The 5th International Irish Narrative Inquiry Conference, co-organised by Maynooth University Education Department, took place on May 2nd and 3rd in Trinity College Dublin.
The overall theme this year was on "EXPLORING CREATIVITY IN NARRATIVE INQUIRY”
The conference invited us to reflect on what is creativity for us, in our narrative practices: How are we deploying the creative components of stories and story–telling in our meaning making? What does the creativity inherent in narrative add to our inquiries? Is the creative component of narrative important to the success of our inquiries? And, in particular, to think about what the creative aspect of narrative offers to our discipline and/or inquiry that is unique to the genre and how can we develop this further? The conference brought together narrative inquirers from the broadest range of disciplines possible, reflecting the potential of the paradigm of narrative for a broad range of inquiries.
Keynote Speaker was Professor Patti Lather who is a critical feminist scholar whose work examines various (post)critical, feminist, and post structural theories. As well as award winning books addressing ontology, methodology and pedagogy, her narrative study with women living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa (Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/AIDS ) co-authored with Chris Smithies was ground breaking for its creative curation of the textual.
Conference Organisers
Dr Catherine Conlon, Trinity College Dublin; Dr Grace O’ Grady, Maynooth University Dr Jacqueline O’ Toole, Institute of Technology, Sligo; Dr Briege Casey, Dublin City University.
