Creative Writing Workshop
Teologiska annexet, Biskopsgatan 16
Organisatör: The Nordic Summer University, the Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures, the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture, and the Polin Institute for Theological Research
Creative Writing Workshop – collaboration between NSU Winter Symposium, CSCC, Donner Institute, and the Polin Institute.
Time: 28 March, 9.00-13.00
Place: Teologiska annexet, Biskopsgatan 16
The Nordic Summer University, the Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures, the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture, and the Polin Institute for Theological Research invite doctoral students and researchers in the study of religion and theology to a joint workshop on creative writing.
The workshop will consist of two writing sessions with Dr. Jaana Kouri from the University of Turku and with Inta Balode from the LAUKKU and the Latvian Dance Information Center.
No registration needed. Please, bring your laptop and/or pen and paper to the seminar. This workshop is part of “The I that writes: auto-theory as poetic attention” NSU Study Circle 4 that takes place 27-30 March 2025 in Turku.
Schedule of the day:
9.00-11.00 Jaana Kouri: Creative writing for fun and to help you write a research text
11.00-11.30 coffee break
11.30-13.00 Inta Balode: Experimental lecture / collective performance “Who is watching when everyone is dancing?”
Please contact Emilia Plichta (emilia.plichta@abo.fi) in case you have any questions.
Session 1 with Jaana Kouri (1,5-2h): Creative writing for fun and to help you write a research text
Creative writing can be used to write a variety of research texts. In this workshop, we will do some writing exercises to explore writing as a method of discovery, to break down obstacles to writing, and to search the voice of the text itself. Everyone can write in their own language and there is no need to read texts to others. Weather permitting, we will also go outside to find inspiration to solve questions concerning our research and enrich our perceptions.
Session 2 with Inta Balode (1,5h): Experimental lecture / collective performance ”Who is watching when everyone is dancing?”
This is an attempt to merge my multifunctional experiences in the dance field where one action has inspired another, and another and another and back to the first one. An inner drive to support an art form I see as a significant way to experience our embodied existence causes different forms of writing. An ongoing search for what is the most meaningful form of writing to talk about an art form where the main languages are body, movement and choreography of time and space. My activism in the dance field has been shaping the dance field in Latvia. At the same time, I am continuously chased by doubts about the agency. Who am I to ”write” for them? For how long should I ”write” within a certain context to become one of them? Are there ”they” at all? Am I part of the landscape if I paint/write/dance it? What are the ways to attract attention and how does it change once I manage to get and keep the attention? Does watching stop once everyone is dancing?
In this experimental lecture / collective performance I will share my journey through text and movement, through seeing and doing and collectively experimenting with turns from watching to dancing and how that impacts the attention.
Welcome!
