Living The Stories We Create: Education in the age of Post-truth by Ellen McCabe (Visiting Fellow, Independent Scholar)

Narrative forms, play a vital role in human enrichment and development. Through them we acquire a sense not only of our environment, but of our own identity. The recent shift from a society dominated by print, to one where digital media prevails invites us to consider the consequences for storytelling. What new stories have grown from this transition? How have these influenced contemporary expectations of storytelling? In the event of such profound change, how will education seek to address this?

Dr Ellen Mc Cabe received her PhD in Digital Arts and Humanities at NUI Galway. Her research explores what it means to be fully literate in the digital era and considers how education must respond to this at a conceptual, systemic and classroom level. Ellen’s work is located at the nexus of disciplinary perspectives from digital media, narrative theory, pedagogy, and drama and theatre studies. Her cross-sectoral focus is reflected in projects created for the National Theatre UK, including a digital exhibition examining the history of Greek Tragedy at the theatre, as well as a series of educational films for A-level students based on The National’s production of King Lear directed by Sam Mendes. Ellen received the International Award for Excellence from the Common Ground Technology, Knowledge & Society Community for her paper entitled, “Storytelling and the Dissolution of Categories”. This paper was published in Volume 10 of the Technology Knowledge and Society Collection. She has also published a series of articles for The Guardian and The Irish Times.