Skills course | Januari 2022 | Universiteit Utrecht
Valorisatie wordt in de wetenschap steeds belangrijker. En dan gaat het er niet alleen over dat je onderzoek aansluiting vindt bij maatschappelijke thema’s, maar ook dat je aan het brede publiek duidelijk kunt maken waar het over gaat en wat er interessant aan is. In deze korte, intensieve schrijfcursus leer je in verschillende tekstgenres je onderzoek te presenteren. Hoe kun je in een opiniërende column de aansluiting zoeken bij de actualiteit? Welke offers moet je (niet) brengen wanneer je in de media komt of een boek schrijft voor een publieksuitgeverij? Hoe kun je je onderzoek ‘framen’? De cursus bestaat uit schrijfoefeningen en discussies.

Groningen | 4, 11 and 25 February 2022; 4 March and 11 March 2022
This course will introduce students to contemporary works of creative nonfiction and invite students to develop their own writing practice within this rich and diverse genre. Participants will read recent short-form works that incorporate memoir alongside biography, historical narrative, and cultural commentary using a variety of formal strategies. Treating these works as mentor texts, students will also produce their own creative nonfiction and will cultivate an awareness of the various ways in which they might choose to draw inspiration from as well as innovate on current approaches to the genre. Every seminar meeting will include a workshop component, with students presenting drafts for peer feedback. Polished versions of these drafts will then be submitted at the end of the block. A final reflective meta-writing assignment will create space for student authors to consider how their thematic preoccupations and aesthetic choices connect to the course readings and to the larger body of contemporary creative nonfiction writing. Guidance will also be provided for students who are interested in submitting their work for possible publication in literary magazines.

Amsterdam | April – May 2022, exact dates to be confirmed
This course focuses on contemporary debates in life writing as a newly emerging field across disciplines. Life writing is an umbrella term for a wide range of writings about one’s own or someone else’s life, such as biography, autobiography, memoir, diary, bio-fiction and travel writing. In the course we will explore various life stories of men and women in the 20th and 21st centuries, who each had their own unique set of life experiences, beliefs and perceptions. This will help gain a richer understanding of how individuals move through, interact with, and are affected by the major events of their time — and how their lives are narrated, either by themselves or by others.