Little writing, little retreat-ing makes for a good writing retreat

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue57 1–30 November 2024

The postdoc application season is fraught with uncertainties. The treacherous path to success is riddled with tears, sweat, myths, and anecdotes passed down from generation to generation of students and postdocs. Though little can be done for the tears and sweat, the PostDoc Pirates took up the challenge of dealing with some of the mystique surrounding successful applications. 

Between 30 Oct-1 Nov, the Pirates - Amit Seta, Giada Casali , Giacomo Cordoni, and Chong Chong He, supported by Aditi Vijayan and Hilay Shah -  organised a Student+Postdoc writing retreat.

For three days, 30 or so Stromlo-ites gathered at the Marie Reay Teaching Centre  at Kambri down on main campus to listen to insights and first hand experiences of seasoned experts at RSAA. 

The retreat was designed to have a good balance between talks and slots for hard-core inspired writing. Amit, Katie Grasha, and Sven Buder demystified the DECRA application process, and Jenny Jiang added to the discussion by sharing her unique perspective as non-expert assessor. While Craig Anderson shared the dos and don’ts for a fellowship application, Chong Chong He discussed tips for writing proposals for supercomputing time. 

The retreat also included generous lunch breaks, allowing Stromlo-ites to indulge in luxuries such as good coffee, hot food, and sights comprising non-kangaroo living things. Each of the three days you could catch a dozen or so postdocs and students, sitting in a circle of sorts, taking part in intellectually stimulating non-astro discussions such as - the pros and cons of moving the Observatory to Black Mountain, can human beings actually live without free parking, and most importantly, will we have any savings if RSAA moved to campus and we had access to nice food and coffee all the time.

Overall, the retreat achieved both of its purposes. First, it aimed to provide a platform for an open discussion of what goes into a successful application. Second, it intended to build a more resilient community that supported and nurtured its members during a truly challenging and stressful period in an academic’s life. Though it was the first of its kind at Stromlo, we hope it won’t be the last!

Image: An intense moment at the Student+PostDoc Writing Retreat as Marcie Mun shares a particularly inspiring sentence she crafted.