Brown Leadership Institute - Leadership and Storytelling for Social Change (Residential)

This course will examine how stories shape our own identities and give us a path to create positive social change. In this course, you will use stories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, TED talks, spoken word performances) as a tool and a guide to examine the challenges we face, the choices we make, and the outcomes we seek when striving towards a more just and equitable society. In this class, you will explore various authors who have used their art to advocate for social change. Using storytelling techniques as an inspiration, you will work to tell your own story in a collaborative and iterative writing process. In addition, you will explore a variety of forms and platforms through which to share your stories: podcasts, TED talks, Spoken Word performances, Moth Story hour, etc. You will create your own narratives and will use this process to invite others to share their stories as a way to foster a shared sense of purpose. You are encouraged to develop an Action Plan that will create a storytelling forum in your own community as an act of leadership to foster empathy and human connection. You will explore both early and new voices of social change in fiction, poetry, memoir, and the forums where writers share their work. Students will learn and practice the process for developing a "Public Narrative: Self, Us, and Now" developed by Marshall Ganz at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Using this iterative process, you will develop stories of self, stories of us, and stories of how to develop a public narrative and a call to action.