'Writing (on) the Urban Question' offers an exclusive writing workshop designed for doctoral students and early-career academics delving into urban issues. Led by Sarah Butler, a creative writer, literature consultant, project manager, and urban activist based in Manchester, UK, the workshop provides interactive learning of novel writing techniques to elevate your written work.
Target audience — The 4-day workshop aims to bring together engaged early career researchers from diverse disciplines, such as human geography, urban studies, sociology, spatial planning, and politics, hailing from Belgium and Europe. Hosted by the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, the interdisciplinary event caters to scholars who are eager to enhance their writing skills and unleash their creativity while focusing on urban and place-related issues.
About the trainer — Sarah is a novelist with accompanying practice in socially-engaged, place-specific writing. She is fascinated by the relationships between stories, places and communities. Her work explores identity, belonging, landscape and home. Sarah has a particular interest in urban spaces and urban change.
More information about Sarah’s work: http://www.urbanwords.org.uk // http://www.sarahbutler.org.uk
Guest contribution — This edition will be enriched by a guest contribution from Yassmin Abdel-Magied, writer in residence at Passa Porta (Brussels). Yassmin is a Sudanese diaspora author, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate. The former engineer has published five books, most recently, Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism (Walker, 2023). Her social and political commentary has appeared in TIME, The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Arab, and more. Yassmin also writes for stage and screen. In 2020, she co-wrote the immersive theatre production, United Queendom, and is currently developing a number of screenplays with production companies across the globe. More information can be found on Yassmin's website.
At Passa Porta, Yassmin will be working on a new adult novel, focused on life as a migrant Muslim in Francophone Europe.
Workshop content — Participants will explore their own writing styles and consider how creative writing techniques can help enliven and embolden their academic writing. The programme consists of indoor desk-based writing exercises and discussions, as well as writing activities out and about in Brussels, using the city as a rich context to practice a different form of writing.
The workshop focusses on different themes and integrates both collective writing exercises and one-to-one sessions. A detailed programme of the workshop will be available by early May 2024 but here is a sneak peak:
Day 1 [12-5pm] (May 14th): considering our relationship with writing
Day 2 [9am-5pm] (May 15th): writing and place
Day 3 [9am-5pm] (May 16th): writing processes and techniques
Day 4 [9am-1pm] (May 17th): writing and the city
Participation and application process — If you're keen on joining this engaging workshop, kindly submit a single PDF containing a short CV (maximum 2 pages) and a one-page motivation letter. In the motivation letter, briefly outline your research, current writing and how it ties into ‘the urban’, and express what you expect to gain from the workshop.
Please send the combined document to the Centre's coordinator (Lena.Imeraj@vub.be) with the email subject as 'Writing Workshop Application - NAME' by March 15th, 2024. You will receive notification of your application status by March 29th, 2024.
Acceptance criteria are primarily based on your research stage and writing focus. For quality purposes, we can accommodate up to 16-18 participants.
Organiser — Writing (on) the Urban Question is organised and sponsored by the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies.
Date and venue — The workshop will take place from Tuesday, May 14th to Friday, May 17th 2024 at various venues and/or outside locations in Brussels, including the Royal Library of Belgium and the international house of literature Passa Porta.
Registration fees — There is €200 registration fee for the 4-day workshop. This fee includes participation in the workshop, administrative costs, coffee & cake, lunch, and materials. Accommodation and travel expenses need to be covered by the participants. At the Centre, we aim to ensure accessibility. If the registration fee poses a challenge, especially for self-funded scholars, please reach out, and we will work towards a possible solution.