Equitability: The Power of Story

Faculty Advisor: Emma C. Eisenberg

Field Site: Complete Picture (in Fremont, California)

Field Supervisor: Rebecca Grace

Course Description:

Science tells us that when listening to a personal story, the audience experiences the action at brain level and grows synchronized with the storyteller’s emotions. The neural networks that decipher stories overlap with the networks that interpret live social and emotional interactions. Much as computer simulations can help us to grasp complex logic problems, narratives offer unique opportunities to cultivate empathy. This course explores how empowering a defendant to tell an authentic accounting of their life-story to the judge deciding their sentence can inspire a deeper and more balanced understanding of the totality of the individual facing judgement. It is the key to a more equitable justice system.

Praxis Presentation:

Please click here to access a PDF version of the presentation.