About
Stoke Stories is an online film archive of the city of Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas in Staffordshire. The films curated in the archive have been produced by students from Keele University’s Media programme, in particular those enrolled on the second year ‘Documentary Theory & Practice’ module which involves the production of short documentary films. Each year, students work with community partners to examine and document a clearly defined theme in relation to the city. In 2017-2018 students produced films on the theme of ‘Stoke: City of Culture’ examining different dimensions of culture within the city. In 2018-19 students explored the theme of ‘Ageing and Creativity’ documenting the value of creativity in later life. In 2020-21 students documented the experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic under the theme of ‘Pandemic Stories’. In this manner, a complex audio-visual archive of the city is emerging which will function as a valuable cultural and educational resource for students, the local community and wider publics.
Stoke Stories is designed to function as an ever-growing repository of voices and narratives from the city of Stoke-on-Trent; it is hoped that the archive will contribute to the process of providing meaningful representation to a city and region that is consistently overlooked and misrepresented in the mainstream media.
The project has been conceptualised and executed by Dr Pawas Bisht. The initial design of the website was supported by funds from Keele University’s Teaching Innovation Projects Scheme. Dr Bisht was awarded the 2021 Keele Excellence Award for Teaching and Learning in recognition of his work on this project.
Please contact Dr Pawas Bisht (p.bisht@keele.ac.uk) for any queries in relation to the project.
