Workshop 4

7th European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
University of Helsinki, 10-12 January 2024, Helsinki, Finland
Narrative Future – Imagining, writing and dancing from the desired future

Duration: 120 mins

This workshop explores narrative futuring, which is known as a psychological approach to futuring, aiming to imagine a personally meaningful future through writing letter(s). The method is also further applied in this current workshop as an embodied form, as dance narratives.  

Through simple tasks, group and solo exercises, the workshop explores the method of narrative futuring using writing and dance improvisation. The session will include:

  • A short introductory overview of the method,
  • An exercise combining writing and dancing from the desired future, and
  • A post-practice discussion and evaluation. 

Participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing and appropriate footwear or socks for moving and be prepared to engage with the physical site through their body – no previous movement/dance experience is required. Please bring water as required. 
Workshop Facilitators

Anneke Sools is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, Health and Technology at the University of Twente (The Netherlands). She is also the Program Director of Storylab, an interdisciplinary research group in the area of narrative research and practice connected to the University of Twente. Sools is the recipient of the 2018 AERA Early Career Award from AERA Narrative Special Interest Group. Her main research interest concerns the human capacity to navigate into life-sustaining futures in the face of uncertainty, unpredictability and complexity. In her work, Sools seeks methodological innovation by combining art-based participatory methods with narrative/qualitative methods and computational approaches.  

  

Hanna Pohjola is an Adjunct Professor (Title of a docent in interdisciplinary research on health and well-being), Doctor of Arts (Dance), Master of Arts (Dance Pedagogy), Master of Health Sciences (Exercise Medicine) and Physiotherapist. Currently, she works on a four-year grant from the Kone Foundation and as a University Researcher in Social Sciences and a University Teacher at the Institute of Dentistry at the University of Eastern Finland. Interdisciplinarity and art are central to her background in education, work and research, through which to reach a broader and holistic vision of well-being. Her main research topics are, for example, dance biomechanics, identity, disability and illness narratives, and neurological rehabilitation.