Mel Parks

My Work Research Researching the stories we tell ourselves and other people; both historically and the present day – I delve into stories in academic research, the media, memoir, diaries, fiction, art as well as myths and fairy tales to understand the dominant narrative. Write Writing my own stories. I don’t ask other people to do anything I haven’t done myself, so my research includes autoethnographic or creative work of my own. Writing myself into my work is integral to understanding and shifting the narrative. I also work in creative collaboration with others. Facilitate Helping others tell their stories. My aim is to encourage diversity, complexity and specificity. There are no quick fixes, tidy endings, or moments of complete resolution in life and the stories we write and create will ideally represent this. Stories don’t need to be straightforward narratives, so I offer tips and techniques and make space for blends of different types of writing (eg poetry, lyric essays, journals or reflective writing) or other understandings of stories such as craft or visual representations. Curate Sharing stories. I aim to do all that I can to help little-heard stories shake the hearts and change the minds of policy makers and other people who keep the dominant narrative going. I do this by commissioning, editing and publishing stories of community and co-production on Ideas Hub; organising events; speaking at conferences; creating online archives; and writing and publishing articles about my work.