. It uses an engaging range of current examples to explore interactive and immersive narratives. Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling considers exciting new forms of storytelling that are emerging in contemporary popular culture. Here, immersion is being facilitated in a variety of ways and in a multitude of contexts, from 3D cinema to street games, from immersive theatre plays to built environments such as theme parks, as well as in a multitude of digital formats. The book explores diverse modes and practices of immersive storytelling, discussing what is gained and lost in each of these ‘genres’. Building on notions of experience and immersion, it suggests a framework within which we might begin to understand the quality of being immersed. It also explores the practical and ethical aspects of this exciting and evolving terrain. This accessible and lively study will be of great interest to students and researchers of media studies, digital culture, games studies, extended reality, experience design, and storytelling.