Beyond the Single Story
Dialogue, Geography, and Global Citizenship
Beyond the Single Story is a dialogue-based learning experience developed by The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute. Inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s influential idea of “the single story,” the program explores how narratives shape the ways we imagine peoples, places, cultures, nations, and ourselves.
Through dialogue, inquiry, media analysis, storytelling, mapping, and reflective practice, participants investigate the simplified narratives they inherit about the world — and the ways those narratives influence identity, empathy, belonging, and global understanding.
The program asks questions such as:
- Where do our images of the world come from?
- What stories dominate our understanding of certain places or communities?
- What perspectives are absent or marginalized?
- How do media, education, travel, history, and algorithms shape our geographical imaginations?
- What changes when we encounter more layered human stories?
Rather than focusing on “correct” perspectives, Beyond the Single Story emphasizes curiosity, listening, complexity, and dialogue across difference.
Possible formats include:
- webinars and online conversations
- classroom workshops
- teacher trainings
- youth dialogue circles
- intercultural exchange programs
- media literacy sessions
- conference experiences
- citizen assembly adaptations
Activities may include:
- story mapping
- identity mapping
- visual inquiry
- reflective writing
- media analysis
- dialogue protocols
- “single story” interviews
- local/global comparison exercises
- lexicon-building activities
At its core, Beyond the Single Story explores a central GIEI question: How do the stories we inherit shape the worlds we are able to imagine?