The 2nd RIDERS workshop will take place at the University of York on June 18th 2012. 
 
RIDERS - http://www.riders-project.net/
 
RIDERS stands for Research in Interactive Drama Environments, Role-play and Storytelling and aims:
 
	• To form and support a multi-disciplinary community of researchers with expertise in 
enhancing technological, social or entertaining aspects of Digital Storytelling research.  
	• To develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which narrative constructs can be 
effectively translated to interactive media such as games, performances or installations. 
	• To develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between user, media and narratives. 
	• To document and disseminate the current state of the art in interactive storytelling 
technologies, both from the a UK and international perspective. 
	• To generate methodologies for designing and evaluating interactive digital storytelling systems.
 
STORYTELLING WORKSHOP @ The University of York
 
The one day workshop at the University of York will focus on two specific aspects of Interactive 
storytelling, namely, interaction role-play and story development writing. 
 
Morning Session: Role-Play (Debbie Manship - Role Call)
 
After a successful career as an actress, including several TV series (Angels, Dr Who, The District 
Nurse), Debbie established Role Call in 1989 as a training consultancy specialising in providing 
role-players and facilitators for training courses within both public and private sectors.  Role 
Call’s clients include HMRC, AstraZeneca, The Cabinet Office, Fujitsu and Deutsche Bank, for whom 
Role Call has provided everything from management development courses through to live event 
productions. Allen and Overy are a long standing client – Debbie’s first Partner and Associate 
Development programmes were in 1993! Debbie also has more than 20 years experience working with 
health professionals at all levels and disciplines, both as a facilitator and roleplayer. 
 
Afternoon Session: Storytelling and Narratology (Richard Walsh - The University of York)
 
The afternoon session will focus on exploring narratology and its driving mechanisms and concepts 
from the perspective of Interactive storytelling and an interactive user/inter-actor.  
Richard Walsh came to York from a Research Fellowship at Cambridge, during which he pursued 
research interests in American Literature. This resulted in several articles on contemporary 
American novelists, as well as Radical Theatre (1993) and Novel Arguments: Reading Innovative 
American Fiction (Cambridge University Press, 1995). His research interests have since moved beyond
the horizons of the American and contemporary towards a theoretical concern with fiction and 
narrative in general. He has published articles interrogating some of the core issues of narrative 
theory: the status of the narrator; the nature of emotional involvement in fiction; authorship and 
narrative creativity; the concept of fabula; fictionality and mimesis, narrative media and 
narrative voice. The Rhetoric of Fictionality (Ohio State University Press, 2007) is the culmination
of this work; but it has also led on to new research into the relation between the narrative 
imagination and newly emergent media.
 
PARTICIPATION TO THE WORKSHOP
 
Please contact Andriana Gkaniatsou (Andriana_Evgenia.Gkaniatsou@hw.ac.uk) to register your interest
and we will send you detailed information for travel and agenda.  Please join the network at the 
following URL: http://www.riders-project.net/index.php?option=com_users&view=registration
 
SUBSIDISED TRAVEL COSTS
 
The RIDERS network will subsidise “reasonable UK” travel costs and expenses (up to £150) for the 
one day workshop at the University of York.