The Humanities Center invites applications for its 2022-2023 Writing for the Public Program. Up to 16 faculty members will receive a two-day virtual workshop offered by the nationally-recognized Op-Ed Project. They will then collaborate on their work in a subsequent afternoon session led by Professor Kimberly Hamlin. Faculty who complete the program will receive $250 in professional expenses.
The Writing for the Public Program helps humanities scholars communicate their work to a non-scholarly audience. The workshops include practical exercises, information on pitching and crafting articles and book manuscripts, and collaborative discussion of participant writing. Participants will leave the workshop with one or more op-ed articles ready for submission to a newspaper or periodical. Participants in the previous Writing for the Public Workshop placed more than a dozen articles in prominent national venues including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Conversation. Participants in this program will have wide latitude to take the virtual workshop at their convenience over the next four months.
The Op-Ed Project offers its virtual workshops twice per month. Workshops run 3.5 hours per day on two consecutive days. Typical times are W and Th or Th an F at 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., -2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., or 3 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Interested faculty might wish to review the current schedule of Op-Ed Project workshops; the schedule for February will be announced soon. The in-house workshop coordinated by Professor Hamlin is tentatively scheduled for 12 noon - 5 p.m. , Friday, March 10 (though this time may be changed based on the needs of participants).
Application is simple. Please submit a brief (one-paragraph) statement describing your potential op-ed topic; its relation to your research or artistic production; and your position and years of service at Miami. In the same document, please paste a brief c.v. of your research or creative activity. In selecting participants, the Humanities Center Steering Committee will consider scholarly record, progress on the project, and career stage. Please submit your application as a single PDF titled "[your surname] Book Proposal Application.pdf" to humanitiesgrants@miamioh.edu. Please write “Writing for the Public Workshop” in the subject heading of your message.
Writing for the Public is open to all full-time faculty members in the humanities, broadly construed. Visiting faculty are eligible to apply. Participants must agree to 1) enroll upon acceptance in a two-day, virtual “Write to Change the World” workshop with the Op-Ed Project; 2) draft an 800-word op-ed article prior to the first session of the virtual workshop; 3) complete the on-line workshop prior to February 2023; 4) present an op-ed during an in-person session in March.
Please consult the Faculty Opportunities page for current deadline information.