Writing Retreat for UIC Graduate Students
The Graduate (Grad) Student WriteOut! writing retreat offers doctoral students support and structure for their writing and a focused time to concentrate solely on their writing. During this short and intense retreat, graduate students have said that they are very productive and have benefitted greatly from the concentrated time devoted to furthering their writing practice and make progress towards their degrees. WriteOut! retreats provide the next generation of race and ethnicity scholars with the skills they need to do the crucial work of challenging social inequalities. During WriteOut!, we encourage participants to explore and think critically about how structural conditions affect their writing habits.
The transition from structured coursework and exams to unstructured, independent research is a difficult one for any student. For those who study marginalized topics or are themselves members of a marginalized group, this transition can be even more difficult. When they find themselves at the dissertation stage, many students feel lost, alone, and unsure how to complete their projects. WriteOut! retreats help participants to connect with other people in similar situations and build writing communities to support them in their work.
All UIC graduate students whose research topics center race and/or ethnicity and policy broadly-defined and who are currently working on requirements for completion of the PhD (e.g., qualifying exam questions, dissertation proposals, IRB application, dissertation funding applications, dissertation chapters, etc.) should apply. Priority is given to students whose academic status is ABD.
2025 Grad Student WriteOut! Retreat Dates Heading link
May 19-22 2025
July 21-25, 2025
Applications will open in late February/early March.
About Grad Student WriteOut! Heading link
Grad Student WriteOut! is a writing accountability retreat which means we will not be reading drafts or providing feedback as a specific component of the retreat. We will be encouraging you to write and to develop your writing practice. We often hold workshops to help you to continue to define your writing practice and provide information graduate students need to be successful in their doctoral work.
IRRPP offers two Grad Student WriteOut! hybrid retreats per year: 1 in May and 1 in July. We accept approximately 20 students to join us in-person and many more virtually. Each year, the application opens in late February/early March. Please subscribe to the IRRPP listserv and continue to check the website to learn when applications open.
Registration for Grad Student WriteOut! Heading link
Registration for Graduate Student WriteOut! retreats opens in late February/early March each year.
We ask that you provide a paragraph (150 word maximum) abstract about your research. Your research should explicitly center race and/or ethnicity as well as broadly-defined public policy. In your abstract, we should be able to understand how race and/or ethnicity are central components to your research project. Although people who are ABD have priority, if you are finishing coursework and working on your dissertation proposal and/or IRB we welcome your applications. As you prepare your application, please make sure you review IRRPP’s mission to understand and explain how your research connects to IRRPP’s mission.