Call for Applications! Writing in Academic English: A Hands-On ReNEW Workshop

The four-day course Academic Writing in Modern English will give PhD candidates and post-docs, working on Norden-related topics, useful help in writing high-quality academic English. English can be a challenge, especially as a second language, something well recognised by scholars who edit English-language publications. We will be dealing with many of these challenges, working with papers you yourselves submit.  The course will include group and individual exercises, a handbook of common mistakes, discussions and lectures on how to write academic English, and a textbook for future reference.

The workshop is sponsored by the NordForsk-funded university hub . The venue is Stockholm: the workshop includes time for socializing and seeing one or two of Stockholm’s historic highlights.

The course’s focus will be on a longer English-language piece (4000–8000 words), submitted by participants in advance – hopefully, a piece intended for a conference or publication. Students will read and comment on each other’s papers, discuss them during the course itself, receive individual guidance as to improvements, and finally – after they have re-submitted the paper with revised English (if such revision is necessary) – receive the teacher’s specific suggestions for editing and review.

The workshop begins at noon on Wednesday, September 13th, and continues until 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 16th. It takes place at Klubbensborg, in Stockholm (). We will fully fund 15 selected PhD candidates and post-docs. This includes the course itself, meals, accommodation at Klubbensborg, and a Friday excursion. We cannot, however, cover travel costs, but ask participants to meet these with the assistance of their home institutions.

The course will be led by Madeleine Hurd, Associate Professor of History at Södertörn University. She is a native English speaker, with a PhD from Harvard University and twenty years’ experience in translating, editing and revising English-language texts in both the humanities and social sciences. She specialises in texts by Scandinavian and German scholars. Professor Norbert Götz will serve as co-teacher. Besides his contribution as someone constantly working on improving his own English, he has valuable experience in editing the texts of others and in employing in-house and commercial language editing services.

The deadline for application is midnight, May 19th, 2023. To apply, send an e-mail to (subject line “Academic Writing Course”). Include your name, discipline, university, the working title of your current thesis or research project, and a 150-word abstract of the paper you would like to submit to the course. Please note that this application is directed towards emerging scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and whose research is Norden-related. If the course is over-filled, consideration will be given to applicants’ previous participation in ReNEW activities, as well as an equitable representation of ReNEW partner universities. Those accepted will then receive a detailed course program, including deadlines for pre-submission of papers (and for reading each other’s papers before the course), as well as a short reading list.

We look forward to your applications, and to a useful and rewarding Stockholm workshop this September.

Norbert Götz & Madeleine Hurd

Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden