Public writing workshop

Making scholarship accessible

The RaceB4Race Public Writing Workshop supports a cohort of premodern critical race studies scholars in honing the craft of writing for a general audience. Housed at Portland State University, this workshop is run by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner and Elizabeth Tavares (University of Alabama). Throughout the workshop, scholars will learn how to turn their research into an accessible, compelling story, how to find an appropriate venue for their writing, and how to pitch editors with success. 

Workshops will take place twice a year. Applications for the next cohort will open in fall 2025. Join our mailing list to stay up to date on this new program. 

Summer 2025 workshop: Writing for popular media

The last few years have seen incredible innovation within Shakespeare and early modern studies. Much of it rethinking approaches to race, performance, gender and sexuality, environmental studies, and postcolonial studies. But turning academic research into public conversations is often slow and challenging.

This workshop is designed to help scholars share their expertise with wider audiences. It will focus on how to write about Shakespeare and early modern topics in ways that are accessible, responsible, and rooted in current events—while giving credit to the academic labor behind the insights.

Before the workshop, participants will choose a timely topic, identify potential outlets, and draft a pitch for an article aimed at general readers. During the sessions, participants will workshop pitches and drafts, discuss editing and social media strategies, and explore topics like fair citation, amplifying underrepresented voices, and getting paid for public writing.

The workshop will also look beyond writing—into theater reviews, blogs, podcasts, and public talks—and talk about how to make this work meaningful for tenure, hiring, and promotion.