The Story Society

The Story Society is one of three university-wide Strategic Research Centres tasked with enhancing research activities across and beyond Bath Spa University.

Key to its approach is the practice of fieldwork – getting out into the real world to collaborate with communities, companies and creatives both in the UK and across the globe. The starting point is the recognition that stories, whilst universal, are made, consumed and interpreted in different ways across cultural and educational borders.

Team and members

Led by Bambo Soyinka, Professor of Story, The Story Society currently has a core team of twelve members of staff. A network of advisors, editors and consultants support the core team. They can be drawn upon for short-term tasks or long-term projects when Story research and expertise is required. In addition, The Story Society has a wider membership of over 80 associates and partners.

The Story Society’s team and members come from a range of professional backgrounds. We are scientists and practitioners, researchers and makers, creative thinkers and performers, technologists and entrepreneurs, arts organisations and social enterprises — anyone who uses Story to imaginatively connect and create change across cultures.

Programmes and activities

Our core team collaborates with members and partners to explore story, support talent, produce new work, develop cultural infrastructures and share replicable models.

We run several innovative programmes, including StoryArcs, Paper Nations and the Story Foundry (where we offer low residency and distance learning liberal arts PhDs for International Students). Through all these activities we seek to enable our members to produce original work, celebrating the art of co-creation and facilitating innovative ways of thinking and making together across more than one culture, epoch, subject or location.