Teaching a Writers’ Room, Part 1

In this episode Jessica and Tyll talk to Katharina about a five-day
block seminar that she taught in February 2020 entitled
“Confronting the Climate Crisis: A Writers’ Room for Cultural
Scholars”. The goal of the seminar was that each participating
student writes a blog post on an issue related to the cultural
production and interpretation of the climate crisis. On the first
day, students conceptualized their entry. On days two and three
they wrote draft text, to then receive peer review, and revise,
proofread and finalize their draft, so that it could be published
on the university website by day five. In this first part of our
conversation Katharina talks about how the combination of tight
structure, relaxed atmosphere, and a lot of freedom to explore
their own writing processes enabled students to write fast and
focused and produce a publishable text within just five days, and
also about why both the topic of the climate crisis and the format
of a blog worked well for many students.