Call for papers and workshops with a focus on biographical and autobiographical narratives in the EFL classroom.

For the presentations and workshops we would like to encourage contributions based on biographical / autobiographical texts particularly from the following fields:

In 2013 our first storytelling conference brought 190 participants from 13 different countries to Zurich. Seven years later, the world has moved on but storytelling still captivates students and learners. Hence, the Zurich University of Teacher Education is organising a second conference to celebrate storytelling and reading as a window on the world and as a key stimulus to support learning in a foreign language.

The two-day conference, “This is my story”, puts the focus on biographical and auto-biographical narratives and writings and ways of implementing such texts in the EFL classroom. The conference aims to bring together authors, illustrators, storytellers, teachers, researchers and teacher educators from all educational levels. We would like to present a unique blend of theory of practice through paper presentations, workshops, lectures and storytelling.

Conference topics

For the presentations and workshops we would like to encourage contributions based on biographical / autobiographical texts particularly from the following fields:

  • Fiction of migration, culture and identity
  • Adventure / crime stories
  • Coming of age stories
  • Historical fiction

Regarding the form of the texts, we are open to narratives across the media (novels, plays, poetry, picturebooks, graphic novels and comics, film, tv series, audiobooks and audioplays) and hope for an interesting mix.

Individual paper sessions are 45 minutes long, with 30 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Workshops are 90 minutes long and are expected to involve the participants in activities. The conference language is English.

Due date for abstracts: January 20, 2020

We kindly ask you to submit an abstract (up to 300 words and a short biography of 80 words, in a Word document) to the following email address:phzh.englisch@phzh.ch

Notification of acceptance: March 1, 2020

Organising committee: Nikola Mayer, Michael Prusse, Regula Fuchs, Laura Loder-Büchel 

CFP – “This is my story”