New book reveals the stories behind research: The Stories We Tell: Creative Nonfiction Accounts of Our Research

What does it feel like to stand pregnant in a glue-scented shoe factory in Addis Ababa, while Japanese experts inspect whether their project has succeeded? How do you navigate a night spent at a sacred site in Senegal, where every shadow seems to whisper a new story? And what do you discover about yourself when a teenager in Antwerp unexpectedly lets you cut off her braids?

A different way of doing research

In this book, researchers from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University share nineteen personal, surprising, and sometimes moving moments from their work. These are stories that would normally never appear in academic articles. This is not because they are unimportant, but simply because they don’t fit within the rigid form and tone of scholarly publications.

This book shows that there is another way of doing research: one that pays attention to emotions, confusion, humour, doubt, imagination, and chance encounters. These personal experiences form the reality behind fieldwork, archive visits, interviews, and analyses—and offer an honest, human picture of what research truly is.

This collection was originally written and published in English under the title ‘The Stories We Tell’, and edited by Elsje Fourie and Christin Hoene. The Dutch translation was created by Josje Weusten, who beautifully preserved the literary tone and personal style of the authors.

Book launch

The launch of the Dutch-language edition, as well as the reissue of the English version, will take place on 15 January at 19:00 at Boekhandel Dominicanen. Would you like to attend? Register via this link.

For more information or press inquiries, please contact Josje Weusten: josje.weusten@maastrichtuniversity.nl.