Six junior faculty members from the School of Health Sciences headed to camp in July. But instead of fending off mosquitoes in the great outdoors, the professors grappled with the challenges of the blank page, or screen, during a two-week writing camp in O’Kelly Library.
Junior Health Sciences faculty members consult with senior faculty during writing camp.
“We created the camp for faculty who wanted to get away from their offices and just write,” says Wanda Lawrence, associate professor of nursing who is working on a number of initiatives to enhance scholarly activity among her colleagues. “We hope they’ll be able to produce some substantial work.”
The “campers” will work on scholarly manuscripts or dissertations and submit drafts twice each week to senior faculty members who have agreed to offer feedback as blind reviewers.
The School of Health Sciences is also in the middle of a two-year mentorship program. Nine pairs of senior and junior faculty members have attended educational sessions together for a year.
“Our goal is that each mentor/mentee pair will be able to write a grant application or scholarly manuscript together,” says Lawrence, who chairs the school’s Research Advisory Committee. “The ultimate goal is to help more of our junior faculty earn tenure.”
