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On 5 October 2022, members of MERIAN (Maastricht Experimental Research In and through the Arts Network) offered workshops on “Writing Differently” to researchers in the MUSTS research group (Maastricht University Science and Technology Studies) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS).

Four experimental workshops encouraged experimentation with the craft of writing in academia. Workshop 1 “Writing Matter” invited participants to experiment with and write about the concrete, everyday material conditions under and about which we write (guided by Ulrike Scholtes and Ruth Benschop, Zuyd Hogeschool). Workshop 2 “Walking and Writing through Figments” prompted participants to go on a walk and to develop new ways of noticing and reporting (guided by Christian Ernsten, FASoS). Workshop 3 “Fabulating & Fictionalizing in Research” explored the effects of “making up” elements in research and asking “what if” questions (guided by Flora Lysen and Jacob Ward, FASoS). Finally, workshop 4 “Performance script writing for giving voices to all agents in your research” asked participants to use script writing as a challenge to linear writing formats (guided by Antye Guenther, MERIAN PhD-candidate at FASoS & Jan van Eyck Academy, and Inge Römgens, University College Maastricht).

MUSTS workshop 2

The complete “writing differently” workshop descriptions are available on the MERIAN website. By organising the “Writing Differently” workshop, MERIAN aims to strengthen experiments with reflexively challenging forms and formats of writing in arts and academia. We encourage researchers in the MERIAN research network (at Maastricht University, Zuyd Hogeschool or the Jan van Eyck Academy) to contact MERIAN when they are interested to learn more about “writing differently” and to start new collaborations (please contact f.lysen@maastrichtuniversity.nl. FASoS has also started a “creative writers of FASoS” email list (mail e.fourie@maastrichtuniversity.nl to sign up).

MUSTS workshop 3