New Research Group Explores Imagination, Storytelling and Spaces
OTTAWA, Thursday, October 29, 2020 – This October, Dr. Cécile Rozuel and Dr. Lauren Michelle Levesque, both assistant professors in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Saint Paul University, have launched a new research group called Imagination, Storytelling and Spaces. The primary aim of this project is to understand, experience and enable imagination as an essential human need and a human capability.
A key motivation of the researchers is to establish imagination as a lens that contributes to explorations of the diverse resources and surroundings with which individuals and communities engage. Through this lens, it becomes possible to imagine solutions hitherto deemed impossible or unreachable.
“The imagination is an incredible human characteristic, yet we often understand it too narrowly,” says Dr. Rozuel. “We rely on the imagination to connect with others, to understand ourselves and the world we live in, and to navigate the spaces we inhabit. Without the imagination, our world and our lives would be unbearably small.”
“Imagination is a topical research area with significant community impact,” adds Dr. Rozuel. “In August 2019, we hosted the Meeting Points conference at Saint Paul University whose theme echoed the aims of the research group. We realized how much people craved more creative — I could say more disruptive — presentations and interventions. Constructive social change cannot be birthed in a status quo, so we need to bring awareness to tensions and paradoxes in imaginative ways.”
Dr. Levesque concurs that imagination and the arts – especially the practice of storytelling and the exploration of spaces – are “avenues through which possibility and hope can emerge, resonate and propel concrete action in the world.”
For more information about the research group and their projects, visit their website at www.imaginestories.space
For more information, please contact:
Julie Bourassa
Communications Officer, Saint Paul University
613-236-1393, ext. 2310
jbourassa@ustpaul.ca
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