From the Rwanda Workshop

Greetings from Rwanda, where an AuthorAID workshop on research writing just ended. The workshop was held at the National University of Rwanda on 23-26 February.

This workshop addressed three main topics: approaching writing projects, publishing journal articles, and writing journal articles. There also were sessions on preparing presentations, writing grant proposals, and writing and publishing books.

Highlights of the workshop included a guest lecture by journalist Pius Sawa. Titled “Getting Research into the Media”, this lecture offered excellent advice on communicating research to non-academic audiences. I hope sometime soon to include in this blog a guest post by Pius Sawa.

In leading the workshop, I was joined by two co-facilitators: Professor Jean-Baptiste Kakoma and Professor Verdiana Grace Masanja, both from the National University of Rwanda. I appreciated their many valuable contributions. I also enjoyed working with the nearly 50 other attendees, who ranged from beginning lecturers to senior professors and came from many academic fields

The main presentations from the workshop have now been placed in the AuthorAID Resource Library. The new set of presentations resembles some earlier ones, but it has been updated and slightly expanded. Feel free to use these presentations in teaching yourself and others.

In a few hours, I will head back to the United States. I will have happy memories of my week in the beautiful country of Rwanda. I hope that the researchers who attended the AuthorAID workshop will remember the workshop happily and use the content well.