23–27 March 2026, 11am – 1pm.

Venue: SOAS campus

An intensive course from an award-winning screenwriter, which shows how to apply the tools of storytelling to ethnography.

Detailed Description

“We are delighted to partner with James Moran for an ethnography storytelling course. I’ve heard from so many people who have attended his courses that their writing became far more evocative and fluent. And this is an amazing way to learn about how powerful ethnography can be. This course might even be a tiny antidote to the horrible way geo-politics is unfolding across the globe.”

Professor Emma Crewe, Department of Anthropology and Sociology

 

Course overview

James Moran, a Writers’ Guild Award-winning screenwriter and story consultant for UK and US film and television, reveals how to enrich ethnographic writing with best-in-class storytelling methods drawn from sources such as Pixar, Elena Ferrante, Alfred Hitchcock, Sally Rooney and many more.

As a Community Fellow in the SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology, James has built the course around the belief that if anthropology is to engage with the public on issues of urgent importance, it must learn how to tell better stories. Ethnographic Storytelling empowers ethnographers to do justice to people’s stories by better evoking time, place, emotions, and meaning, whilst remaining true to the ethical and epistemological principles of ethnography. 

You will learn how thesis, theory, and ethnography can work in harmony to produce a work greater than the sum of its parts, and how narrative skills can deepen the impact of your research.

The course also features exclusive quotes gathered from James’ conversations with academic publishers about what they are looking for in ethnographic writing, as well as advice from respected ethnographers on how they wrote their breakthrough ethnographies.

 

Who is this course for?

The course is designed to be useful for ethnographic researchers at any stage of their career. Because it focuses on creative writing techniques and not research methods, the material will likely be new to most attendees. Previous attendees have ranged from PhDs to professors, as well as social researchers at think tanks. 

 

Testimonials

“Genuinely inspiring.”

Dr Elena Borisova

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Sussex

 

“An excellent course for people at all points in their careers.”

Dr Eleanor Hutchinson 

Associate Professor in Anthropology and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 

"I enjoyed the Ethnographic Storytelling workshop a lot. James shared a wealth of knowledge on how to write compelling stories out of our research." 

Dr Kumud Rana

Lecturer in Sociology, Lancaster University

 

“A comprehensive toolbox for addressing the challenges of writing engaging ethnography. For those adrift in an ocean of raw field notes, this course provides a way to refine them into a coherent and accessible narrative."

H.C. Lin

Anthropology PhD, SOAS

 

“I believe this course should be mandatory for all anthropology students at the start of their studies, as well as for later-career researchers. Refreshing and very useful.”

Dr Andrea Kis

Doctoral Researcher, University of Sussex

 

James Moran, a Writers’ Guild Award-winning screenwriter and story consultant for UK and US film and television, reveals how to enrich ethnographic writing with best-in-class storytelling methods drawn from sources such as Pixar, Elena Ferrante, Alfred Hitchcock, Sally Rooney, Jamaica Kincaid, and many more.

As a Community Fellow in the SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology, James has built the course around the belief that if anthropology is to engage with the public on issues of urgent importance, it must learn how to tell better stories. Ethnographic Storytelling empowers ethnographers to do justice to people’s stories by better evoking time, place, emotions, and meaning, whilst remaining true to the ethical and epistemological principles of ethnography.

The course comprises ten hours over five days (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) and combines front-facing teaching, Q&As, group exercises, and individual writing exercises.

 

Dates and location

All sessions take place on the SOAS campus.

Session 1: 23rd March 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Session 2: 24th March 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Session 3: 25th March 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Session 4: 26th March 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Session 5: 27th March 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Please note that cancellations must be made at least 14 working days before the start of the course and that they will incur a cancellation fee of £50. 

 

Materials & expectations

Attendees just need something to write with and should be working on or about to work on a piece of ethnographic writing. There are optional take-home tasks, but attendees will not be expected to produce anything for the course itself.

 

About the facilitator

James Moran is a Writers' Guild Award-winning screenwriter and story consultant with extensive experience writing for US and UK film and TV production companies. He has worked with hundreds of academics and delivered workshops and lectures on academic writing across the UK and Europe. In the summer of 2025, he was made a Community Fellow at SOAS' School of Anthropology, Media and Gender. 

 

Structure

Session 1: Approaches to writing

In this session, you will be:

• Introduced to different approaches to the writing process itself, such as “organic” and “architectural” approaches, as well as the stream-of-consciousness tool called “freewriting”;
• Shown methods for dealing with writer’s block;
• Introduced to the concept of “stakes”, or what you are asking the audience to really care about;
• Introduced to ways to find what is really motivating you in your writing.

Session 2: The three-act structure

In this session, you will be:

• Taught how to create a classic “three-act structure”, and how it can apply shape to any kind of writing;
• Shown how a thesis can be thought of as “plot” and how to have a clear understanding of what your writing is trying to say;
• Given guidance on how to link ethnographic vignettes with theory via “plot” structuring;
• Invited to discuss how to ensure the story you are telling remains that of the people you are writing about. 

Session 3: Experimenting with structure

In this session, you will be:

• Taught about non-linear and experimental narrative structures;
• Shown ways in which different experiences of temporality can be evoked by disrupting chronological narrative structures;
• Given advice on how thesis, theory and ethnography can be woven in creative ways to create cohesive, impactful writing.

Session 4: Characters

In this session, you will be:

• Shown how, whether evoking a real or fictional person, what you present on the page is a “character” in the audience’s mind;
• Shown how good stories rely on “round” rather than “flat” characters, and how ethnographers should challenge themselves to present real people in a rounded, complex way;
• Shown how various writers, in particular feminist authors, conceive of characters socially rather than as individuals.

Session 5: Exposition

In this session, you will be:

• Introduced to the concept of “exposition”, which is the information the audience must have in order for a story to work;
• Shown how to make highly difficult theoretical concepts clear to a reader, and feel part of the overall story;
• Given practical methods for refining a text so that it reads smoothly and engagingly.
• Take part in a discussion of key takeaways from the course.

 

If you can't make these dates for Ethnographic Storytelling but would like to be informed about future dates, please fill in this form, and you'll be the first to know next time.