The purpose of the UNG Workshop on Education, Culture, and Networks is to make research essays better. It serves a roundtable for scholars connected to the educational and social research traditions to give "feedforward" (constructive criticism focused on making a paper more publishable) to the author of a paper in progress. While grounded in theoretical perspectives associated with education and sociology, the workshop also welcomes authors who are either affiliated or independent practitioners in diverse fields not limited to anthropology, political science, as well as diversity, cultural, and media studies.
The only requirement for participation is interest. Anyone is welcome to take part in the workshop.
Location: Zoom (please email kimberly.davidson@ung.edu for the Zoom link)
Presenter: Dr. Kimberly Davidson, Department of Elementary and Special Educations, University of North Georgia
Session Title: "A Text-Based 'Where' Strategy for Students with Down Syndrome" (Email Kimberly Davidson for a copy of the essay)
The author should make their paper available on the workshop’s website at least five days before the workshop session. The paper should be between 3,000-15,000 words. At the beginning of the workshop, the author is free to make some contextual comments about their paper, but is not necessarily expected to do so. One or two pre-selected discussants will provide responses that are best thought of as “feedforward” – commentary designed to help the author improve their paper rather than to simply point out deficiencies and mistakes. Ideally these discussant(s) will be graduate students, but they could be anyone with scholarly interests in the topic. The discussants should be willing to pass along their notes to the author afterward so as to free them from additional note-taking.
The discussion will then move toward the members as a whole, or start with them if there are no discussants for that session (in which case, a non-faculty member should be given the first and second question or point to make). Constructive criticism is encouraged, but the objective of the criticism should be to improve the essay – not to show everyone how smart the critic is. If you want to ask a question or make a point, raise your hand, and the workshop leader will add you to the queue in the order in which you are seen. If your point must be made immediately because it is germane to the topic at hand, feel free to make it, but your original spot in the queue will still be where it was. The author is encouraged to take notes, and members should be mindful of the author’s need to do so. The workshop will last roughly two hours.
Since the time lag between teleconferencing equipment can disrupt the ability of members to gauge the discussion’s rhythm and their opportunity to jump in, the workshop will not be teleconferenced. Rather, it will alternate between campuses at UNG in order to give as many campus community members as possible a chance to participate.
Often the members will go to a local restaurant after the workshop to socialize. Graduate students and undergraduates oriented toward an academic career are highly encouraged to come so that they can get additional “face time” with the author to make any more points, ask any more questions, and to get to know the author and other workshop members in a more relaxed and informal setting.
Applications to present your manuscript in progress to the workshop can be made by emailing Brent Allison (brent.allison@ung.edu), the director of the workshop. Please include your institutional and departmental affiliation (or indicate that you are an independent scholar) and a 150-200 word abstract with the probable final length (in words) of the manuscript you want to present.
For upcoming paper presentations, click on "Papers" (TBA upon Session date). For the specific workshop rules, click on "Workshop Rules".