CIGS' Feminist Writing vent

By Taoyuan Luo and Luna Fu

The CIGS’ Feminist Writing Event was held on 25th June 2024 at the School of Sociology and Social Policy (SSP), University of Leeds. PGR students and early-career researchers, working in the field of gender and feminism from SSP and beyond, joined this one-day event. The event has three sections, including writing exercises, a panel discussion on ‘Getting Your First Article from PhD Published’, and collaborative writing sessions. Our aim was to create a supportive community for students and staff to share difficulties in their writings and demystify the publication process for PGRs. As the organizers of this event, we are sharing our learnings from these three sections and reflecting on the process. In this blog, we hope to provide useful information for those who could not attend and help fellow PGRs overcome doubts about their authority.

The first session kicked off with an engaging collaborative writing session guided by our writing facilitator from OD&PL (Organisational Development and Professional Learning), Dr Jennifer Rivas Perez. Jennifer led various writing exercises designed to help PGRs effectively start their writing projects. With Jennifer’s guidance, we engaged in exercises that made us rethink our intended readers and reimagine how we can use our words to be in a conversation with both our peers and those outside our field. We also reconsidered the purpose of our writing: why we write what we write and how our words matter to the research community, readers, and people outside academia. Jennifer introduced us to the idea of ‘free writing’, a practice of writing without stopping and concern for structure. We used this technique to explore our projects, reflecting on why our arguments matter. These exercises provided an opportunity for us to reflect on our writing plan, our in-progress works, and our writing techniques.

Picture 1 Caption: Students and staff practice writing to think (Photographor: Luna Fu)

 

The second section is a panel discussion on ‘Getting Your First Article from PhD Published’. The panel invites two editors of leading academic journals to share their experiences and suggestions for academic publishing, Professor Karen Throsby and Dr Roxana Barbulescu. Professor Karen Throsby is a member of the editorial board of The

Sociological Review. Dr Roxana Barbulescu serves on the editorial board of Ethnic and

Racial Studies and the advisory board of Comparative Migration Studies. Karen and Roxana both shared useful advice on many aspects of academic publishing for us PGR students and many in the early stages of their careers.

Picture 2 Caption: panel ‘getting your first article from the PhD published’

From left to right: Dr Roxana Barbulescu, Dr Patricio Simonetto and Professor Karen

Throsby (Photographor: Taoyuan Luo)

 

Roxana encouraged us to get involved by writing book reviews, shorter research notes, and blogs, and to review journals in our discipline. She also suggested participating in the annual conferences of major professional associations, exploring Open Access options, and contributing to special issue collections. She shared her experiences of working with other women in feminist co-authorship, highlighting the importance of mutual care and support among feminist colleagues.

Picture 3 Caption: Dr Roxana Barbulescu is sharing suggestions for PGRs in publishing

(Photographor: Taoyuan Luo)

 

Karen echoed Roxana’s support for PGRs, stressing the need for a stand-alone argument and its novelty. She suggested that PGRs research the journals in their area to understand their missions and goals. Karen emphasized the importance of engaging positively with editors' feedback, acknowledging the limitations of one's study, and making necessary revisions. She advised PGRs to be open to suggestions and consider revisions as a way of opening up more possibilities to make research work better. Karen also offered tips on turning a PhD thesis into a book, focusing on creating a clear narrative, removing jargon, considering the tone and readability, and appealing to a wider readership. She highlighted the need for clear communication.

Picture 4 Caption: Professor Karen Throsby is sharing her experience and suggestions

(Photographor: Luna Fu)

Karen and Roxana’s insights provided a comprehensive overview of the publication process, addressing both common challenges and effective strategies to overcome them.During the panel discussion, PGR students had the opportunities to ask questions such as making chapters publishable, tackling peer reviews, negotiating publication timelines, writing book proposals, turning a thesis into monographs and ways of building their CVs.

Picture 4 Caption: Overcome doubts about your own authority (Photographor: Taoyuan Luo)

The final section is about collective writing, offering postgraduate researchers a unique opportunity to work independently while supporting one another within a community. We spent 2.5 hours writing together, setting individual goals, writing for 25-minute intervals, and then sharing our progress. This process was productive and helped us rethink our journey of writing and our feelings of working with words. Rather than merely focusing on the result and the end product, we found joy in the process. It was exciting to weave together sporadic ideas, surprising to be brought back to the ‘field’ where we did our fieldwork through words, and joyful to (re-)understand people’s everyday lives by revisiting their narratives. It is all about writing, but also more than writing.

Collective writing sessions produce much creativity. During one of our breaks, we discussed our writing mentors to reimagine ways to overcome doubts about our authority. Rebecca Simmons, a PhD student researching queer experiences of menopause at CIGS, shared the symbolism of a cheetah as a mentor—representing efficiency, independence, and calm. Rebecca noted that postgraduate researchers often feel intimidated at academic conferences and workshops, but envisioning a cheetah as a mentor can remind us to stay calm and confident. This discussion led us to reflect on the concept of '偷感青年' (tougan qingnian, low-key youth), an internet buzzword in Chinese social media describing young people who struggle with social interactions and seizing opportunities. This term has multiple nuanced meanings. We use it here specifically to describe the feeling of being sneaky and cautious as a PGR in a big conference or seminar with established scholars. In such situations, we feel restrained and timid, behaving in a shrinking manner due to a lack of confidence. However, when we sit down together, put our thoughts on paper as a group, and share our timidity, we overcome it together. We then have a mentor cheetah, the Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda, as well as the brave red panda from Turning Red with us. The sense of lack of confidence, the hesitation in starting a conversation, and the timidity in facing challenges are reduced.

Collective writing sessions also enhance productivity. Many participants, including those with full-time academic jobs, find it challenging to dedicate time solely to writing. However, our sessions, where we write, share, and reflect together, offer a space for that. We come together and commit to write our projects. We acknowledge the multi-levelled challenges we face (as an individual and as a group of feminist scholars together), validate our feelings, and commit to supporting each other. This collaborative environment not only enhances our productivity but also helps us rediscover the joy inherent in writing.

We appreciate the generous help and guidance from Dr. Patricio Simonetto. Without his time and efforts in helping us organize this event, it would not have been possible. We also appreciate Dr Jennifer Rivas Perez, Dr Roxana Barbulescu, and Professor Karen Throsby for their preparations and support in sharing their experiences with PGRs. More importantly, we appreciate the fellow PGRs and early-career researchers who participated in our event and contributed significantly during the sessions. It was a pleasure to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones. We hope the event was helpful in navigating obstacles in your research journey and building a sense of feminist community.