Idea
Writing is integral to academic knowledge‑making. Yet normalized, standardized, and highly disciplined modes of writing (about) research are increasingly being challenged. This shift is driven by several developments such as the rise of artificial intelligence, the digitalization and diversification of publication platforms, and a growing recognition of the extractivist character of the established academic research and publication apparatus.
For scholars troubled by these dynamics, valuable reflection can be found in the ‘writing differently’ movement. This is an epistemological and ethical project that has, for some time now, emphasized that writing is a fundamentally relational endeavour: It is entangled with, and can actively facilitate, thinking, organizing, and researching differently. Often drawing inspiration from l’écriture féminine (Cixous, Irigaray), it insists that the pressing quest for societal transformation must also be reflected in how we write as academics.
Organization
The monthly “Shut up and write (differently)” sessions facilitated by members of the FANTASCRIT research project seek to cultivate awareness of diverse existing approaches to writing differently—vulnerable writing, dirty writing, more-than-human writing, dream writing, writing hysterically, writing with one’s fingers…
The sessions are intended to offer a dedicated space and time for researchers who are reflecting on how disciplined ways of writing also discipline thinking, and who wish to experiment with writing differently—or conventionally—in a calm, supportive, and collegial atmosphere.
We meet once a month. For each session, a recommended (and hopefully inspirational) pre‑reading is shared. Participants are encouraged to read it if time allows.
At the beginning of each session, we discuss the pre-reading, followed by two focused writing periods during which participants are free to write in ways that are as experimental or as norm‑conforming as they wish.
Sessions and themes in Spring 2026
16 March 10.00–12.00: The Writing Differently Movement
13 April 10.00–12.00 Vulnerable Writing
11 May 10.00–12.00 A ‘Normal’ Shut up and Write Session
8 June 10.00–14.00 (time tbc) Monster Writing
If you would like to join, please send an email to Anni Kangas (anni.kangas@tuni.fi). Further details regarding the venue and the pre‑reading will be shared in response.
Organizers
The writing differently sessions are organized by the FANTASCRIT and Pluriversal Waters research projects (both funded by the Kone Foundation) and the IPE2 research group at the Faculty of Management and Business in collaboration with the Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation TRANSIT.