The University of Melbourne’s inaugural Disastrous Writing workshop successfully provided a dedicated space for disaster management researchers and practitioners to practice and focus on writing – a task that often becomes challenging due to lack of time and resources.
The two-day, face-to-face workshop was hosted by Dr Kate Brady (University of Melbourne) on 5 and 6 June, with support from Natural Hazards Research Australia. The workshop brought together researchers and practitioners for intensive writing workshops, interspersed with networking activities to facilitate collaborations between attendees.
“There is often this looming writing pile for people working or researching in this space,” said Dr Brady. “The idea behind this workshop was to give them the time, encouragement and guidance needed to complete their writing goals, as well as to meet and collaborate with others in the disaster management sector.”
Each day of the workshop included two blocks of dedicated writing time, a ‘speed dating’ networking activity and a sharing session for attendees to explain things they needed help with so that others could help connect them with resources needed to resolve those issues.
When asked what they were able to achieve during the workshop, attendees reported being able to write portions of their thesis, refine their project aims, draft final papers and articles, focused reading, active mind-mapping a research issue, and meet new people with similar interests and useful connections.
Natural Hazards Research Australia researcher Lyndsey Wright from Altometer Business Intelligence attended the workshop and reflected on the benefits of dedicated writing time.
“What a luxury and a privilege to spend two full days total focused on writing,” Lyndsey said. “I got more completed in my two days at Disastrous Writing than I have in weeks at my desk on my own.”
Vana Demetriou, Research Services Officer at Natural Hazards Research Australia, also attended the workshop and praised its success.
“I had a truly productive and fulfilling two days,” Vana said. “My main intention was to get some serious writing done but my highlight was the new connections made and the wonderful people I met. It was a great success, thank you Dr Kate Brady for bringing this event to fruition.”
The workshop was based on existing Thesis Bootcamp run by the multiple Australian universities and extended Shut Up and Write programs.
This success of this initial workshop reflects the need for increased writing opportunities for disaster management researchers and practitioners. There are more writing workshops being planned for late-2023.
For more information, contact Dr Kate Brady: kate.brady@unimelb.edu.au.