Alex Pillen

Alex Pillen is passionate about the role of language in our cultural lives. The way we use pronouns, as well as tell stories reflect how we experience the world.

Pronouns are found in humanity’s earliest writings. They can be traced over thousands of years. What does a pronoun do each time it is spoken? Personal pronouns, such and ‘they’, ‘she’ or ‘he’ tell us about gender. Pronouns also carve a structure into our social reality as we talk about ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Storytelling helps us to sculpt social worlds too. We all tell stories all the time, they are often short but important. The way in which we design our stories, their pattern is different from one culture to another, one gender to another, one person to another. Stories and the way we experience reality go hand in hand. The patterns in our stories make us see the world in a particular way.

Alex Pillen offers talks about ‘Pronouns & Storytelling’ from January 2025.