The nature of academic writing will be at the centre of an upcoming writing retreat open to the Brock community.

Held Thursday, April 20 and Friday, April 21 in Pond Inlet, the free event will focus on expanding understandings of academic writing and contributing to an upcoming special issue of the Brock Education Journal (BEJ).

“Participants will be encouraged to challenge their views of the academic writing process and their own identities as academic writers by engaging with mindfulness, creativity and innovation,” says Vera Woloshyn, Professor in the Faculty of Education. Woloshyn is organizing the event with Snežana Obradović-Ratković, Research Officer and Instructor in the Faculty of Education.

The retreat will include mindful writing workshops, speaker panels, mindfulness activities, individual writing time and work-in-progress groups.

Participants will also be invited to submit their work for consideration for a special issue of the BEJ examining the changing landscape of writing in academia. The issue will be edited by guest editors Obradović-Ratković, Woloshyn and Sam Illingworth, Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University.

“Increasingly, scholars are using narrative, fiction, poetry, playwriting and other forms of expression as venues for knowledge mobilization and translation,” says Obradović-Ratković. “These scholars argue that stories and creative productions hold universal appeal and extend the reach of scholarship, broadening and deepening engagements with communities outside academia.”

Event participants are invited to attend the entire two-day retreat or choose to attend one or more individual sessions.

Registration is limited and has been extended to Friday, April 14 at noon. Brock employees and students can register through ExperienceBU. Anyone not affiliated with Brock can email Woloshyn at vwoloshyn@brocku.ca for registration details. Refreshments will be provided during morning sessions and lunch and refreshments will be provided during afternoon sessions.

This event is sponsored through a BSIG Exchange Grant and the Faculty of Education Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Discretionary Fund.