There’s no such thing as the Ivory Tower. Colleges and universities are
not isolated enclaves, and they really never were. Public engagement has
always been, or should always have been anyway, an essential part of the
core mission of higher education. But how do we reach the public? This
age of constant media babble and a vast explosion of online and print
publications have transformed the traditional pathways of publication,
prestige, and engagement. Academics – experts in so many things – need
to be part of the conversation. In fact, the variety of media voices has
only made expertise and authority more important.
In this workshop, David M. Perry will help you reframe your expertise in
ways that are compelling for both readers and, critically, the editors
who decide whether or not to commission and publish your work, while
remaining true to your work and your goals. As a medieval history
professor at Dominican University, a small teaching-oriented school in
the Chicago area, David began publishing opinion essays and commentary
in 2013. Now with over 500 published pieces in dozens of outlets
(including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and so many
more) on both historical topics and personal ones like mental health and
parenting, David will offer his templates for both essays and the
pitches to editors that sell the essays both as a practical tool for you
to use and as exercises to rethink how to apply your skills as an
academic to new genres, media, and communities.
This is an active learning workshop. Bring one or more ideas for a
public-facing writing project that you might like to try. It doesn’t
have to be directly connected to your academic discipline or field.
David will present for about half the time and try to answer all your
questions –including about counting this work for tenure and promotion,
dealing with the good and bad of social media, and how to fit this kind
of work into an academic career – and then you’ll do some writing of
your own.
Register for the February 20th Zoom event at: http://bit.ly/3NmTbKq