Abstract
In universities, constant pressure to meet publishing imperatives is producing a demoralised, isolated and fatigued workforce. While supporting research writing is recognised as critical for a vibrant research environment, often silence surrounds practices and processes leading to publication. The academic writing retreat model has proven efficacious in providing dedicated time to boost writing productivity and a collegial ethos that fosters cooperative models of intellectual generosity. Participants consistently endorse the model for being able to build on this community/culture that is largely absent from routine academic life. In this chapter, I explore the benefits for doctoral students and academics of ongoing writing retreat communities that meet in residential and on-campus settings. I report on a follow-up study of a community practising generous scholarship created as part of an Australian university’s strategy to strengthen its research environment. Longitudinal data (from 20 writing retreats I facilitated over 3 years) and evaluations collected as a normal part of retreat practice provide evidence of publications, sharing of writing practices and publishing knowledge/experience, often leading to participant-led initiatives to establish new groups. I propose that retreat processes are pivotal in engendering a supportive and collegial network across disciplines and seniority levels, and a vigorous writing culture. They strengthen individual and collective writing identities, thereby subverting neo-liberal values that privilege performativity, erode collegiality and fracture communities. I conclude by suggesting that despite the demonstrated ‘ecosocial’ value of this sustained community of practice, retreats dwell precariously as ‘fringe’ communities, since funding concerns and time scarcity constantly destabilise the model.
The original version of this chapter was revised: The erratum to this chapter is available at DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2866-3_28
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2866-3_28
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Notes
- 1.
By way of example, I am writing this chapter at a writing retreat in New Norcia, 132 kms north of Perth.
- 2.
Our end of retreat evaluations routinely capture this information of which I have a corpus of over 500.
- 3.
The ECU writing community has developed over a sustained period of time and has demanded commitment from participants attending them and the university funding them. Being part of the university’s research strategy has increased the impact of the retreats. But this is no longer the case as the funding has shifted to the faculties, and some faculties cannot fund them due to recent cuts; hence, the future of the retreats is uncertain.
- 4.
During the time to the study these were: the Faculty of Education and Arts; the Faculty of Computing, Health and Science; the Faculty of Business and Law, and the regional campus comprised staff from several faculties.
- 5.
This project has been approved by the ECU Human Research Ethics Committee 27th September 2012. Ethics approval Permit No: 7984.
- 6.
Also refer to our previous publications. Knowles and Grant (forthcoming). Intellectual generosity in times of austerity and audit: Accounting for the intangible benefits of the academic writing retreat.
- 7.
Please note that while an attempt has been made to ‘classify’ publications in terms of eligibility for Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) purposes, this may not be entirely accurate since a formal verification process has not been undertaken. For example, some creative books may not satisfy the HERDC definition of research, and some published conference papers may not pass the stringent HERDC requirements for peer review and national/international significance [update as ORI did check the RMS].
- 8.
For a detailed account of how the retreat model works, see Grant (2008).
- 9.
In Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ), we are both involved in pan-university writing retreats that have convened about 30 times in the past decade or more (see Grant 2006). We have also done retreats for groups from our own universities and, by invitation, for other institutions in Australia, Canada and NZ.
- 10.
Women Writing Away (NZ), founded in 1997 and Women Writing Away (WA) founded in October 2003 are interuniversity writing communities that meet two or three times a year New Zealand at Lake Taupo and in Perth, Western Australia for a 4–5 day residential writing retreat. In WA I have organised 36 retreats and at least 20 women from the university/ECU have attended retreats for which they self-fund.
- 11.
In some departments such as Speech Pathology and Nursing there are now annual writing retreats organised by staff in those departments. Several writing groups are also in evidence from pairs to small groups in Creative Writing, mixed disciplines etc.
- 12.
Women Writing Away (NZ) and Women Writing Away (WA) are in partnership and share resources.
- 13.
In Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ), an anonymous donor has sponsored women to attend their Women Writing Away retreats since 2013.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the many colleagues over the years who have attended writing retreats and generously offered ideas and energy to make those events vibrant, instructive and enjoyable. I am very grateful to Dr Susan Hill (Research Development Officer at Edith Cowan University) for kindly assisting with the survey design and analysis and her ongoing interest. I am indebted to A/Professor Barbara Grant of The University of Auckland for her generosity in providing the writing retreat model and for continuing to share her thinking and experiences of how the retreat model transforms itself in the changing landscape, and for her feedback on this chapter. My thanks to Jeanne Kentel who attended the 2007 Brock University Writing Retreat for Faculty of Education in Canada for introducing us to the term “practising generous scholarship”.
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Knowles, S.S. (2017). Communities Practising Generous Scholarship: Cultures of Collegiality in Academic Writing Retreats. In: McDonald, J., Cater-Steel, A. (eds) Implementing Communities of Practice in Higher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2866-3_4
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