Department of Anthropology and Sociology

Ethnographic Storytelling

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Key information

Duration: 8 to 12 June 2026
Location: Online via Teams
Fees: £350

Course overview

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 sources such as Pixar, Elena Ferrante, Alfred Hitchcock, Sally Rooney and many more.

As a Community Fellow in the SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology, James has built the course around the belief that if anthropology is to engage with the public on issues of urgent importance, it must learn how to tell better stories. Ethnographic Storytelling empowers ethnographers to do justice to people’s stories by better evoking time, place, emotions, and meaning, whilst remaining true to the ethical and epistemological principles of ethnography.

You will learn how thesis, theory, and ethnography can work in harmony to produce a work greater than the sum of its parts, and how narrative skills can deepen the impact of your research.

The course also features exclusive quotes gathered from James’s conversations with academic publishers about what they are looking for in ethnographic writing, as well as advice from respected ethnographers on how they wrote their breakthrough ethnographies.

Who is this course for?

The course is designed to be useful for ethnographic researchers at any stage of their career. Because it focuses on creative writing techniques and not research methods, the material will likely be new to most attendees. Previous attendees have ranged from PhD students to professors, as well as social researchers at think tanks.

Testimonials

'Genuinely inspiring' – Dr Elena Borisova, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Sussex
'An excellent course for people at all points in their careers' – Dr Eleanor Hutchinson, Associate Professor in Anthropology and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Stay updated on future course dates

If you can't attend this iteration of the course but would like to stay informed when future course dates are scheduled, please complete our future interest form.

Structure

Session 1: Approaches to writing

In this session, you will be:

Introduced to different approaches to the writing process itself, such as 'organic' and 'architectural' approaches, as well as the stream-of-consciousness tool called 'freewriting'.
Shown methods for dealing with writer’s block.
Introduced to the concept of 'stakes', or what you are asking the audience to really care about.
Introduced to ways to find what is really motivating you in your writing.

Session 2: The three-act structure

In this session, you will be:

Taught how to create a classic 'three-act structure', and how it can apply shape to any kind of writing.
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.
Invited to discuss how to ensure the story you are telling remains that of the people you are writing about.

Session 3: Experimenting with structure

In this session, you will be:

Taught about non-linear and 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, whether evoking a real or fictional person, what you present on the page is a 'character' in the audience’s mind.
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.
Shown how various writers, in particular feminist authors, conceive of characters socially rather than as individuals.

Session 5: Exposition

In this session, you will be:

Introduced to the concept of 'exposition', which is the information the audience must have in order for a story to work.
Shown how to make highly difficult theoretical concepts clear to a reader, and feel part of the overall story.
Given practical methods for refining a text so that it reads smoothly and engagingly.
Take part in a discussion of key takeaways from the course.

Teaching and learning

Session times

The course will take place from 8 to 12 June 2026. It comprises 10 hours over 5 days (10:00am to 12 noon) and combines online teaching, Q&As, group exercises, and individual writing exercises.

Materials and expectations

Attendees just need something to write with and should be working on or about to work on a piece of ethnographic writing. There are optional take-home tasks, but attendees will not be expected to produce anything for the course itself.