Meeting an eel face to face: Rosaleen Duffy explains

story telling team

In September, Prof Rosaleen Duffy took part in a live storytelling event in Sheffield. The event was organised by Dr Judith Krauss, University of York, to bring together researchers working on how humans and wildlife live together. The speakers were trained by Tim Ralphs, a professional storyteller, and encouraged to develop (and then perform) a short story about their work. The stories ranged from living with elephants in Tanzania to working with wolves in Spain.

Rosaleen talked about her experience of meeting an eel face to face at Lough Neagh Fishermen’s cooperative in Northern Ireland. She reflected on the hazards faced by eels on their long journey from the Sargasso sea to Europe, and back again. The meeting revealed the shared vulnerabilities of people and wildlife – both are trapped inside a destructive capitalism system which they must escape in order to flourish. 

You can watch her full performance here

and the full set of stories are here