From Research to Publication: Summer School for Academic Writing in English 2022

Postkarte Stift Zwettl

While working on their dissertations, PhD students also become engaged with new and often unknown aspects of the academic world as students seek to advance their professional profiles by publishing book chapters and journal articles, writing proposals for conferences, calls for papers and grants. To learn how to present one’s own PhD topic or the subject of an article in a convincing way is fundamental for the development of young academic scholars.
Thus, the aim of this year ‘s Summer School “From Research to Publication” is to provide doctoral students with the opportunity to improve the structure of their proposals and papers, their academic writing in English, and to learn about publication strategies in the field of humanities. This will be enabled through workshops that focus on different aspects of academic writing and planned writing time, one-to-one specialist feedback on the students’ written work and practices, and peer-to-peer exchange within the group.
The Summer School will be held in English but it is open to all PhD students regardless of the language in which they are writing their texts.

Aim

The Summer School enables PhD students in their active writing phase to dedicate themselves to the focused writing of their dissertation or papers, and to thus progress in their proposed projects over the course of the retreat. Students will spend most of the time writing their individual projects and will have the opportunity to get on their individual questions and receive advice according to their needs.
Free time can be spent exploring the historical monastery, the surrounding landscape, and getting to know other participants.
The four workshops conducted by the writing coach will have the following topics:

1.           Writing the dissertation: organizing time and tasks

2.           Writing book chapters and journal articles;

3.           Writing grant applications;

4.           Writing for public impact/outreach.

One-on-one sessions: In the one-on-one sessions, the writing coach will meet with each participant for one hour to discuss their writing. Each participant will send him an example of their writing beforehand, which he will edit and comment on and then discuss with the participant during the one-on-one session. Participants also have the opportunity to inform the writing coach beforehand about any other issues that they would like him to discuss with them personally or to address in the workshops. He will be accessible to the participants throughout the writing school for non-timetabled discussions and informal conversations and will also participate in all the other scheduled activities.
For a detailed schedule see here

Date & Venue

26 – 30 September, Stift Zwettl

Coach

Dr. Dean Vuletic is a historian of contemporary Europe and the author of the book Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest (London: Bloomsbury, 2018). He holds a PhD from Columbia University. He has experience in writing instruction at different levels, having taught at institutions such as Columbia University, New York University, University of Vienna, the European University Institute and Charles University.

Participants

The Summer School is open to all Fellows of the Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies. Participants must have successfully passed the public presentation of their doctoral project (FÖP). It is designed for students in their active writing phase to work on a specific writing project, such as dissertation chapters or a paper. It is not designed for students who have already finalized their dissertation and only need to edit it or who are preparing for the defense, since one of the main aims is to provide feedback and support during the very writing process.

Costs

Costs for accommodation, breakfast and lunch will be covered by the Doctoral School and the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies. Participants will be asked for a cost contribution of 50 EUR per student.

Organization

Erika Meneghini and Stefanie Sailer in collaboration with the DSHCS

How to apply

Please send the following material as ONE PDF file until July 31, 2022 to writingretreat_dshcs.hkw@univie.ac.at:

  • The application form
  • A letter of motivation including a work plan for the Summer School, approximately 500 words. The work plan should clearly describe which part of their dissertation or article they are planning to work on. The plan should set realistic targets for the duration of the Summer School.
  • A CV with a list of publications, maximum 2 pages, also including the year of doctoral studies and dissertation topic. All documents must be submitted in English. 

Corona measures: The writing retreat will follow all the restrictions that are set by the Austrian government. Students who are ill or feeling unwell are not able to participate. The seminar room will be arranged according to the rules of social distancing.