Time: Wednesday 8 April 2026 @ 11:30
Venue: Aula, Collegium Heliodori Święcicki, Grunwaldzka 6
Speaker: Prof. Michael Bamberg (Clark University, Worcester)
Identity, Storytelling, and Positioning
Abstract
This presentation is divided into four parts: First, I intend to clarify where, why, and how identity (I often use it synonymously with ‘sense-of-self,’ or as the answer to the ‘who-am-I question’) might have emerged as a central topic in the social and human sciences. From here, I continue to outline two traditions that have made claims to contribute centrally to identity research: The first centers on the analysis of narratives that seemingly capture how people, organizations, or institutions, and even nation-states, make sense of themselves, or answer the who-am-I question. A second tradition has turned its focus on storytelling practices as ubiquitous and mundane practices in everyday interaction. In the third part of my presentation, I will unpack this turn to narrative practices in terms of what runs under the labels of positioning theory and positioning analysis. Finally, I will give an overview of how this approach can be taught as a semester-long project consisting of several modules analyzing narratives in settings such as courtrooms, political speeches, openly available apologies and confessions, advertisements, or branding – making use of audio and video data that are publicly available.
About the speaker
Prof. Michael Bamberg is professor of Psychology at Clark University. He received his PhD from University of California Berkeley and he held teaching positions in Sociology (FU Berlin), in Linguistics at the University of York (UK), and Foreign Languages at Tongji University (Shanghai) and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (Guangzhou), as well as Universität Saarbrücken (Germany). His scholarly interests are in narrative, identity, and qualitative methodology. His work is placed at the intersection between discourse analytic frameworks and qualitative inquiry, with an emphasis on narrative inquiry and positioning analysis. His more recent interests in narrative criminology and work with biographical data aim to pick up on traditional strands of work with narrative data and examine whether and how the small story approach (‘narrative practices’) may be able to contribute. For 2026, he is on a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Scholarship with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. His scholarly interests are in narrative, identity, and qualitative methodology.
About the lecture series
WA Distinguished Professors’ Lectures Series features internationally renowned scholars visiting the Faculty of English to share their research and professional expertise with the faculty and students.