Writing Retreat for PhD students with research interest in sustainability

Doctoral students from different universities and various disciplines reflect on their writing during a workshop at Uppsala University Campus Gotland

PhD students from universities in Sweden, Germany, France and South Africa are visiting Visby on 8 - 15 April to participate in writing workshops at Campus Gotland and to focus on individual research projects on sustainability issues related to economy, energy, industrial processes, equality, social movements and political mobilisation.

This is the second year that Campus Gotland is hosting a writing retreat for PhD students engaged in sustainability. One of the initiators is Jenny Helin, Senior lecturer at Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, who have organised similar activities at other universities in Sweden and abroad.

– Campus Gotland is such a fantastic environment for writing and it feels so meaningful to provide this opportunity for the doctoral students to come and work here and build new networks. The retreat is part of all other activities taking place at Campus Gotland in order to strengthen transdisciplinary research in sustainability.

During the week, the PhD students are participating in workshops to get to know each other and develop their writing processes. The writing activities include to work together in silent rooms.

–  You get an enormous amount of energy just by sitting together writing on your individual projects. During the week, we also do social activities and joint excursions in Visby. All PhD students are staying at the same place so the whole week creates a lot of opportunities for vibrant discussions and concentrated writing.

There has been a big interest for the limited number of scholarships that includes a writing space, travel tickets and housing. The initiative is part of the open seminar series Sustainability Talks, and the overall focus on education, research and collaboration for sustainability at Campus Gotland.