Overview: Storytelling as Scientific Practice
Scientific storytelling is often framed as a tool for translation, a way to make research “accessible” to non-specialists. But this framing can flatten the emotional, cultural and ethical dimensions of knowledge. Storytelling is not just a communication strategy. It is a relational practice. It shapes how science is understood, who is included, and what futures are imagined.
This framework invites researchers, educators, and practitioners to approach storytelling as a form of care, clarity and systemic awareness. It supports the creation of narratives that honour lived experience, resist extractive norms, and centre disabled, neurodivergent and marginalised voices. Whether you’re preparing a talk, writing a paper, designing a workshop or crafting a public engagement piece, this guide offers scaffolding for storytelling that is emotionally resonant, ethically grounded and structurally inclusive.
Contents
Section 1: Framing Storytelling as Relational Knowledge Practice
Section 2: Mapping Audience, Intention and Emotional Tone
Section 3: Structuring Narrative with Emotional and Ethical Pacing
Section 4: Integrating Data, Lived Experience and Systemic Insight
Section 5: Avoiding Spectacle, Extraction and Virtue Signalling
Section 6: Scaffolding Accessibility Across Formats and Modalities
Section 7: Closing with Reflection, Gratitude and Future Invitations
Section 8: Scientific Storytelling as Cultural and Systemic Practice
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