Michael Lang

Biography

Dr. Michael Lang is an Assistant Professor (Teaching and Research) in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary and Director of the Healing Lens Research Lab (website link below), a transdisciplinary research and creative practice lab dedicated to advancing documentary film and digital storytelling as rigorous, ethical, and impactful methodologies in health and wellness contexts. Situated within the Faculty of Nursing, the Lab brings together health researchers, clinicians, filmmakers, digital storytelling facilitators, educators, and community partners to explore how stories, when created and mobilized with care, can shape education, influence practice, and support individual and collective wellbeing. Dr. Lang’s work sits at the intersection of health research, documentary filmmaking, and knowledge translation, with a particular focus on how narrative and visual practices can deepen understanding of illness, caregiving, patient experience, and human flourishing. Over the past fifteen years, he has facilitated the creation of more than 1,000 digital stories with patients, family caregivers, healthcare providers, students, and community members, and has trained over 100 facilitators through Common Language Digital Storytelling, an international organization he founded to support ethical storytelling practice in healthcare, education, and community settings.

Dr. Lang’s research and creative practice examine how storytelling can be integrated into healthcare, education, advocacy, and community contexts in ways that are both methodologically rigorous and deeply human. His work explores digital storytelling and documentary film not simply as communication tools, but as forms of inquiry, reflection, relationship-building, and knowledge mobilization that can influence how people understand illness, care, identity, and lived experience. Grounded in participatory and relational approaches, his scholarship focuses on ethical storytelling practices, story-based education and knowledge translation, community-engaged media projects, and the therapeutic and meaning-making dimensions of narrative creation. 

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Lang is an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries and educational media projects have been integrated into healthcare curricula, professional development initiatives, and public engagement campaigns across Canada and internationally. Supported by organizations including CIHR, the TELUS Fund, the Wellcome Trust, and the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health, his films and digital media projects have collectively reached millions of viewers and contributed to more humanistic, accessible, and socially responsive approaches to health research, education, and practice.

The best way to learn more about Dr. Lang's academic and film work is at www.healinglenslab.ca