These workshops sought to teach young academics how to branch out and reach broader publics. Publishing in the popular press – whether local newspapers or nationally-circulated magazines – is one way to communicate academic research and analysis to a wider audience. The workshops taught students skills that will help them get their messages out to a wider audience. Sessions at the workshop included writing attention-catching op-eds, press releases, and magazine queries.
To continue to foster these new skills, participants have been invited to join the Popular Publishing Writer's Guild, where every five months, members are asked to draft a submission to an editor of a popular publication. The length, format and subject matter are optional; the goal is to support the dissemination of research by academics to a wider audience. The first round of submissions went underway at the end of October, 2009 and two subsequent rounds have been held with great results.
We hope to expand this group in the future, as well as to offer more, similar workshops so that knowledge learned in the academy can be spread to all Canadians.
Success Stories
We can't claim that we were responsible for their publishing successes, but here are a list of workshop participant's popular publications since attending:
- Crystal Fraser, "Pipeline dispute latest chapter in a long saga of injustice, Edmonton Journal. May 16, 2011.
- Natasha Regehr, "Opera? Get Real", Country Voice. August 12, 2010.
- Natasha Regehr, "Summer Winds Concert", Country Voice. July 15, 2010.
- Natasha Regehr, "Singers to present Elijah", The Peterborough Examiner. May 6, 2010.
- Jay Young, "Tracing the Public Transit-Environment Connection in Toronto’s Automobile Age" NiCHE April 22, 2010.
- Jay Young, "Saving Oriole Park" Spacing (Spring 2010): 12.
- Natasha Regehr, "Inspiration, Imagination: Long and Winding Road", The Peterborough Examiner. March 13, 2010.
- Adam Crymble, "Beyond the Peer Review" University Affairs. March 8, 2010
- Ryan O'Connor, "Cornelius Howatt at 200", the Charlottetown Guardian. February 6, 2010.
- Sean Graham. "Bringing Canada into the Classroom: The CBC as an Educational Tool", Perspectives: the Journal of the Saskatchewan Council of Social Sciences. Fall 2009.
- Ryan O'Connor & Jeremy Marks, "Copenhagen is PM's Big Chance", London Free Press. December 13, 2009.
- Ryan O'Connor, "Bring Prince Edward Island back to the land", the Charlottetown Guardian, November, 25, 2009.
We've also been able to convince a few participants to start a professional blog:
- Sean Howard Atkins, "Canadian Historical Geography"
- Merle Massie, "A Place in History"
May there be many more!