Professional Skills Workshop: Writing Book Reviews

What is a high-quality book review in history, and how do we write one? Professional historians are expected to assess books and write book reviews for historical journals, periodicals and press. This workshop explores some of the key issues in writing god book reviews. It offers hands-on training, feedback and discussions. All participants will produce a book review after the standards of historical journals. 1 ECTS digital workshop.

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The University of Agder

 

Participants are welcome to join a digital workshop on Zoom led by the University of Agder (UiA) and organized in cooperation with book review editors from the journal Historisk Tidsskrift

NB: This workshop will be bilingual. Participants may use either Scandinavian or English in their writing. Discussion and feed-back groups will be organized according to language. Introductory lectures will be held in Norwegian, but with support material in English. Participation grants 1 ECTS.

Confirmed lecturers:

  • Professor May-Brith Ohman Nielsen
  • Professor Hilde Gunn Slottemo
  • Historian Mona Ringvej (PhD)

Program

Thursday, May 4th:

09:15: Professor May-Brith Ohman Nielsen: Why are book reviews important for the professional community and professional standards in history? Course objectives and plan of the day

09:45: Professor Hilde Gunn Slottemo and Historian Mona Ringvej (PhD), book review editors in Historisk Tidsskrift: What is a good book review for historical journals and how do we write it?

11:30 – 12:15 Lunch break

12:15 – 16:00: Group discussions of participants´ book reviews. In addition to feedback from the other students, participants will also receive comments on their book reviews from the teaching staff. Teaching staff participating is professor Harald Rinde, associate professor Trond Bjerkås, associate professor Camilla Mørk Røstvik, professor Christoph Kalter.

16:15 – 17:00: Professor May-Brith Ohman Nielsen: What have we learned about good book reviews and what are the major challenges? Discussion of experience from the lectures, papers and the groups.

Information about participation and compulsory writing:

  • The course is estimated to 1 ECTS. Students may take the course for credit or audit it. To achieve the credit, PhD-students are expected to submit a 2-page long book review (800 words), in accordance with a provided set of guidelines. The review will be handed in no later than April 30th. In the course, particpants will receive feed-back on their texts, and afterwards they will revise and submit their final version for assessment.
  • The revised text is to be submitted no later than May 20th. Assessment is passed/fail.
  • After the application deadline, the lectures will provide a list of suggested books for review to choose from. Suggestions are welcome but need approval.

Deadlines

Registration: We accept applications on a first-come-first-served basis for students of the partner institutions and other members of NRSH. For non-members, we will offer available spaces for PhD students in history and other historical disciplines after the registration date. To apply, please fill out this registration form by 3rd April.

We will assess the applications shortly after the deadline and inform you of the assessment no later than five days after the deadline. 

Deadline for writing sample: 30th April 

Contact persons: 

Organisor: May-Brith Ohman Nielsen

Administrative contact: Oliver Reiersen (oliver.reiersen@iakh.uio.no)

Learning platform:

The learning platform used for this course is Microsoft Teams. The writing sample must be uploaded in MS Teams. The course will be held on Zoom.

Partner institutions:

Strategic Partner:

Published Dec. 8, 2022 9:33 AM - Last modified June 11, 2024 1:06 PM