INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC HUMANITIES AND THE ARTS
In November, IPHA brought the Op-Ed Project to Hofstra! A group of Hofstra faculty and administrators from across the university benefited from this intensive, two-day workshop on how to turn their ideas outward—how to amplify their voices in the public sphere.
The Op-Ed Project is a team of acclaimed journalists who travel around the country, helping professors, thinkers, and other scholars learn how to write for the media—how to craft op-eds, newspaper and magazine articles, commercial books. The process is intense, personal, and deep.
After the workshop, participants have access to the Project’s journalist mentors for one month, while they craft their pieces for publication.
Thank you to Provost Charlie Riordan for making this possible, and to Colleen Fitzgerald, Senior Vice Provost for Research and Creative Activities, who helped make it happen!
“Participating in the OpEd Project was an enriching and enlightening experience. There were many profound moments, but anonymously sharing our aspirations and our obstacles – and hearing the raw aspirations and perceived obstacles of others – was particularly eye-opening and moving. It was also heartening to be in a community of so many brilliant writers and colleagues at Hofstra.”
—Patti Miller, Special Assistant Professor Writing Studies and Rhetoric
The Op-Ed Project Explained, In Their Own Words
The OpEd Project is a think tank and leadership organization founded to make the world smarter by investing in underrepresented human knowledge, and in underrepresented expert voices (including women) far beyond historical norms. Partnering with foundations, universities, think tanks, non-profits, corporations, and communities of all kinds, we target and train new and necessary experts across a wide range of backgrounds and industries to take thought leadership positions in their fields; we connect them with our network of high-level journalist mentors; and we channel the best ideas to media across all platforms. We use op-ed (which we define broadly, to mean an idea of public value in any media platform) as a strategy to change public narrative, and as way to measure concrete results.
“I very much enjoyed participating in the Op-Ed Project workshop. It was an invaluable experience. I even met some colleagues at Hofstra I never met before, which was great! Thank you for urging me to apply, and for organizing the program.”
—Carolyn Dudek, Professor of Political Science
Write To Change The World
The OpEd Project’s core Write to Change the World workshop is built on time-tested models of transformational learning, thinking with purpose, and developing strategies for changing hearts and minds. We explore the source of credibility and how to establish it (quickly); the patterns and elements of persuasion; the difference between being “right” and being effective; how to preach beyond the choir; how to escape a pigeonhole; how to address opposition and build consensus; and how to think bigger.
In our extended workshop (1.5 days or the equivalent), we optimize results by moving directly into action (typically after an overnight pause). We debrief on what kept us up overnight, explore our underlying framework for thinking with purpose (“Mattering”), and we workshop the ideas, outlines and drafts that participants created and fleshed out on the previous day (or days)—dramatically increasing their ability to exchange ideas with each other, and also their odds of success in publication. Time permitting, we discuss strategies for pitching, and may also guide participants in triangulation exercises to think more expansively about their expertise.
Each participant will emerge with skills and tools for thinking bigger, with greater purpose and for greater impact. They will also emerge with concrete results: an outline or draft that makes a bold case for their ideas, in written form, that they can present to the world – whether as an op-ed, at a conference, to their company or organization, to potential funders, at a PTA meeting, before a board of directors, or on the steps of Congress.
All participants who complete the workshop will also receive one month of premium follow-up support, including: access to The OpEd Project’s weekly “Ask A Journalist” office hours with our Editor in Residence (who provides live group feedback on drafts, and answers questions), as well as to The OpEd Project’s network of 100+ journalist mentors, for individual feedback on their op-ed drafts. This statistically doubles their odds of success in publication.
“The workshop exceeded my expectations … The presentations were engaging, informative, and genuinely encouraging … The participants shared tremendous ideas in strikingly creative ways. I was deeply impressed.”
—Hafza Girdap, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Why This Matters
The world becomes more intelligent when we are able to all our intelligence. We believe the best ideas, no matter where they come from, should have a chance to be heard and to change the world. What could we accomplish if together we invested in all our brain-power?