On 21 May 2026, CETE-P and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU) hosted a one-day event entitled “Suffering-free academic writing: A workshop with Alexis Shotwell” organised by Iwona Janicka (CETE-P) and Markéta Dolejšová (AVU). The purpose of this workshop was to empower researchers in their capacity to think and write (“writing as thinking”). Alexis Shotwell invited the participants to consider writing as a collective thinking process and not merely as an end product (an article, a thesis). Writing is always embedded in communities: whether they are scholarly communities of bibliographic references or the scholars we collaborate with and receive feedback from. Writing is a collective process of thinking together. Alexis Shotwell encouraged the participants to shift their thinking about writing and offered pragmatic strategies for writing with less suffering. These strategies addressed how to manage one’s own anxiety and panic about writing, manage procrastination; set up support structures for writing; communicate well with people who can offer feedback; find meaning and purpose in writing. The workshop also discussed the negative impact of LLM-based chatbots like Claude or ChatGPT on our thinking and writing skills and problematized their smooth integration into teaching at many higher education institutions. The workshop was attended by BA, MA and PhD students, junior and senior academics from Czech Republic and abroad. It received enthusiastic feedback from the participants as it created a new community of writers who want to think together. You can read more about “writing as thinking” here and you are welcome to consult Alexis Shotwell’s webpage on academic writing here.

The event was preceded on 20 May 2026 by a workshop with Michael Marder and Alexis Shotwell called Metabolize, Prefigure, Articulate! Practicing Solidarity in the Face of Ecological Crisis. On 19 May 2026 Alexis Shotwell and Michael Marder took part in Climate Dialogues 2026: Ecological Solidarities - talks and debate.

Photos: Anna Šolcová