Social historian Stephen Brier lectures about digital storytelling

Stephen Brier, professor of urban education and senior academic technology officer at The City University of New York, spoke at Lehigh on Thursday, April 5, about his personal experience with digital storytelling by connecting it to his work with oral history.

Briers lecture was the first installment of the Digital Storytelling Cluster Development Lecture Series that Lehigh is hosting.

Brier described himself as a premature digital storyteller, mainly because most of his work has dealt with the usage of oral history.

Ive spent more than 35 years of my professional life committed to making the history of ordinary people accessible, he said.

Professor Brier is an internationally known social historian who has brought digital storytelling methods to history, said journalism professor Jack Lule, who is heading cluster development for digital storytelling at Lehigh.

Although digital storytelling and oral history are not exactly the same, Brier expressed his belief that his work with oral history would help transition Lehigh into the world of digital storytelling. Working with the self-expressions of people takes many non-written forms, he said.

Brier shared some lessons he has learned from his many oral history assignments, which he said he believed also pertain to digital storytelling. The first is to know the subject that you are interviewing.

It frames and shapes the kinds of questions you want to ask, he said.

Another lesson is that you never know if your work and stories will prove useful or important to others and the degree to which this is so.

He also explained the importance of being able to engage in dialogue with a subject, as well as making stories quickly available to the public.

We shouldnt do digital storytelling merely to confirm facts that we know or to understand a sequence of events as they happen, he said. Its about understanding how people create meaning.

Students present at the lecture got a lot out of Briers lessons and personal experiences. Meghan Barwick, 15, said she learned a lot from Briers lecture, especially the fact that any cultural product made after 1923 is presumed to be copyrighted.

    As someone who is interested in film and documentaries, this speaker explained a whole other side of digital storytelling that I never thought about, Barwick said.

Lehigh students and faculty already know that stories change our world, from the stories told by the great religions, to stories told by world leaders and politics, to stories told by a child, Lule said. Digital storytelling extends the power and reach of stories, and universities need to study and understand this phenomenon.

The next speaker for this academic cluster will be Lora Taub-Pervizpour from Muhlenberg College. She will be speaking on April 19. 

Story by Brown and White news writer Laura Casale, 15.
Related topics: brown and white, digital storytelling, jack lule, laura casale, lehigh university, stephen brier