Detailed Description
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 eclectic sources such as Pixar Animation Studios, Elena Ferrante, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sally Rooney.
As a Community Fellow in the SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology, James has built the course around the belief that the tools of narrative fiction can help ethnographers do justice to the people they are writing about.
The course is limited to 20 spaces and will sell out, so booking ahead is advised.
Who is this course for?
Ethnographic researchers at any stage of their careers. Previous attendees have ranged from PhD students to professors, as well as social researchers at think tanks.
Testimonials
“Fantastic.”
Dr Giulia Liberatore
Lecturer, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Edinburgh University
“Excellent.”
Dr Eleanor Hutchinson, Associate Professor in Anthropology and Public Health
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
“Genuinely inspiring.”
Dr Elena Borisova, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
University of Sussex
“This course should be mandatory for all anthropology students at the start of their studies, as well as for later-career researchers.”
Dr Andrea Kis, Doctoral Researcher
University of Sussex
“Ethnographic Storytelling is excellent, and James is a fantastic presenter. I was fully immersed for the two hours each day. As an experienced anthropologist, I wish I had done this course earlier in my career.”
Professor Shelley Lees
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Course dates
This course has two iterations in autumn 2026.
21st - 25th September
10am - 12pm ONLINE
2nd - 6th November
3pm - 5pm ONLINE
Stay updated on future course dates
If you can’t make these dates but would like to stay informed when future course dates are scheduled, please complete our future interest form.
STRUCTURE
Each two-hour session combines online teaching, Q&As, and individual writing exercises. No preparation is needed, and no work is set between sessions.
Session 1: Approaches to writing
In this session, you will be introduced to:
· How storytelling can serve ethnographic purposes, with insights from practicing ethnographers and best-in-class storytellers.
· Approaches to the writing process, such as 'organic' and 'architectural' methods, which help break writer’s block.
· The concept of story ‘stakes’, which will help you find what truly motivates your writing.
Session 2: The three-act structure
In this session, you will be:
· Taught how to use the classic 'three-act structure’ to give writing narrative momentum.
· 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.
Session 3: Experimenting with structure
In this session, you will be:
· Taught about more 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 good stories rely on 'round' rather than 'flat' characters, and how ethnographers should challenge themselves to present real people in a rounded, complex way.
· Taught how to link “character” to “plot”, so that the experience of the people you are writing about helps shape your narrative structure.
· Shown how many writers, including feminist authors, conceive of characters socially rather than as individuals.
Session 5: Crafting the text
In this session, you will be:
· Introduced to the concept of 'exposition', which is the information the audience must have for a story to work.
· Shown how to make difficult theoretical concepts clear and feel part of the overall story.
· Given practical methods for refining a text so that it reads smoothly and engagingly.
Materials and expectations
Attendees should ideally be working on or about to work on a piece of ethnographic writing.
Cancellation
You must make cancellations at least 14 working days before the start of the course. Cancellations will incur a fee of £50.
