Louise Vincent graduated with her M.Phil. and D.Phil. dregrees from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis was an examination of the role of the volksmoeder ideology in the making of Afrikaner nationalism, reflecting what was to become a career-long interest in the politics of women's bodies. In 2002 she was a recipient of the Vice Chancellor's distinguished teaching award. Her current research is in two main domains. Firstly, the fields of critical sexualities and women's reproductive health studies. Publications in this field include work on virginity testing, male initiation rites and abortion. She is writing a book on corporeal politics in South Africa. Secondly she runs a large research project on higher education institutional cultures, equity and transformation.
Workshop Motivation
To assist emerging research and postgraduate students with their academic writing. In this workshop participants are encouraged to think about writing as a way of thinking, as linked to reading and a method for the generation of ideas rather than merely for recording ideas.
Please find below the provisional topics to be discussed in the workshop:
-
Undoing the conventional wisdom about academic writing
-
What practices successful writers adopt
-
Steps in the writing process
-
Writing as learning rather than writing after learning
-
Pre-writing strategies – keeping reading and research journals
-
Free writing
-
The relationship between reading and writing
-
Knowing your reading
-
Developing voice
-
Defending and substantiating arguments
-
Polishing
Target Audience
Emerging researchers and postgraduate students