The Power of Counter-Narratives

If the first panel uncovers how exclusion operates, this second one focuses on the

possibilities of resistance. “The Power of Counter-Narratives” brings together

thinkers and practitioners who use storytelling, history, and collective memory as

tools of emancipation.

Marie Moise (Italy) is a philosopher and activist whose work centres on Black

feminism and the politics of memory. As co-author of Future. Il domani narrato dalle

voci di oggi, she explores how reclaiming suppressed stories — from colonial

resistance to migration — can open new spaces of belonging in contemporary

Europe. Moïse’s interventions consistently connect structural critique to hope,

insisting that narratives are not only tools of critique but also of healing and

imagination.

Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak (Poland) is a linguist and critical discourse analyst

whose research on racialised language in public and educational settings exposes

how Europe’s self-image as “colour-blind” often silences racial realities. Her work

emphasises the need to make visible the everyday narratives that sustain racism —

and to create counter-narratives that affirm dignity, agency, and plurality.

Moderated by Mette Toft Nielsen (Spark Teachers, ENAR foundation), this

conversation will examine storytelling as a pedagogical imaginative practice: how

can educators and cultural institutions create spaces where marginalised voices are

not merely included but centred? How can history education itself become an act of

narrative repair?