Writing Retreat

The Annual Writing Retreat of the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program

Each year, the STS Program hosts an intensive writing retreat — a dedicated space for stepping away from everyday routines in order to focus, reflect, and work deeply within a supportive scholarly community. Held off campus in a quiet and comfortable hotel setting, the retreat is designed for graduate students at advanced stages of research, alongside a parallel retreat for faculty members.

Over several days, participants engage in a carefully balanced program that combines extended, uninterrupted writing time with focused workshops, individual guidance, inspiring encounters, and long conversations that often continue late into the evening. The retreat offers a rare opportunity to pause the pace of the semester, devote sustained attention to ongoing research projects, and make substantial, tangible progress - together.

Student Retreat: A Community of Inquiry in Motion

The student retreat has become one of the defining highlights of the academic year. Alongside sustained writing sessions and focused workshops, the retreat also features the Outstanding Research Presentation competition. Last year’s award was received by Ido Hefetz, a doctoral student in the program. Texts he developed during the retreat later matured into two articles published in leading journals in the field — a clear demonstration of the power of concentrated time and of a creative environment that allows ideas to emerge, develop, and move forward.

Faculty Retreat: Thinking Together, Creating Together

The faculty retreat provides our scholars with a space to deepen ongoing projects, explore new directions, and share their writing and research processes with one another. From these encounters grow collaborations, fresh ideas, and, at times, scholarly articles that begin to take shape around the shared table itself.