Life history research and visual storytelling: experimenting with new forms of knowledge creation

How do we address the extractive nature of academic research and knowledge creation? The TRANSFORM project combined a life history approach with creating animations and comics. From 2017 to 2021, a team of researchers, together with research assistants, artists and civil society activists, explored the everyday acts of common people who attempt to challenge dehumanizing trends of exclusion and abuse in violent conflict and civil war in Syria, Somalia and Myanmar. They studied the underlying strong sense of responsibility to work towards social justice, and found that resistance in contexts of violence and oppression can take many forms; including through humanitarianism, education and art. In this seminar, research professor Cindy Horst will discuss the methodological approach of the project, and raise a number of questions related to the opportunities and challenges of ‘co-creating knowledge’.