Stages lab at penn state university
About STAGES Lab
The STAGES Lab (Storytelling Across Generations, Environments, and Societies) is a research and storytelling Lab ecosystem based at Penn State University. The Lab is directed by Dr. Mark Ortiz, Assistant Professor of Geography. The STAGES Lab began in 2023 as the Global Youth Storytelling and Research Lab, but in late 2025 evolved in name and scope to reflect the expansion of our work across generations. While we still maintain a strong focus on youth, much of our work now is multigenerational.
Our work is broadly concerned with engaging the complexities of human experiences of environmental and climate change across generations and geographies. We engage creative geographies methods like multimedia storytelling, poetic inquiry, oral history and interview methods, participatory mapping, critical analysis, memoir, and memory studies. We work in collaborative relationship with community-based organizations to develop research that has impact and that prioritizes public accessibility.