writing retreat – may 2025

The GA:MA Lab Writing Retreat is an interdisciplinary gathering to reflect on writing as an academic/research practice, an intellectual output, and as an act of self-care. The 5-day program in May 2025 provided a small group of 16 participants with a collaborative and experimental space to rethink their own writing practice while reflecting on writing within institutional demands and the current challenges of academic/art publishing.

The participants of our Writing Retreat included some of our faculty from Art History, the GA:MA Lab research assistant and VCUQ alumna Ghayda Azam, two graduate students from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, professionals from Qatar Museums, Dr. Tina Chen (Associate Professor and Global Asias Initiative Director, Penn State), Dr. Mark Swislocki (Associate Dean, Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs; Associate Professor of History at NYU Abu Dhabi), and Dr. Pallavi Narayan (Associate Professor of Practice at School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University). The first three days were held at the Delta Hotels City Center Doha, while the last two were kindly hosted by the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies thanks to the support offered by Dr. Amal Ghazal, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at DIGS.