Talks
‘Contemporary First-Person Supernatural Oral Narratives and Belief’
I give talks on the transmission of oral narratives, following my research at the University of Edinburgh and my 25-year-long career in storytelling and theatre practice.
My masters in Edinburgh covered first-person supernatural memorates about embodied supernatural experiences in the landscape, the nature of belief, and why now is a brilliant time to engage with such narratives.
To book a talk at your university, theatre or other venue, contact me through the website.
Centre for Folklore, Myth and Magic, Todmorden
‘The Secret Life of Stories:
What Really Happens When Stories Are Passed On’
On the outside it might look like a story is told and everyone receives the same story, but the process of transmission is a shared creative engagement. A story doesn’t land on passive ears, and so each of us hears a different story.
Jacqueline Harris explores the nature and process of transmission, and how and why telling and receiving stories is a function of being human, including thoughts and ideas on trance states, volitional and non-volitional imagination and how we live in a storied world.
“We shall continue to use story in all walks of life, and the more conscious we become of how we use story, and why we do this to narrate our lives, the more we shall be able to cultivate honest speech in impossible times.” - Jack Zipes
