Jackson State University held a 2 one-week summer writing retreat off campus with both junior and senior women faculty from the STEM & SBS disciplines in order to provide a means of supporting their research careers by providing a circle of faculty whose focus was to accomplish six major outcomes over the summer: 1) Create a high quality product in the form of a journal article, book chapter, or grant funding proposal; 2) Cultivate a habit of daily writing; 3) Create an intellectual support circle for journal article writing; 4) Strengthen their knowledge about key elements of scholarly writing 5) Cultivate a psychology of success about writing and scholarly productivity; 6) Create a foundation to develop a writing guide for scholars in STEM fields established writers, in-residence coaches (led seminars and spoke from experience who understood the obstacles women face). The idea was that a retreat setting would help to redefine the role of female faculty in STEM-SBS by strengthening their research and writing knowledge leading to a higher number of under-represented faculty in tenured and administrative positions.
The writing retreat curriculum was developed with modules and writing activities in three formats: individually, partners, and groups. The agenda for each week consisted of a minimum of 56 scholarly writing hours. Examples of topics covered are as follows: Writing about Writing; Choices for a Writing Product, Site, and Schedule; Model Articles; Developing a Writing Outline and Schedule; Improving the Logical Flow of an Article; Finalizing an Article, and Responding to Journal Decisions. The JSUAdvance Team believes that productive and successful writing experiences require the development of a community of writers and wanted to help implement this idea by promoting activities such as journaling, exercise, meditation, and reading as well as scholarly writing during reflection hour each day. Bringing people together in this setting built a sense of community and sisterhood in which each faculty member established a support system within the group whether it were through guidance, peer review, or reflection partner. The group was also fortunate enough to have discussions, group sessions, and individual self-development sessions with local writing coaches who have experienced most of the obstacles that the junior women faculty may face where some of the topics addressed were developmental writing techniques, issues unique to women of color in academia, and coping strategies for success.
Of the 14 participants, 3 participants produced a joint article, 1 participant produced and submitted a grant proposal to NSF, 1 participant began a book chapter, 1 participant began the history of JSUAdvance, and the remaining 8 participants produced individual journal articles.