Rosalchen Whitecross reflects on the international Narrative Matters Conference 2025 in Paris.
Emerging from the Metro, a bank of dense clouds darkened the horizon as I made my way to the American University in Paris where the international Narrative Matters Conference 2025 took place from 13–16 May. Framed within the conference theme of Disparate Narrative Worlds: Crisis, Conflict and the Possibility of Hope, I was part of panel presenting papers on Writing Prison Narratives.
The panel took as its focus three separate research projects undertaken in the UK and the US, documenting the lives and experiences of incarcerated women and men.
In my research on women’s prison narratives, I critically examine incarceration through the lens of lived experience and creative practices.
From the perspective of art as social practice in working towards social justice, I situate narratives of lived experience as expertise and alternative ways of knowing. This flows from my interest in creative writing pedagogy in the context of marginalised communities, alongside explorations of prison writing as cultural resources.
Grounded in participatory arts-based practices using narrative inquiry, my aim is to amplify marginalised voices and contribute to debates on prison reform.
Flowing from this perspective, my conference paper, Disparate narrative worlds – Women’s prison writing as narratives of haunting, considered Presser and Sandberg’s (2015, p. 1) charge that “narratives are central to human existence” because through the construction of lives as stories connections are forged “among experiences, actions, and aspirations”.
The question then follows of how can we forge connections – with the aim to inspire social and structural change – based on actions, experiences and aspirations when the narratives of incarcerated women and their prison writing do not feature in the wider cultural landscape of writing?
In this context, I theorise women’s prison writing as narratives of haunting. This is done by considering how the lack of social and structural change, together with the wider cultural distancing and narrative neglect of the voices of those with lived experience of imprisonment, continues the process of dehumanisation found in the social exclusion of punishment and prison.
Problems with prisons often reflect wider societal problems, particularly as the women who end up in prison are amongst the most powerless and disadvantaged in society.
Following the completion of our panel presentations, a wonderful discussion followed with audience members asking many questions and making astute observations.
In doing so, the synergies between the work of the different members of our panel were highlighted, including that of Dr Alicia Rouverol (University of Salford) and her longitudinal study with the men of Brown Creek Correctional Institution, and Dr Monica Thomas (Birmingham City University) and her work with Black mothers in prison in England and Wales.
The conference spanned a breadth and depth of interdisciplinary work and research focusing on disparate narrative worlds particularly delving into, and highlighting, crisis and conflict around the world.
It grappled with the conceptualisations of hope and left many questions to reflect on – is hope necessary for social change? How do we grasp and enact hope? For example this was highlighted by Professor Roger Frie in his work on dissecting the juxtaposition of perspectives posited by Hannah Arendt and Eric Fromm.
Over the course of the conference, as we listened to one another and engaged in expansive conversations, the seeds of possibility emerged in new ideas for collaboration and partnership. Perhaps one outcome will be a paper reflecting on and exploring the value of friendship in sustaining a research practice. Outside the sun broke through clouds.
I would like to thank the Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries, particularly Dr Ruth Farrar, Professor Kate Pullinger and Louise Chapman, for funding the conference registration fee and their support in making my conference attendance possible.