At heart, all campuses are campuses are communities of writers, and our faculty writing programming is designed to support the success of faculty as writers.
Whether you write articles, book chapters, grant proposals, creative projects, new course lectures, or letters to your elected officials, our programming is designed to help you carve out uninterrupted time to focus on your writing and network with colleagues across Mason.
Faculty Affairs & Development and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) have partnered to offer the Faculty Writers Community, a combination of weekly writing sprints and Faculty Writing Retreats.
For more information or questions, please contact Faculty Affairs & Development at facaffs@gmu.edu.
Register for the Faculty Writing Retreat
Faculty Writing Retreats are held every January and May. The retreat offers a supportive and collegial community of peers to boost your writing productivity. Participants work on a variety of research, creative, and scholarly projects at all stages of completion.
This multi-day event—co-sponsored by Writing Across the Curriculum, the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Development—offers an active approach to uninterrupted writing time, a chance to learn from our guest speakers, and a supportive and collegial community of peers to boost your writing productivity. Participants work on a variety of research and creative projects at all stages of completion.
This year’s retreats will be held on the following dates:
- Summer: Monday, May 13 & Tuesday, May 14
- Winter: 2024 Winter Retreat Completed
Schedule and Participant Commitment
Our schedule for each day of the retreat is as follows:
- 8:30am-9:00am — Introductions, Coffee & Light Refreshments
- 9:00am-11:00 am — Writing Sprints
- 11:30am-12:30pm — Lunchtime Panels on Zoom
- 1:00pm-3:00pm — Writing Sprints
Registration
Register for Faculty Writing Retreat Panels
Each year, we open up our midday retreat panels to the wider Mason community for colleagues who can’t commit to the full retreat but would like to learn more about the academic writing life.
Monday, May 13 11:30am-12:30pm: Writing to Engage the Public: Moving your Research and Scholarship beyond the Academy
National newspaper and popular magazines offer great opportunities for scholars to bring their work to a wider audiences, but contacting such publications might seem daunting at best. What are the hallmarks of a successful pitch? What are editors looking for from academics? And what resources does Mason offer to help connect faculty members with media outlets? Panelists from all aspects of these pitches share their perspectives on the process, including Neel Patel, staff editor at the New York Times, specializing in guest essays on health and science; Buzz McClain, communications manager at The Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University; and faculty who have successfully pitched and established a presence in public media.
Tuesday: May 14 11:30am-12:30pm: A Conversation with Stephen Kelner: Motivate your Writing!
Motivational psychologist and leadership consultant Stephen Kelner, author of Motivate Your Writing! Using Motivational Psychology to Energize Your Writing Life and president of Ascent Leadership Networks, joins us to share his ongoing research about how academics can draw on their drives of “power, affiliation, and achievement” to increase writing productivity despite the struggles of “distractions, obligations, and procrastination.” Get a head start on organizing and energizing your summer writing and research plans!
Apply to Become a Faculty Writing Fellow
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), in collaboration with Faculty Affairs and Development, is seeking a new Faculty Writing Fellow to support and develop opportunities for faculty members to carve out space for writing and build a supportive writing community at Mason. The Fellowship is a two-year commitment and works alongside a second Fellow, with each Fellow serving as “Incoming Fellow” in their first year and “Continuing Fellow” in their second year.
The Fellows will work collaboratively to organize and run twice-yearly Faculty Writing Retreats in January and May and coordinate the Faculty Writing Sprints during the fall and spring Semesters. Other responsibilities include planning meetings with relevant personnel.
The Fellowship comes with an annual stipend of $3,000 ($1,500/semester) and is open to tenure-track, term, and adjunct faculty from any school or program. The preferred candidate will be highly self-motivated, organized, and passionate about building a writing community on campus. Prior attendance at Faculty Writing Sprints and/or Writing Retreats is strongly preferred as we will actively seek the Fellow’s ideas on how to improve these activities.
To apply, please email your CV and a one-page statement of interest describing your experience with previous faculty writing opportunities on campus and your interest in developing future opportunities to facaffs@gmu.edu by Friday, May 17. The anticipated start date for the Fellowship is Monday, August 12.
Weekly Faculty Writing Sprints
Every Friday morning of the semester (9:00am-11:00am), you can join colleagues from across campus to make progress on your projects and build community around your writing. You can join the sprints for one week, for several weeks, or for the entire semester to set the pace for a productive academic year. All faculty, at all levels, with any kind of writing projects, are invited.
- Days and Times:
- Friday Writing Sprints—each Friday, 9 a.m.-11 a.m., with an in-person option in Fenwick Library #1009 (hosted by Art Taylor)
- Women’s Accountability Group—each Friday, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. (hosted by Sheri Huerta)
- Join us: To participate in the sprints, simply connect to our Faculty Writing Community workspace in MS Teams and look for the meeting in the general channel. Or join us in Horizon Hall 5018.