Exploring the Power of Storytelling in Research: Judy Pryor-Ramirez’s Story Circle Interview Method
Judy Pryor-Ramirez, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Wagner and a key figure in participatory research, introduces a transformative approach to qualitative data collection in her book chapter, The Story Circle Interview Method: The Power of Story as Data. Her chapter, featured in the book Anti-Colonial Research Practice: Methods for Knowledge Justice, delves into the history, methodology, and application of the story circle interview method, a tool she has developed for community-based research.
The Story Circle Interview Method
The Story Circle Interview Method is a data collection practice in which researchers provide a prompt to a group, and each member of the group is allotted the same amount of time to share their story in response.
“By allowing each participant to share a story, you're ensuring both that the data is getting collected and that folks are hearing from each other,” Pryor-Ramirez explained. “And when everyone participates and contributes, it increases a sense of belonging and a sense of having completed something together.”
Subsequently, the Story Circle Interview Method aims to break down traditional power dynamics that are often at play in a group-sharing situation. “When we share with groups, we often see the phenomenon where someone is dominating the time,” said Pryor-Ramirez. “So what this method does is enable equity and power sharing.”
How Identity Inspired Innovation
In many ways, the Story Circle Interview Method mirrors and draws upon facets of Pryor-Ramirez’s own identity as a Black and Mexican American. She opens the chapter telling her own story about the Virginia community her father’s ancestors founded after the Civil War—the first story she ever shared in a story circle setting—and how it inspired what would become her own method.
The Story Circle Interview Method is grounded in the Black Freedom Tradition and draws inspiration from the Civil Rights-era Story Circle practice, which was first popularized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Free Southern Theater (FST). The participatory method was created to foster community dialogue and collective reflection on the struggles of racial injustice in the American South. The Story Circle method has since evolved and found relevance in modern-day research, especially within marginalized communities.
In addition to honoring the origins of the Story Circle, Pryor-Ramirez’s method also layers in Latina feminist scholarship and Latin and Latinx storytelling traditions. In 2020, Pryor-Ramirez was invited by an organizing group in South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley to engage in a study of their community. The task had personal ties for Pryor-Ramirez, who had childhood memories of visiting family in the same area and crossing the border into Mexico with her mother to visit family on the other side of the border.
The organizing group sought a practice that would not harm their community, while also being attentive to their language and culture, which is largely Mexican and Mexican-American. This inspired Pryor-Ramirez to incorporate Latina feminist scholarship into the Story Circle structure to provide a construct for this community’s participants, framed in their native language, Spanish.
“What is typically called the ‘story circle rounds,’ I’ve renamed the testimonios section,” said Pryor-Ramirez. “And the cross-talk section, I’ve renamed the reflexión section, so it’s an opportunity to reflect together as a group after the stories are shared.”
Through this unique combination, Pryor-Ramirez’s adaptation of the Story Circle method aims to democratize the data collection process, allowing participants to share their stories in a way that respects their voice and agency, contributing to the larger body of knowledge.
Teaching and Mentoring with Story Circles
In her role as a teacher and mentor, Pryor-Ramirez incorporates the Story Circle interview method into her Community-Based Participatory Action Research course at NYU Wagner. Her students practice the method firsthand, facilitating their own Story Circles to explore research questions through collective storytelling. The method is dynamic and adaptable, with students often adding creative elements, such as art or collage, to further deepen the storytelling experience.
“My hope is that students walk away with a deeper understanding of power-sharing in research," she shares in her interview. "Storytelling is hard, and it requires patience. But when done well, it’s a transformative process that moves participants from being research subjects to becoming co-creators of knowledge.”