The retreat is an annual tradition that gives doctoral students a chance to focus on their work in a relaxing environment. This was the group's first retreat since February 2023, and this year they opted for a shorter stay of three days instead of a full week to allow more people to participate.
– We try to go once a year if enough people can and we find a suitable place within budget. It's harder than you think to find a date that suits several PhD students because everyone has such different schedules with teaching, conferences, material collection and courses. We haven't been to a Writing Retreat since February 2023, because we couldn't find a suitable date in the spring. In the past we have gone for a whole week, Monday to Friday, but to make it possible for more people to join, we chose instead to put it on a Monday to Wednesday (28-30 October), says Marcus Persson, one of the doctoral students at the department.
Without specific activities or workshops planned, participants instead set individual goals on arrival. They then worked independently in short blocks with breaks for coffee and lunch, from morning to evening. The writing retreat ended with a reflection on the goals and impressions of the days. Despite the name, the days are free to organise as you wish.
– There is no obligation to work on writing. This time, for example, Joel (Nilsson) had the goal of going through, coding and structuring his data. Everyone gets to choose their own tasks, although most of us choose to write on parts of the thesis, articles or assignments from doctoral courses, says Persson.
Just getting a change of scenery and disconnecting from everyday life for a few days was well needed. After three intense but relaxing days, most left the retreat feeling both ‘tired’ and refreshed.
– We had a hard time deciding whether we were tired because we had worked so hard or because we had relaxed so much, concludes Persson.
