Book manuscript workshops are targeted toward individuals at any career stage who have not previously published a monograph. The successful applicant will have a first-time book manuscript near completion at the time of applying. They will invite, and the AJI will fund, up to three senior experts in the author’s field as well as an acquisitions editor from a major scholarly press to campus. A small group of relevant experts within the South Carolina community may also attend.

The purpose of this workshop is to support stronger and more rigorous manuscripts from first-time STS authors. Equally, it is geared toward developing communities of colleagues from different disciplines and geographical locations. The AJI is committed to building such communities from the bottom up, seeding them and positioning them to question and reframe complex problems. The AJI takes a broad approach to STS, envisioning it in partnership with historical, philosophical, scientific, engineering and medical approaches, because at the AJI community is the method. 

The Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology & Society (AJI) and the Philosophy Department at the University of South Carolina welcome applications for a one-week writing retreat at The Ampersand Inn in Newton, New Jersey, 23-29 June 2024. Suman Seth, Leah McClimans, Allison Marsh, and Agnes Bolinska will be your hosts. The retreat offers five full days of writing in a country inn surrounded by acres of woodland in a state park.  

The theme of the 2024 AJI Writing Retreat is STS in Public Practice.  

We welcome applications from any scholar with a Ph.D. or equivalent work experience (e.g. 7+ years as a museum professional) across the Science, Technology and Society disciplines with projects fitting this theme. The goal of this year’s retreat is project completion. We are seeking scholars with one or more projects that can reasonably be completed within a week of concentrated writing time. Such projects include but are not limited to the completion of an article, book chapter, grant proposal, exhibit script, policy white paper, or final revisions of a book manuscript. We are looking for a diversity of participants, including academics (lecturer to full professor); curators and park rangers; policy, think tank, and government employees; and other STS professionals. This is not a dissertation completion opportunity.  

The AJI will select approximately ten participants for the 2024 retreat. Selection will be based on two criteria: 1) the project’s fit with the theme “STS in Public Practice” and 2) the likelihood of completing (or substantially completing) the project in the given period.  

If selected, the AJI will reimburse participants for economy air or ground transportation to the event venue, accommodation, and meals while in residence.  

The application requires a short CV (up to 2 pages), a description of the project(s) you will finish during the Writer’s Retreat, and a one-page description of how your work fits in with the 2024 theme of STS in Public Practice. 

 

Important dates:  

• Proposals accepted beginning: September 15, 2023  
• Deadline for submission: November 15, 2023
• Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2024
• Retreat: June 23-29, 2024 

 

The AJI supports various public programming, including films, plays, exhibits, and games that furthers community thinking about the interactions among science, technology, and society.  Funding considerations for AJI + the Arts is on a rolling basis.  Please send a letter of inquiry to aji4sts@sc.edu with a brief description of your proposed project and a preliminary budget.

Call for Applications: if you’d like more information on how to partner with the AJI on a conference, symposium or another relevant event, or if you have an art project you would like us to consider, please email us as aji4sts@mail.edu