House of the West Wind Christmas Lecture – online

The House of the West Wind: College of Storytelling is delighted to present its 2023 Christmas Lecture with Alette Willis.

Join us live on Zoom on Friday 29th December at 8pm GMT.

Wildwoods Alumnist, storyteller, author and researcher, Alette Willis, will share findings from a piece of research she led at the University of Edinburgh into how storytelling can help to shift individuals and communities towards lower carbon ways of living.

This research engaged with 50 storytellers from the UK and beyond who self-identified as having at least 3 years experience in working with stories around nature connection, climate change, environmental education and social change work.

Through interviews, surveys and participant observation, the team explored good practice in relation to working with stories on these topics. This project was contracted by the British Academy, which funds research for policy-making across the UK.

Alette Willis, PhD, is a professional storyteller, author and researcher. She has co-authored a collection of stories for environmental education, Dancing with Trees: Eco-tales of the British Isles (History Press, 2017), published on the use of storytelling in the Journal of Environmental Education Research, and recently led a British Academy study into working with storytelling to help communities shift to net-zero.

She was a Talking Tree storyteller for many years with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and a Storyteller in Residence to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. 

She has created and teaches the module, Story Roots to Sustainable Futures, as part of the new postgraduate Narrative Futures Programme at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Find out more at www.restoryingtheearth.com

Want to hear the lecture but can’t make it live? Book on and then we will email you the recording afterwards.