Writing as Advocacy

A workshop series for graduate students, March 28–29, 2024

The spring 2024 RDE workshop for WashU graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences will focus on writing as a tool for advocacy of various forms. Through a series of writing workshops and discussions with an array of humanities practitioners, this event will explore ways that graduate students can use their most well-honed and readily deployable skill — writing — to achieve a variety of ends across the graduate school experience, both on campus and off. Students participating in this workshop will be invited to think capaciously about writing, community and the role of the humanities PhD in the contemporary world.

How can creative practices renew us as writers and empower us to ask bolder questions in our scholarship? 
How can we use research and writing skills to identify and advocate for the university we believe in? 
How do we connect writing and research with our values? 
How do we create communities of practice stemming from our scholarship? 
How might our scholarship translate into meaningful change? 
How do we write ourselves into thriving as humanities practitioners? 
How can we develop practices that connect our research with where those topics live in the world today?  

This workshop is available to all levels of graduate students — we particularly encourage early career graduate students to join. Following the event, all participants will receive a free hour of editing services from invited guest Katina Rogers, author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work

We have reached capacity for this workshop. If you wish to join the waiting list, please fill out the form below. 

Workshop schedule

Thursday, March 28  

Women’s Building Formal Lounge 

Afternoon session only: 4-5:30 pm
Roundtable with all guests
Writing as advocacy

Social hour, open to campus community, 6 pm

Friday, March 29 

Danforth University Center, Room 276 

Morning session: 9:30-10:45 am 
Roopika Risam
Advocating for the university we want, power-mapping the university

Lunch session: 11 am-12:30 pm  
Katja Perat 
Advocating through creativity: critical/artistic reflection on scholarship

Afternoon session 1: 1-2:30 pm 
Maggie Nettesheim Hoffman, Michelle D. Jones 
Advocating for humanities knowledge in the world, writing to create communities of practice

Afternoon session 2: 3-4:30 pm  
Katina Rogers, Ashley Cheyemi McNeil 
Advocating for the whole self on the career pathway; on thriving
 

Roundtable: Writing as Advocacy

Workshop speakers drew from their own experiences to discuss using writing as a tool for advocacy.

Registration

We have reached capacity for this workshop. If you wish to join the waiting list, please fill out the form below by March 15. 

We want to get a sense of who you are! Please answer one of the below questions in 150 words:

Where do you hope your writing will be read? 
What do you like to write about, outside of your research?
Why do you want to come to this event? 
Who do you admire as a writer, and why? 
When did you first feel like a writer?

What does “writing as advocacy” mean to you? There’s no right answer to this question; we’re just curious what you think. (150 words)

This workshop is offered as part of Washington University’s RDE Initiative (Redefining Doctoral Education in the Humanities, or “Ready”). RDE focuses on developing capacities in graduate education essential for success both within academia and in the world beyond. Follow this link for details of past retreats and more on the RDE initiative.