Storycircling the Virtual: Creating Space in a Pandemic with Storyscope

Abstract:Stories offer time and space for connection. This has been particularly true during social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this collective autoethnographic story, we explore how generative energies of storytelling and storylistening emerge within communities via virtual storytelling. With COVID-19 being a catalyst for change, we share our adaptation of the Storyscope Project story circles to facilitate connection through a virtual space. Our stories within this work reflect our experience of virtual Storyscope in the roles of host, facilitator, participant, and educator. Additionally, the collaborative process of our writing mirrors the unfolding of virtual Storyscope story circles. In other words, the practices of virtual storytelling and storylistening guided our inquiry and evolving discussion of a similarly evolving practice.