London Cluster: Languages of the Future Writing Retreat

The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, regardless of their funding source or background.

Please note that in order to book a ticket to attend this event you must be a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network, unless you have been invited directly by one of the event organisers. To find out if you are eligible to join the Network if you are not already a member, please see our website for more information on eligibility and how to sign up. Any questions, please email ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk.

This event is for London Cluster Network members only.
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We warmly invite Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from all SHAPE disciplines to join us for a Languages of the Future Writing Retreat — a space dedicated to reflection, creation, and academic writing oriented towards the futures we wish to imagine and build. This event is organised through the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network.

This retreat is part of a broader initiative emerging from the Languages of the Future research cluster at UCL, a project committed to exploring the deep interconnections between language, time, and world-making. Our work asks: how might language limit or enable our conceptions of the future? How can new worlds and new words be created together?

You do not need to have participated in the cluster or its reading group to attend this retreat. All ECRs interested in the futures of their discipline, their scholarship, and of our troubled world, are very welcome.

In a time when our global challenges — climate change, inequality, political upheaval — are complex and interconnected, and where the futures we face are deeply shaped by the words we use to describe them, this retreat offers time to write, think, and collaboratively engage with one another. Our aims are:

• Support academic writing: We will focus on concrete outputs such as drafting abstracts, structuring articles, and writing strong introductions.
• Bridge thought and action: Inspired by interdisciplinary dialogue, the retreat is a space to craft writing that is attuned to both critical reflection and future possibility.
• Invest in futures: We recognize that early career research is not just about individual outputs, but about shaping the future of scholarship itself.

Through structured writing sessions, collaborative discussions, and optional feedback opportunities, this retreat will help participants advance their own research while becoming part of a growing conversation about languages, futures, and academic transformation.

We particularly welcome researchers who are interested in contributing to our forthcoming special issue on ‘Languages of the Future’ in Think Pieces – a UCL-based journal— but there is no obligation to submit. The retreat is about investing in your own work, your own academic future, and the shared futures we are all writing toward.

Organisers: Peter Browning, Flora Sagers and Josh Weeks

Thank you for your interest. We understand that plans may change. If you sign up and can no longer attend let us know by emailing ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk and your ticket can be offered to someone else

ABOUT THE BRITISH ACADEMY

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