The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) is home to a community of scholars, students, and storytellers seeking to deepen, expand, and disrupt our understandings of how narrative shapes possibilities for peace and justice.
TNT Lab is a space to learn about narrative transformation theories, methodologies, and concepts; discover tools and activities that foster curiosity and flex the imagination; and engage with narrative transformers of all types who understand that there is power in telling a good story.
As a university-based initiative, TNT Lab’s goal is to create a unique space in the narrative change sector for professionals and scholars from every walk of life to reflect on and experiment with the kinds of stories that define our lives and empower our imaginations.
As part of this mission, our goal is to provide:
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A proving ground for cutting-edge and practice-oriented narrative theory.
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A resource hub for intellectual materials on the power of narrative.
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An educational setting for the study of narrative approaches to peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
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A base camp for practical engagement in the work and play of narrative transformation.
Our Approach
At TNT Lab, we believe that the only way to change the world is to understand its most abusive stories in order to reshape them and to understand its most hopeful stories in order to help us harness their transformative power.
What makes TNT Lab unique is that we try to break down the firewall that exists between fiction and nonfiction, emotion and reason, policy and imagination, and technical explanation and moral evaluation. In line with the cutting-edge findings in psychology, philosophy, literary studies, data science, and neurophysiology, we believe that story lies at the heart of all purposive, rational action.
TNT Lab Team
- Solon Simmons - Lab Director
- Audrey Williams - Lab Manager
- Nicole Struzinsky - Undergraduate Research Intern
- Hannah Schmutzet - Undergraduate Research Intern