About this Program

The Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice gives students the skills to explain the world around them to the people around them. The program teaches students to shape global issues into multi-media stories that are narrative and compelling.

The role of narrative storytelling is increasingly important in this time of the 24-hour news cycle. Students will be trained by immersive practice to identify specific stories that can act as vehicles to explain larger, complex issues. A genre with multiple layers and contexts, it can render the issues at hand more essential and compelling, less formal and
constrained than conventional reporting.

The Program is not training journalism students. It is taking students interested in politics, history, economics, international relations, conflict resolution, technology and engineering ‒ students who wish to engage in the world ‒ and teaching them storytelling and journalism. But this is a particular kind of story-telling, one that involves immersion in a subject and produces captivating works that draw on video, photography and writing.

The Program seeks to promote progressive change by amplifying relevant voices, breaking down barriers to understanding, advancing human dignity, and highlighting social injustices. The program seeks to engage audiences that are local, regional, national and international.

How It Works

The principle focus of the Program is practice underwritten by a sound understanding of theory. Through collaborative partnerships and extended fieldwork, the Program will teach, present and create narrative documentary work. Students will learn how to apply the craft of storytelling across a range of platforms and be encouraged to be innovative, taking into account the habits of consumers from the traditional printed form to digital delivery.

The Program will teach its students how to ask the right questions, encourage them to challenge their preconceptions and prejudices, and teach them strategies to look beyond those limitations.