Format/Structure

This workshop builds on This Is Not a Handbook!, a book by the Guerrilla Narrative Collective. It invites scholars to share Guerrilla Narrative practices and collaboratively create a manifesto, accessible via QR code for participants to expand with comments and suggestions.

Long Abstract

This Is Not a Handbook! (hereafter TINHA!) is a writing project developed under the name of the Guerrilla Narrative Collective. This is the pseudonym we have chosen to identify ourselves and to give a name to the shared experiences, practices, and reflections we’ve engaged in over the past ten years or so.

The decision to publish under a collective name reflects our pursuit of a radically different way of being researchers within and beyond the university. In TINHA!, we propose Guerrilla Narrative as a set of creative and insurgent practices aimed at sabotaging toxic narratives—that is, any narrative infrastructure that serves to silence, erase, or reproduce injustice—while fostering more just, inclusive, and equitable socioecological relationships.

Each chapter in our soon-to-be-published book explores a different strategy of Guerrilla Narrative: counter-hegemonic knowledge co-production, counter-mapping, toxic autobiographies, walking, speculative fieldwork, insurgent memories, rebel archives, and class(room) struggles.

In this workshop we invite scholars who identify—or wish to identify—with the practices of Guerrilla Narrative to share their experiences and insights. Following a brief presentation of the volume, we will work collectively to co-create a map of Guerrilla Narrative as an evolving tool and inspiration.

Practically, the discussion will be organized into small groups. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences and practices of Guerrilla Narrative, either by following TINHA!’s overarching themes (e.g., counter-mapping, toxic autobiographies, walking, speculative fieldwork, etc.) or by proposing new frameworks and methods.

Each group will produce a bullet-point list outlining how to recognize, practice, and teach Guerrilla Narrative. These lists will be brought together aiming to create a collective manifesto on Guerrilla Narrative, which will remain displayed throughout the conference for further comments and contributions via post-its or QR code.