Faculty members and officers of administration with writing projects can transition to and jump-start their summer research and writing in a supportive environment at the Week of Writing.
The weeklong, virtual, asynchronous writing retreat takes place June 21-25 and is sponsored and facilitated by UO’s Center on Diversity and Community.
During the retreat, faculty members will be placed in small groups with peers from other disciplines who have similar amounts of available daily writing time during the week and similar preferences for contact; faculty members may also opt to work solo. The groups are designed to encourage participants to meet their goals, offering a form of supportive accountability.
Lara Bovilsky, the center’s faculty associate and associate professor of English, runs the program and will offer all participants guidance on how to plan for the week and throughthe summer to accomplish writing and research goals. Bovilsky will provide daily ideas and direction to help make writing practice “productive and contented.”
“Faculty often plan to finish writing projects or dig into new ones in summer,” Bovilsky said, “but it can be hard to get started and to plan and execute a successful summer.”
Bovilsky described the program as “allowing time to recharge after a difficult year at the same time that we go deep into our writing and research projects.”
Mike Murashige, the center’s writing consultant, will offer daily optional webinars on writing covering subjects such as “Making Arguments” and “Procrastination and Writing Resistance.”
All participants will receive a book on writing or a gift certificate to a local Black-owned business. The week will also feature some outdoor wellness activities such as yoga and bird-watching.
The Week of Writing is part of the center’s Writing Circles program that happens throughout the academic year. This is the third Week of Writing being offered; the next Week of Writing is planned for December. To find out more see the Division of Equity and Inclusion website or register for Week of Writing via the program’s Qualtrics link.