Professor Lawrance drew from his extensive academic history and the five-year experience as the Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of the African Studies Review; the flagship journal of the African Studies Association (USA) where he served from 2018-2022. He covered areas such as choosing the right fit for a journal, the role of editors, the process of publishing, the goals of publishing, ethics and pitfalls of publishing. Prof Lawrance emphasised that to be a good writer, one must read extensively; write and edit their own text; and learn from peer-reviews.
The workshop was opened by Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast who encouraged participants to stay disciplined and focused on their publishing journey. Six participating early-career scholars presented their work-in-progress which was pre-circulated to critical readers to provided constructive feedback aiming to reach publication standards. The participants were advised to write to published and senior academics to inquire about more data sources and leads to enrich their studies. They were also encouraged to submit their work for competitions and prizes to increase the amount of feedback and reviews. This enables more eyes to see the work and feedback might help one improve quality.
The workshop aims to advance research and publication in the Faculty of Humanities by providing discipline-specific feedback to researchers. Each participant had their work critically reviewed by an experienced senior academic in their respective fields. These included Dr Sandra Makwembere from Walter Sisulu University, and Prof Alan Kirkaldy from Rhodes University, and Dr Mnqobi Ngubane from Nelson Mandela University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Ryan Moyo, one of the PhD candidates, reflected on the workshop and said, “My biggest take home from the workshop was actually what Prof Mkhize said that you only write ‘bird by bird’. You write by editing, which has been my biggest struggle.” Professor Nomalanga Mkhize, as the head of the Capacity Enhancement Programme, guided the programme with helpful inputs from her experience and provided motivations for emerging scholars not to be overwhelmed by the editorial process in writing. She argued that most first drafts are badly written and might require writers to ‘kill their darlings’ – a phrase referring to the need to edit one’s script pitilessly. Through such workshops, the Faculty aims to energise the scholarly culture and realise the annual goal of “One academic, one publication”.