Writing Op-Eds: Translating Your Research to a Broad Audience

Writing Op-Eds: Translating Your Research to a Broad Audience 

Interested in converting your academic writing and research to make it more accessible for broad audiences? Our popular PhD Plus Writing Op-Eds series is back this August (2024) to help you learn how to do just that! Over the course of 5 weeks (on Zoom), you’ll learn strategies and mechanics of writing op-eds and how they differ from academic writing.

The 3rd week will feature humanities scholars who frequently write public-facing work. Learn what motivates them to write for the public, and the realities (good and bad) of doing this kind of work.

This virtual zoom workshop is led by UVA History PhD alum and current Senior Editor for Time magazine's "Made by History" column, Dr. Brian Rosenwald.

2024 Schedule: 

  1. Tuesday, July 30, 3:00-4:30 - Overview of Op-Eds, Dos & Don'ts of public writing 
  2. Tuesday, Aug. 6, 3:00-4:30 - How to Build an Op-Ed
  3. Tuesday, Aug. 13 3:00-4:30 - Writing for the Public as a Career for PhDs: Panel discussion
  4. Tuesday, Aug. 20, 3:00-4:30 - Honing your Op-Ed Ideas
  5. Tuesday, Aug. 27, 3:00-4:30 - Workshopping Your Op-Ed Pitch

Registration is now closed for this series.

 
Note for STEM students: This series focuses on translating humanities and social science research, but all are welcome to attend. As a follow up to this workshop PhD Plus is hoping to host future panel discussions with STEM researchers who write op-eds to offer discipline-specific perspectives. In the comment section below, please let us know what you're interested in learning about and who you're interested in hearing from (specifically or generally)!  
 

Note for Humanities/Social Science students: Interested in learning more about the editorial process and workshopping your op-ed for possible publication, or exploring audio storytelling? After attending this workshop, consider applying for one of our J-term opportunities (note that dates for these opportunities may overlap, so students can likely only participate in one in 2025. Both are expected to be offered again in the future): 

  • “Made by History” editorial workshop: designed to teach students how to think like an editor and how to revise public-facing historical writing. This “boot camp” combines training sessions, short editing assignments, and one-on-one mentoring. (Preference given to PhD students in History or in a related field that relies on historical scholarship). Students who complete this workshop qualify to apply for a PhD Plus internship working as a guest editor with Made by History, an op-ed column with Time magazine. 
  • National Humanities Center’s Podcasting the Humanities is a five-day virtual program that will train PhD students how to design, record, and share a full podcast that applies their humanistic skills to a topic of public interest. More details on last year’s program here. (Contact Kelly Oman for application instructions)
 

EARN A PHD PLUS CREDENTIAL: 

By completing this workshop series, you can earn a non-credit “Research Communication: Public Writing” credential that will appear on your transcript. To “complete” the workshop and be eligible for a credential, you must:

  1. Attend at least 3 of the first 4 sessions AND
  2. Submit an op-ed pitch for feedback in the 5th session OR work with Kelly Oman, PhD Plus Assistant Director of Research Communication, to get feedback on your op-ed pitch and prepare to send it to editors (within 1 year of completing the workshop)

 

QUESTIONS? Contact Kelly Oman.

Core Module
Communicating Research
Sub Category
Skills Series