In the last four months, the Department of History at Bilkent University and Birkbeck University of London have held three writing workshops on the Bilkent campus.
The workshops, which took place in May, June and September, stem from a British Academy Grant won by Dr. Rebecca Darley of Birkbeck University and Asst. Prof. Luca Zavagno of Bilkent’s Department of History. Participants, all of whom came from Turkish (Bilkent and Koç universities) and Egyptian institutions, included seven selected master’s and doctoral students as well as early career researchers.
During the workshops, the participants had a chance to develop an article from outline ideas to final submission to a peer-reviewed journal, with support from two program mentors (Dr. Darley and Dr. Zavagno).
Seminars with experienced senior and early-career academics from the University of Leeds, the University of Birmingham, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara and Al-Shams University of Cairo were also held over the course of the workshops. The seminars focused on understanding the peer-review process; planning, developing and completing an article; responding to reviews; and writing funding applications for large international projects.
A final meeting will be held on November 22 and 23, also at Bilkent. During this last workshop, each participant will be invited to present their article in the form of a research paper, along with a five-minute pitch concerning their funding bid and the significance of their article, to an audience of junior and senior scholars from both Bilkent and the other institutions involved.