A Matter of Style? Writing Workshop with Andreas Bernard for Doctoral Students at GSL 

October 16, 2025, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Room: Inseli 214

An important yet often overlooked aspect of academic work is developing one's own writing style. Anyone conducting research is familiar with the frustration of reading wooden, jargon-filled, barely legible research literature and the effort required to avoid reproducing this style in their own work. Conversely, the joy of reading increases when one comes across a text that is both insightful and elegantly written.

This seminar addresses questions of style in academic writing. In preparation, participants should select two texts (essays or book chapters, with a maximum length of approximately 15 pages each) that they found particularly inspiring or repulsive in terms of style during their research. Participants should then mark individual passages in these texts (no more than three pages total) that exemplify good writing style.

All seminar participants are asked to read the marked passages in preparation. These passages are shining or cautionary examples of academic writing that will be discussed in a joint session, during which participants will derive maxims for their own writing. Additionally, Bernard will provide a book chapter that he considers one of the best academic texts ever written.

Please register and submit your texts by September 30 at the latest to: gsl@unilu.ch

Andreas Bernard is a visiting professor at Leuphana University Lüneburg and a writer for the culture section of Der Spiegel. His academic monographs include:  Die Geschichte des Fahrstuhls: Über einen beweglichen Ort der Moderne (2006), Kinder machen: Neue Reproduktionstechnologien und die Ordnung der Familie (2014), Komplizen des Erkennungsdienstes: Das Selbst in der digitalen Kultur (2017), Die Kette der Infektionen: Zur Erzählbarkeit von Epidemien seit dem 18. Jahrhundert (2023)