Date/Time
Date(s) - 18/03/2024 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Audience:
As part of the NARTI training and development programme, we have organised a summit meeting to launch the Writing for Research and Academic Practice (WRAP), an International network embedding social writing in and beyond academia.
The Network is led by a working group consisting of academic and professional staff (details below) who collectively have a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting writers and their writing practice. All members of the working group have undertaken Structured Writing Retreat (SWR) facilitation training with Professor Rowena Murray and have been actively facilitating retreats for a number of years.
Sarah Haas: academic at Ghent University and University of Copenhagen; Alex Buhmann: academic at BI Norwegian Business School; Alex Kevill: academic at Leeds University Business School; Rowena Murray: academic at University of Strathclyde; Emma Davenport: academic at London Metropolitan University; Wendy Baldwin: independent language professional based in Spain; Joana Zozimo: academic at Lancaster University and based in Portugal; Kate Sotejeff-Wilson: translator and editor based in Finland; Jo Garrick: research support officer/network manager at Leeds University Business School
We would like to invite you to join an online Network Summit event on Monday 18th March 2024 and further details are below:
Network Summit Event (online)
18th March 2024 (12.00-14.00 GMT)
The aim of the summit is to build an agenda for furthering social writing practice by embedding writing in PhD, Early and Mid-Career Researcher development, academic work/study, and teaching and learning. This is critical for current and future academic careers plus in teaching and supervising future generations of researchers as social writing can: facilitate ‘break-though’ writing progress by providing a protected and social space and time away from the usual workplace and other daily distractions; support the development of academic writing skills and competencies, both through academics’ self-guided improvement of their own writing process and through structured inputs of workshop elements during social writing events with pears; increase motivation for writing by building a profession network that serves as community of practice and peer support; and strengthen the professional identity of academics as writers, which helps embed good writing routines into daily work.
The Summit will enable us to hear from different voices and experiences, share best-practice and challenges and explore different ways of engaging. By looking at the work and research that has already been undertaken into academic writing practice and development, the information gathered will help to analyse needs and identify opportunities for sharing and distributing knowledge and insights through various outputs and inform the strategic direction of the network.
Programme:
12.00-12.05 Welcome and Introduce Founding Members – Alex Buhmann and Jo Garrick
12.05-12.20 Network Background/How Did We Get Here/Emerging Issues (past, present, future)/What the Network Does/Doesn’t Do – Rowena Murray
12.20-13.20 Experiences and Perspectives/Q&A – Invite author contributors of Women Writing Socially In Academia to discuss their experiences and perspectives of writing socially and the opportunities this brings
13.20-13.30 Comfort break
13.30-14.00 How Can the Network Support You?/What Next? – Founding members open discussion with audience to find out how the network can support writers and their writing practice
Purpose of the Network
- Research, conduct and promote structured writing retreats (SWRs) as a form of academic development intervention.
- Facilitate the organisation and co-facilitation of SWRs and ‘taster’ retreats
- Mutual mentoring (‘tandem’) between facilitators for peer assessment/mutual learning
- Sharing and exchange of materials/worksheets/frameworks and approaches for workshop elements and tools for writer development during retreats
- Mutual exploration and creation of research opportunities (e.g., coordinating for using retreats/groups for data collection purposes)
- Promotion and discussion of latest research on academic writing development and SWRs and identification of barriers and enablers in engaging in these
- Sharing/promotion of retreat opportunities/offers
- Sharing insights on venues and programme elements for retreats
- Implement robust evaluation of the network and its practices through qualitative and quantitative methods
- Sustainable growth through the access of relevant external funding resource
- Capacity-building as a process of developing and strengthening the skills for academic writing development and practice