Africa-China 2023 Writing for Impact Workshop Johannesburg, South Africa

As an academic, do you worry about the real-life impact of your writing? With a long lag time between research and publication, findings can become dated by the time journal articles and books reach their intended audiences. For the general public, academic writing can also be seen as long-winded, overly theoretical, full of jargon, and often without practical, policy-linked conclusions. Given the often-controversial nature of China-Africa engagements, we believe there is a level of urgency in getting current research published in a more accessible and time-sensitive manner. The Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network (CA/AC), together with the University of the Witwatersrand Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP) and the China Global South Project (CGSP), propose to train China-Africa scholars to improve the impact of their writing, by turning academic research into formats more commonly read by general audiences and policymakers. To help bridge the gap, we are hosting an in-person workshop focused on translating academic work into policy briefs, op-eds, and long-form articles. We want to help you make your scholarly research more accessible, help you reach wider audiences in a timely fashion, and leverage social media to circulate your work. This small (maximum 10 participants) two-day writing workshop will be hosted by the ACRP on the Wits campus in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 1-2 June 2023. Researchers will exchange with editors, policymakers, and China-Africa scholars who have succeeded in disseminating their findings to the non-academic world. Participants will aim to complete a draft of a policy brief, long-form article, or op-ed by the end of the workshop.