Rethinking our Writing, Rewriting our Thinking: A workshop series

Program Areas – Education and Engagement, Archived

A workshop series designed to help ASU colleagues bring their work to larger audiences
February 23 / March 8 / April 13 / May 4, 2010
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ABOUT
This series of four free workshops targets the distinguished researchers of our academic community whose insightful experiences, ideas and knowledge receive a great deal of attention and reward, but whose audiences are often limited to colleagues in particular fields of study rather than an informed and curious public. Indeed, we might ask, “Why don’t other people, those who might one day benefit from practical or theoretical applications of our work, know about us and what we do?”

The walls of the academy are sometimes isolating. There are avenues to share our research with the larger world. Even in the midst of this economic downturn, major magazines, book publishers (trade and university presses), newspapers and online journals are seeking knowledgeable experts who can write in an accessible and palatable way. This writing style – creative nonfiction – emphasizes narrative storytelling as a means to communicate ideas and information.

These workshops are designed to help colleagues make research accessible through creative nonfiction techniques and, at the same time, introduce potential venues such as books, magazines and blogs in which newly reconsidered and rewritten work might appear. Each workshop has a dual focus – writing and marketing – and brings together writers on campus who have successfully shared their research with a popular audience and a featured special guest writer or editor.

Coordinated by

  • Lee Gutkind, Distinguished Writer in Residence, ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and founding editor of literary magazine Creative Nonfiction
  • Sarah ‘Amira’ De la Garza, associate professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and author

Sponsored by

  • Initiative for Innovative Inquiry, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication; Institute for Social Science Research; Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

THE WORKSHOPS
Tuesday, February 23, 4-6pm (open to all ASU faculty, staff and graduate students)
Alumni Room, Memorial Union, Tempe Campus
How to translate your work for a larger audience – with integrity to your subject

  • David Fugate, President, LaunchBooks Literary Agency
  • Joel Garreau, Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and former editor at The Washington Post
  • Melissa Pritchard, Professor of English and Women’s Studies
  • Stephen Pyne, Regents Professor, School of Life Sciences
  • Edward Sylvester, Professor, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Monday, March 8, 4-6pm (open to all ASU faculty and staff only)
Alumni Room, Memorial Union, Tempe Campus
The importance of narrative and telling your story vividly and responsibly

  • Pagan Kennedy, author and Dartmouth University professor, on “Translating your work to the Op-Ed pages.”
  • Lee Gutkind, Distinguished Writer in Residence, ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and founding editor of literary magazine Creative Nonfiction
  • Terry Greene Sterling, Writer in Residence and Faculty Associate, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Tuesday, April 13, 4-6pm (open to all ASU faculty and staff only)
(location TBD and will be included in your RSVP confirmation)
The “Creative” and the “Nonfiction” Tug of War: A Delicate and Difficult Balance

  • Daniel Sarewitz, co-director of ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, author and columnist for Nature
  • Lee Gutkind, Distinguished Writer in Residence, ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and founding editor of literary magazine Creative Nonfiction
  • Sarah ‘Amira’ De la Garza, associate professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and author

Thursday, May 4, 5-7pm (open to all ASU faculty and staff only)
Alumni Room, Memorial Union, Tempe Campus
Writing book proposals & marketing what you write

  • David Fugate, president, LaunchBooks Literary Agency
  • Rebecca Skloot, award-winning science writer and author of the New York Times best seller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  • Lee Gutkind, Distinguished Writer in Residence, ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, and founding editor of literary magazine Creative Nonfiction

Additional Team Members