I’ve worked on several collaborations with academics, creating short fiction to convey research findings and ideas

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, UK

I was commissioned to write six short fictional stories based on interview research with UK egg donors by sociologists Leah Gilman and Petra Nordqvist. 

Some women who donate eggs do so as part of their own IVF treatment (through 'egg sharing'), and others donate eggs directly to people they know, such as friends or relatives ('known donation'). In both cases, egg donation raises complex questions for donors. How will they make sense of their connection to the woman who receives their eggs, or to any children who are born as a result of the donation? How will they talk to their own children or family members about their donation? What if things don't go to plan? The fictional stories aimed to offer potential donors a way to think through these questions and to imagine themselves into some of the possible outcomes of donation.

The six short stories were made into booklets, which have been shared with fertility counsellors who work with women considering egg donation, and some of the stories have been published in The Sociological Review. This collaboration was also awarded the University's Sociology Public Engagement Prize.

UNIVERSITY OF LISBON, PORTUGAL

This collaboration was based on a social research project about families' everyday relationships with animals in Portugal. The researchers, led by sociologist Verónica Policarpo, wanted to explore creative ways to share their work, and I was commissioned to write an original short story to communicate some of the project's findings. 

My story 'All the Animals' is available to read online in Animal Studies Journal.

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE, UK

This project grew out of a paper by a team of sustainability researchers about using classic fairy tale and folklore characters as metaphors for thinking in novel ways about environmental challenges. 

What if, for instance, we thought of plastics as witches? 

Like the magic spells performed by witches, plastics present all sorts of wondrous possibilities. And just as witchcraft can be both benevolent and dangerous, so too might plastics heal and harm - for instance, plastics used in medical devices or PPE can save lives, but waste plastics can cause serious harm when they pollute oceans and waterways. However, plastics are often demonised when environmental campaigns focus solely on their negative impacts - what we might think of a modern-day 'witch hunt'. The researchers in this project asked: instead of waging such witch hunts, might we create new narratives about plastics which focus on ways to use and re-use them more sustainably, and which celebrate their magical potentials?

My commissioned story 'Fever' explores these ideas. You can read it, along with a commentary by researcher Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs, in YES! Magazine.

I’m always interested in talking about collaborations of any kind - get in touch if you'd like to discuss ideas, or if you'd like to know more about any of these projects