Developing Creative Practices
As part of my commitment to advocating and nurturing creative praxis I offer a variety of retreats and workshops all of which not only support continual professional development, but also offer a respite from many of the day-to-day demands and pressures of institutional working. In providing a welcoming, safe and supportive space to write, in both traditional AND creative ways, to explore new methods and approaches, and to share fresh ideas and practices with others, I encourage and enable different, impactful, enjoyable, and often cathartic, ways of working. Although much of my contribution thus far in this area has been with academics and students I have also successfully facilitated similar events with local government agencies, third sector organisations and other groups outside of higher education.
Creative practices can lead to alternative ways to approach data analysis and sharing findings, which in turn has implications for the reach that our research might have not least with reference to policy, practice and theory and of course to further research.
My academic writing retreats include dedicated time for traditional academic writing and also some creative exercises to stimulate the writing muscles in different ways, encourage new ways of working and provide some joyful interludes. Participants bring with them a piece or two (or more) they want to work on throughout the retreat; a journal article/chapter, a grant or book proposal, a report, or something similar. In addition to lots of time to write and think I encourage participants to reflect on their writing goals and challenges, and provide critical friend support (i.e. as someone to talk things through with and/or share drafts with), within (and often) beyond the event.
I facilitate one, two and three day (and more) retreats for diverse, often multi-disciplinary groups. With ever-growing teaching, administrative and pastoral roles and tasks, even grabbing an hour or two, let alone a whole interrupted day, or more, to write and reflect can prove challenging for many academics and attendees invariable comment on the value of being part of a shared and supportive intensive writing space. Equally valuable for students (from undergraduate, through masters to doctorate) and faculty (from early career to professor) these types of events work best off-line in a space away from the everyday working environment. However, I also ensure that on-line writing retreats are enjoyable, meaningful and productive.
Academic Writing Retreats
Geared to the interests and concerns of participants my creative writing workshops explore different ways to tell substantive and methodological research (and other) stories. This includes working with prompts, including personal artefacts, research diaries and data, pedagogic reflections, emotional, practical, theoretical and P/political concerns. This way of working, of writing, of ‘alternative’ storytelling, explicitly blurs the boundaries of ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’, which is arguably true of all narratives, whether made explicit or not. In addition to challenging traditional understandings of ‘good’, ‘valid’ and ‘tidy’ research and publication creative writing enables us, sometimes in just a few words, to challenge grand narratives and taken for granted myths and assumptions. Such work is also significant in terms of impact. In 2017 I wrote a short story about a little girl celebrating her birthday on Remembrance Sunday. Written from the perspective of Poppy the story is about homelessness, food poverty and (misplaced) patriotism. Poppy | ABCtales So far this story has had close to 16,000 reads on the site and I’ve also included it in an academic publication and in a number of presentations and lectures. The positive comments I continue to receive about Poppy reminds me of the significance of this kind of writing.
In addition to writing some short pieces of prose/poetry/song lyrics and the rest … in these sessions participants also practice some creative editing. Workshops typically last two-three hours and can be successfully delivered off or on-line.
Creative Writing Workshops
Creative Research Methods Training
In my creative research methods training workshops participants are encouraged to reflect on what tools (methods) might be best to use to gather data, to engage with and reflect on relationships with research participants, and to build positive relationships within research teams. This kind of method/ological exploration and activity encourages work across cultures and between, and beyond, academic disciplines, and has political and epistemological value in that it explicitly supports the argument that our research issue/concern/topic should always determine the method adopted. Additionally, creative practices can lead to alternative ways to approach data analysis and sharing findings (such as those explored and practiced in my Creative Writing Workshops) which in turn has implications for the reach that our research might have not least with reference to policy, practice and theory, and of course to further research.
Focussed on the needs of participants these events include consideration of auto/biographical approaches, visual methods, digital methods, arts-based methods, alternative approaches to data analysis and more. There is no typical time frame here and workshops can last a couple of hours or a few days and can be organised as one-offs or as a series of connected workshops. The focus of each workshop determines whether delivery will work best off or on-line.
