WAAD: Writing Anthropology At Durham

Writing Across Boundaries was initially set up by Bob Simpson and Robin Humphrey as a collaboration between the universities of Durham University and Newcastle University. It was developed with support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) via the Researcher Development Initiative. Since 2017, Cathrine Degnen and Tom Yarrow have taken over from Bob and Robin in developing and delivering the programme.

Writing Across Boundaries now forms part of the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Centre's (NINE DTP) programme for advanced training for doctoral students in the social sciences.

Writing on Writing is an initiative in which scholars who have made a significant contribution to the social sciences offer personal reflections on the process of writing. The anthropologist Dame Professor Marilyn Strathern of Cambridge University made the first contribution to the series and this has been followed by contributions from similarly eminent scholars from a wide range of disciplines. 

As you read the effortless and insightful prose of the luminaries in your discipline, do you ever wonder how they do it? We certainly have, and as part of the Writing Across Boundaries project, we decided to ask them.

We have written to a number of scholars who have made a significant contribution to the social science literature and asked them to write a short piece (500 to 1,500 words) offering their personal reflections on the process of writing. In these pieces, scholars from a variety of social science disciplines share their thoughts, feelings, pearls of wisdom, anecdotes and theoretical musings which can give insight and inspiration to those in the later stages of doctoral writing.

Note: All of the following contributions are in MS Word (.docx) format and may either view in your browser or download to your device, depending on your device settings. The files are readable in MS Word, Apple Pages, Google Docs, Libre Office, OpenOffice and other word processing software.

Scholars on Writing

The first contribution came from:

• Dame Professor Marilyn Strathern of the University of Cambridge with a piece called 'Outside desk-work', in which she reflects on her personal response to dealing with the 'data-theory gap'.
  • Outside desk-work

She has been followed by:

• Professor Irving Horowitz, Hannah Arendt Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, who gives a comment on:
  • Writing across boundaries
• William Outhwaite, Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University, writes on:
  • What is writing?
• Liz Stanley, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Narrative and Auto/Biographical Studies at Edinburgh University, with:
  • It's a craft and a job and requires practice
• Julian Le Grand, Richard Titmus Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, on the importance for PhD candidates not only to:
  • Start writing early, but to finish writing early as well
• Norman Denzin, Professor of Sociology, Cinema Studies, and Interpretive theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign:
  • Mystories: Connecting the Personal and the Political
• Bryan S. Turner, Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, on:
  • How to write practically
• JP Roos, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Helsinki discusses:
  • Which (or Whose) Language Should I Use?
• Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Cross Cultural Psychiatry at Harvard University, on his:
  • Search for a Voice
• Alan Macfarlane, Professor of Anthropological Science, University of Cambridge and Fellow, King's College, Cambridge:
  • Some rough notes on writing methods: from typewriter, via computers to the pen
• Ken Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, writes:
  • On Pragmatism and Poetics
• Harry F. Wolcott, Professor Emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Oregon, with:
  • A short note on Writing
• Alan Walker, Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology, at the University of Sheffield:
  • About Writing A Thesis
• Jaber Gubrium, Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, with:
  • Curbing Self-Referential Writing
• Howard S. Becker, with:
  • Some words about writing
• Patrick Sullivan, Professor at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University:
  • Writing With Your Head in Your Hands
• Arthur W. Frank, Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary with:
  • Writing as a Form of Analysis
• Tim Ingold, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, with:
  • In defence of handwriting
• Harvey Molotch, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis , New York University, with:
  • How to write something
• Roy Wagner, Professor of Anthropology, Virginia University, with:
  • Depersonalizing the Digression
  • Depersonalizing the Digression (original typed document as PDF)
• Catherine Finer Jones, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Birmingham University, UK, with:
  • Writing about writing
• Shulamit Reinharz, Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University:
  • Improving your writing, if you weren’t taught the basics in high school
• Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi, Centre for Applied Social Science Research and Training, University of Yaounde, Cameroon:
  • Writing in English
• Anna Tsing, in dialogue with Paulla Ebron:
  • Writing and rhythm: call and response
• Les Back, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London with a contribution called:
  • Take your Reader There

We have a list of scholars lined up to provide further insights into writing but please email us if there is someone you would like us to approach for their thoughts (contacts at the bottom of this page).

Postgraduate Students on Writing

In 'Postgraduate Students on Writing' we publish short pieces from research postgraduates on any aspect of the process of writing in doctoral study. We hope that this feature will be a valuable resource for postgraduate students engaged in writing their dissertations and we welcome contributions.

Postgraduates on Writing collection

• Jenny Preece with Writing Other People's lives.
• Soibam Haripriya with Abandoned Chapters, a poem about writing a PhD
• Sarah Russell with Doctorate Blues
• Hannah Rumble with From Transcripts to Text : How to get started the fun way
• Nina Nissen with Strange encounters : Reflections on authoring a doctoral thesis
• Rod Pitcher with Keeping a PhD Journal
• Gareth Hamilton with Thinking about what you did...
• Heather Davis with Research Design, Writing and Fugues
• Jim McDermott with Lets hear it for Keyboard Training
• Karen McAulay writes about Two Knees and a PhD : writing a PhD in adverse circumstances
• Andy Coverdale with Writing for Blogs
• Yvonne Downs on Writing: Ups and (Yvonne) Downs
• Nicky Watts, on the Art of Framing
• M. L. Snellgrove, On not writing
• A. Merve Demircioglu, Challenges of Writing Up
• Ruth Cross, On Writing

Have you something you want to share about writing? Or perhaps something to get off your chest as a postgraduate about the writing process? We invite research postgraduates from around the world to submit short articles (500 and 1,500 words) to us on any aspect of the process of writing in postgraduate study.

You can submit your article by emailing it to us here. You can ask for your piece to be anonymous, if you would prefer, or for your biographical details to be included. The decision to publish the piece on the website will rest with the Writing across Boundaries project leaders, Tom Yarrow and Cathrine Degnen.

Contact us 

• Professor Thomas Yarrow (Project Leader, Durham University) Tel: 0191 334 1624 Email
• Professor Cathrine Degnen (Project Leader, Newcastle University) Tel: 0191 208 8467 Email

Disclaimer:

Some of the biographical information, originally provided by the contributing authors, may now be out of date. Should the original authors wish to provide any updates, we are more than happy to add them to your submission.

Should you (the original author) wish to update or remove anything within your submission, please contact us using either of the email addresses above.