Writing

Need support building healthy writing habits while working on your dissertation? Join the Writing Workshop Series this fall and set yourself up for success!

By GSRC Gradpost Staff
Friday, September 27th, 2024 - 10:40am


Graduate Division is excited to announce a year-long Writing Workshop Series with Dr. Emily T. Troscianko, designed to help graduate students and postdocs strengthen their writing. This series goes beyond writing improvement—it empowers students to build key skills like effective communication, self-management, and critical thinking. Each workshop is designed to develop competencies in areas such as adaptability, leadership, and career management, ensuring scholars are well-equipped to succeed both in their academic pursuits and future careers.

Engage, Learn, Grow

The Writing Workshop Series is designed to support your growth as a scholar by honing essential skills for academic and professional success. More than just writing sessions, these workshops create an environment where you can develop sustainable writing habits, refine your communication skills, and build resilience in tackling complex projects. Here’s what you can expect:

  • Interactive Workshops: Participate in hands-on sessions that address both the technical aspects of writing and the emotional barriers that often hinder productivity.
  • Personalized Feedback: Receive targeted guidance to enhance your writing process and overcome personal challenges.
  • Flexible Scheduling: With options for both in-person and online participation, the series accommodates your busy schedule, ensuring consistent growth at any stage of your academic journey.

Workshop Structure and Benefits

The Writing Workshop Series features four or more themed, 3-hour sessions per quarter, with each session building on the previous one to provide a cohesive and comprehensive learning experience. Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Sustainable Writing Habits: Build lasting habits that not only improve your writing but also enhance your time management and well-being.
  • Tackling Emotional Challenges: Gain insights into the emotional barriers often linked to writing, such as struggles with productivity and self-identity, and learn strategies to overcome them.
  • Supportive, Inclusive Environment: Participate in an inclusive setting where diverse needs, including neurodivergence and health challenges, are acknowledged and supported.

The series is intended to work as a sequence, so please feel free to sign up for all sessions, but they will also work well as standalone workshops. They are open to all graduate students and postdocs through places are limited to 30 participants per session. Please bring a writing project-in-progress that you can work on during our timed sessions, and be prepared to be without your phone, social media, and email for the duration, including the breaks. A communal phone tin will be provided!

About the Workshop Series

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Dr. Trocianko's Writing Series

The Writing Workshop Series is designed and facilitated by Dr. Emily Troscianko who is a visiting scholar with the English department at UCSB this year, as well as a coach, writer, researcher, and creator of Oxford University’s first writing program. Currently, she collaborating on cutting-edge research with Sowon Park and Julie Carlson through the Literature & Mind and Trauma-Informed Pedagogy projects. Her research at UCSB explores how literary texts interact with mental health, particularly focusing on how reading can shape emotional and cognitive experiences for individuals with vulnerabilities like eating disorders. Emily's work contributes to understanding how literature can both heal and challenge the mind, especially in contexts of trauma and psychological struggles.


The Fall Writing Workshop Series is sponsored by UCSB’s Graduate Division in collaboration with UCSB's Office of Reasearch. It will contribute to campus-wide learning about how to help the classroom be more conducive to learning and thinking. As such, it will involve information-gathering from event participants after signing up for an event as well as at the start and end of the event. If you decide to register for one or more events, you will be asked to read the information carefully before deciding whether to take part.

Sign up for workshops

To view the dates, times, and location of the workshops, please visit the GSRC Group in Shoreline. 
Please contact Emily at emilytroscianko@ucsb.edu if you have any questions.