This summer we were invited by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for anthropological research to lead a four-day writing workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were hosted by the School for Advanced Research, set on a sprawling campus of adobe buildings with a view of the mountains that lie east of the city, and our cohort were anthropologists working on book projects, on subjects as diverse as psychosis in India, Marxism in Pakistan, and retirement communities in Arizona. The scholars were deeply engaged in their research and writing, and at different stages of their book projects, but nonetheless ready to have their writing shaken up in our series of hands-on workshops.
One of the most fun of these was a syntax exercise (see photo), led by Nomi who has a training in poetry as well as anthropology. In the exercise, participants rearranged phrases of a sentence to shift emphasis to make new a meaning. Syntax is something that we all use: you are reading my particular syntax now––I favour long clauses with em-dashes for breath––and when you write an email this afternoon, you’ll express yourself by arranging words and punctuation in a certain way. Maybe you’ll write something short and sharp to let someone know you’ll need their paper in by last week, or perhaps something more languid and conciliatory to show you’re sorry you’re late for their meeting. Sentences matter! Word order is important. And it’s one of the many things we love to share in our workshops.
We teach many of our classes online, which as a teaching mode has its own special flavour. It gives us time to get to know the work of the participants, reading drafts over many weeks as they use the in-between times to practice the tools of the class. But teaching in person, at bespoke workshops such as this one, is such a treat for the intensity of the time, days together in which we read, write, and talk, during the classes but also at breakfast and after dinner. We made many friends at our week in Santa Fe, deepened by the time we were able to spend with the scholars’ writing.
One of our favorite things as teachers is to get into the work the scholars are doing, to look at (yes) syntax (see how I used a parenthesis for emphasis, for intimacy!), but also at how language can work harder to convey meaning. In our workshops we get into the writing at a sentence level to see how moments of expository writing can more efficiently establish context but not lose the reader, and how theory is working alongside other modes of writing. In our afternoons in Santa Fe, we had individual meetings with writers who were generous enough to share their works-in-progress and their ideas. Book projects are such fundamental acts of grit and stamina, yes, but also care and attention. We love supporting writers in all of those modes.
We can’t wait to see these book projects unfold!