Services

For groups of 4-20 people. Individual workshops can last for 1.5-4 hrs.

The central aspect of science and technology communication is communication. As a practice, it relies on the person's ability to relate to other people: interlocutors, target audience, people with different backgrounds and interests.

The workshop uses the method of structured creativity (applied theatre and creative writing) to engage practically with the issues of scientific communication. Along the way, the participants also work on their public speaking and presentation skills, learn to work in teams, manage stage fright and overcome writer's block.

A one-off version of this workshop has been run at UCL, the University of Cambridge and the University of Geneva, among others. A long-term series of workshops as a part of TheCultureLab is currently conducted at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (University of Cambridge)

I can help to devise a multi-media science-communication project, plan an exhibition or an outreach event, articulate a communicative story, structure the funding proposal or help with any other sci-comm related question.

For groups of 1-7 people. Individual workshops can last for 1.5-2 hrs.

The work of a scientist involves much writing, from lab journaling to drafting peer-reviewed articles, research grants and reports, formal and informal professional emails, briefs and science communication pieces. The courses and how-to guides that aim at helping scientists improve their writing skills often tend to focus on the formal aspects of scientific or sci-comm writing, such as conciseness, plain language, or short sentences. While these are important features to be recognised, they are not always necessary or sufficient for specific writing goals. Short sentences are not a universal remedy for clarity, while plain language can mean completely different things in different contexts. Furthermore, focus on conventional features of scientific writing sidesteps a problem pertinent nearly to anyone who sits down to write nearly anything: writer's block.

The creative writing approach is a way to engage with writing in a more holistic and exploratory way. This practice cultivates a reflexive attitude to writing and thinking and stimulates the practitioner to be mindful of one’s writing process. The writer learns to observe how their intentions relate to the subject of their writing and the expectations of the audience they are aiming at. Instead of learning a formula, one develops skills for making texts sensitive to one’s intention as well as relatable for a particular audience. In this, the creative writing approach takes writing as an epistemic tool rather than merely as a means for transmitting ready-made information.

Deliverables

The skill of writing, at the heart of, it is about developing productive habits of writing. It is, of course, impossible to achieve this in one workshop. The goal of the workshop is to start creating one’s own “map” of the writing practice: to get more mindful about the process; to observe the commonality and differences in writing among the group of participants (something extremely important given that most of the writing we do is solitary); to become aware that our writing resources consist not only of our scientific knowledge but also of experiences, cultural and linguistic background, and even aesthetic taste among other things. The workshop will involve a series of writing exercises supported by some explanatory information to stimulate the discussion in the second half of the session. Participants will be also provided with hand-outs with exercises and prompts to further stimulate their creative writing practice.

For groups of 4-20 people. Individual workshops can last for 1.5-4 hrs.

The present-day academic environment exposes researchers (especially in their early career) to multiple challenges, pressure to produce commodified knowledge as part of the communal race for funding to demands for international mobility. All these features – and many others – are inherent in the present-day research culture. Is this the culture that we want? And how can we improve our research culture?

In these workshops, I aim to help the participating group articulate the tools for improving research culture at the level of their research group or institution.

The workshops proceed via exercises of structured creativity (e.g., applied theatre and creative writing) to identify and explore the locally relevant frictions, tensions and difficulties. Further, the group maps the identified experiences to the general scheme of themes, topics and phenomena.

Following this exploratory phase, the group moves into a facilitated semi-structured discussion centred on the identified topics with an attempt to devise holistic strategies for addressing identified problems. In addition, the participants develop group awareness of the issues pertinent to their environment, which lays more solid ground for the possible group response to the local challenges.