Ms Ananya Bhattacharya - Storytelling for Inclusion and Development

IAS Visiting Fellow Ms Ananya Bhattacharya (UNESCO Global Network of Facilitators) delivers a seminar on their research - Traditional knowledge systems, shaped by generations of ecological coexistence, offer critical insights into sustainability, ethical living, and sustainable resource management. Transmitted through oral traditions, rituals, crafts, and performances, these systems embody values and practices essential for ecological resilience. As global discourse delves into the post-2030 development agenda, integrating living heritage into sustainability frameworks is increasingly urgent. Storytelling, both live and digital, emerges as a vital tool in this process—preserving cultural memory, fostering intergenerational learning, and enabling communities, especially youth, to reinterpret heritage on their own terms. Digital storytelling enhances reach, democratises narrative authority, and connects local wisdom to global audiences. Cultural tourism, when shaped by community-led interpretation, becomes a platform of mutual learning and sustainability education. Drawing on case studies from India, this presentation highlights storytelling’s transformative potential for community empowerment, sustainability education, and inclusive, culturally rooted development pathways. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias