Stellenbosch University
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
The Conversation science communication workshop at SU
Start: 14/11/2018, 09:00
End: 14/11/2018, 12:00
Contact:Martin Viljoen - 021 808 4921
Location: To be confirmed

​The Conversation Africa is to present its second popular science communication workshop for 2018 at Stellenbosch University on 14 November 2018. The 3-hour workshop is open to established academic staff, post-doctoral fellows and PhD candidates.

A partnership between Stellenbosch University and The Conversation Africa (TC Africa) – whose mission it is to mainstream science engagement and to support science communication activities – the workshop is an exciting interactive session to help academics refine and improve how they communicate to non-academic audiences. 

The workshop empowers scientists to pitch their articles and establish the key message when writing for the general public. The skills taught at the workshop will help researchers increase their research visibility and impact.

Caroline Southey, Conversation Africa Editor says the team is excited to once again meet up and collaborate with Stellenbosch University academics. "There is such fascinating research coming out of the university. It's always a pleasure working with Stellenbosch University. We can't wait to engage with you all." 

Martin Viljoen, Manager: Media, says that it was clear from the workshop held in April that there is a real need among academics to expand their teaching and research horizons. “As put by Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the inaugural media awards held in October: 'The question is not whether you can afford to spend time on public science communication, but whether you can afford not to'." 

A maximum of 25 people can attend the workshop with the venue to be confirmed.

Facilitating the workshop will be members of TC Africa editorial team – Candice Bailey, Shallan Govender and Moina Spooner who have extensive experience in the media world.  

To date, 172 SU staff wrote 232 articles for The Conversation.

  • Please liaise with Martin Viljoen at tel 021 808 4921, email media@sun.ac.za for more information. 

MORE ABOUT THE CONVERSATION: 

The Conversation is a not-for-profit agency serving universities and the research sector in Africa. TC Africa's mission is to mainstream science engagement and support science communication activities. They do this by working with academics and scientists, who themselves write and provide evidence/research-based analytical articles on various societal issues AND articles about their research findings as well. Our editors then work with academics and researchers to publish these short and punchy articles, +/- 800 words. Articles are only published upon author sign-off. The objective is to make the knowledge produced in the academy accessible, easy to understand and freely available for the public and policy makers. Articles are published daily on our website - https://theconversation.com/africa. Publishing under a Creative Commons Licence, all articles are open access. All articles can be republished by other media. Since launching in May 2015 over 2 000 academics and researchers have contributed and cumulatively all their articles have now reached over 40-million reads globally - talk about escaping the ivory tower!

The workshop facilitators:

Candice Bailey, Health + Medicine Editor: Candice worked as an investigative journalist at the Johannesburg-based civil society organisation Corruption Watch. She has also been a reporter in the newsrooms of several weekly and daily national newspapers, most recently the Sunday Independent and Johannesburg Star newspaper.

Shallan Govender, Copy Chief: Shallan has over ten years' experience in the media and corporate communications sectors. Most recently she worked as a senior sub editor at eNews Channel Africa. Prior to that, she played integral roles specialising in internal communications at major firms such as Unilever, ABI and Altech. She has all round experience having worked on a range of media platforms including print, digital and broadcast.

Moina Spooner

Moina is a journalist, researcher and editor. She has extensive online media experience and has written widely on a variety of pan-African issues having previously worked for Africa Review and Mail & Guardian Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has also contributed to a range of titles including the Daily Nation, the East African, the World Economic Forum and Citiscope.