Workshops for Scholars
Why Liberate Your Research?
Liberate Your Research workshops train faculty and graduate students of color how to affirm the parts of your souls that need healing from oppressive academic systems and persevere. Liberate Your Research helps you tap into your powerful potential towards freeing your written voice and claiming your innovative theories, methods, and contributions.
LYR is ideal for BIPOC graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Full Professors, and in every academic field and every level of academic writing.
Unlock the Power of Your Ideas
Elevate Your Campus: Download Your Essential Guide Now!
Sign up to receive our simple guide on how to advocate for ‘Liberate Your Research’ at your university. Join the effort to end academic violence and promote writing prosperity for scholars of color.
You’ll get immediate access to instructions and a sample letter to help you effectively communicate about LYR with your administration.
How We Liberate Your Research
We take this journey together, in community.
In Person or Virtual
Whether in person or virtually, LYR is a 3.5-hour workshop that expands the possibilities of abundance, collectivity, freedom, and belonging for scholars of color. For virtual engagements, the 3.5-hours can be broken down into smaller chunks based on the needs and schedule of the group. For in-person engagements, we hold space together with a break approximately halfway through.
We can work nearly anywhere! For in-person, we typically meet at faculty retreat venues or campus meeting rooms where confidentiality can be preserved. For virtual workshops, zoom or any other technology is typically available. Safety and comfort during our workshops are always one of our goals.
Liberate Your Research is also available for colleges and universities outside of the United States.
Uplifting Community
Regardless of the format, LYR provides scholars the opportunity to learn from Dr. Naber while gaining empowerment from a collective space of colleagues that affirms that they are not alone–or that structural conditions, rather than their own limitations, shape the challenges they face in academia–and fosters new possibilities for powerfully naming and claiming their contributions.
By collaboratively working through the deep pain of academic oppression together, participants release the constraints of the academic ecosystem, shifting to self trust. They gain tools for producing their highest and their most intentional, genuine, steadfast, and principled academic writing.
Uplifting Community
Regardless of the format, LYR provides scholars the opportunity to learn from Dr. Naber while gaining empowerment from a collective space of colleagues that affirms that they are not alone–or that structural conditions, rather than their own limitations, shape the challenges they face in academia–and fosters new possibilities for powerfully naming and claiming their contributions.
By collaboratively working through the deep pain of academic oppression together, participants release the constraints of the academic ecosystem, shifting to self trust. They gain tools for producing their highest and their most intentional, genuine, steadfast, and principled academic writing.
Outcomes
Ground yourself in power, set new boundaries, heal from academic oppression, clarify your interventions, and heal from writing prosperity.
- Feel more confident to choose how you are showing up to the university.
- Gain more clarity about your academic research, analysis, theories, and methodologies
- Access the inner and collective power needed to put your work out in the world as you truly intended
- Complete your research in a more timely manner with more ease
- Center yourself and your core perspectives throughout your academic writing journey
- Lean into your new LYR community to share and reciprocate support
- Embrace the incredible value, worth, and contributions you bring to the world every day
LYR Universities
These prestigious universities brought Dr. Naber to campus to liberate their
research and support BIPOC faculty, researchers, and graduate students.
About Dr. Nadine Naber
Dr. Nadine Naber is a public scholar, author, and teacher from Al-Salt, Jordan and the Bay Area of California. Dr. Naber has co-created connections, research, and activism among scholars of color and social movements for the past 25 years. She is author/co-author of five books, an expert author for the United Nations; co-founder of the organization Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS); co-author of the forthcoming book, *Pedagogies of the Radical Mother* (Haymarket Press); and founder of programs such as the Arab and Muslim American Studies Program at the University of Michigan and the Arab American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois. Her work has been recognized through awards such as the Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Studies Association (2022), the Y-Women’s Leadership Award, and awards from foundations such as Macarthur, Ford, Russell Sage, Open Societies, and Andrew W. Mellon.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHO ARE THESE WORKSHOPS FOR?
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HOW CAN I BRING LIBERATE YOUR RESEARCH TO MY CAMPUS
It is easy! Use the form at the top of this page to tell us about your needs and we can provide more specific information about LYR and answer any questions you may have!
HOW DO I KNOW THAT MY CAMPUS NEEDS LYR?
If you have BIPOC faculty and graduate students on your campus, you need LYR. Established research shows that BIPOC scholars tend to face structural realities on college and university campuses that constrain their capacity to write and publish. Compared to their white colleagues, faculty of color often conduct disproportionate levels of service; remain stuck at the associate professor rank; and face extra scrutiny of their theories and methods.
HOW FAR IN ADVANCE DO I HAVE TO BOOK A LYR?
Depending on Dr. Naber’s availability, you can book LYR in as little as 6 weeks or as far ahead as 12 months. We prefer at least two months lead time when possible, but do our best to accommodate tighter timeframes.
WHAT KIND OF TOOLS ARE USED IN LIBERATE YOUR RESEARCH?
Dr. Naber provides participants with three key tools. The first helps participants persevere through various forms of academic anxiety, oppression, gatekeeping, and overwhelm. The second trains participants in affirming their ideas boldly and unapologetically. The third provides strategies for clearly naming and articulating one’s analytical frameworks and research contributions.
WHY IS DR. NABER THE PERSON TO LEAD LYR?
Trained in both the social sciences and humanities, Dr. Naber is the recipient of the American Studies Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). She is a leading scholar on key themes underlying many BIPOC scholars’ research, including the study of race, class, gender, sexuality, transnationalism, social justice, and social change. Evidenced by many teaching and leadership awards, she also has extensive expertise training scholars of color how to thrive in academia. You can find her CV here.
CAN FACULTY WHO DO NOT IDENTIFY AS BIPOC PARTICIPATE?
In our experience, BIPOC participants who are in groups with white scholars are less likely to fully express what limits them in their research and writing. Ideally, we prefer to have BIPOC scholars in their own LYR workshops to provide a safe and healthy space for them to fully experience the shift that occurs in this program. With that said, Dr. Naber considers participation of white scholars on a case by case basis.
HOW MUCH IS A LYR WORKSHOP?
While we don’t publicly list the cost, we can assure you that it is much more affordable than sending individual scholars to conferences. When you inquire about LYR, we will discuss the fee structure.
HOW CAN LYR BEST BE COMMUNICATED TO CAMPUS STAKEHOLDERS?
LYR addresses several areas that are highly important to 99% of campus stakeholders:
- Academic Divisions: LYR supports more consistent and confident academic writers who more fully express their contributions and theories.
- Human Resources/Multicultural Affairs: LYR offers tangible support of diverse scholars while also supporting faculty retention rates.
- Finance: While complimentary to a wide range of academic conferences, LYR is a much more affordable professional development offering as Dr. Naber comes to your campus (or presents virtually to your group), saving thousands of dollars in T&E. LYR increases skills needed for successful grant writing, bringing increased funds to the university.
- Graduate Programs Admissions – LYR supports more timely/higher completion rates and job market success for graduate students, supporting retention in the academic programs.
I HAVE SOME FACULTY WHO ARE IN NEED OF INDIVIDUALIZED SUPPORT? DOES LYR PROVIDE THIS?
LYR participants are welcome to email Dr. Naber after the workshop. Appropriate follow up support is available on a fee basis beyond that.
WHAT IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS AFTER THE WORKSHOP?
Once you take the LYR workshop, you are welcome to communicate with Dr. Naber by email.
HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN PARTICIPATE IN A WORKSHOP?
Ten people attending is ideal, but we can typically include up to twenty people if needed.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO BRINGING LIBERATE YOUR RESEARCH TO CAMPUS
There are countless benefits!. Perhaps the biggest two benefits include that LYR allows BIPOC researchers to revel in a state of abundance–where you take ownership over your research and contributions while generating a flow of creative ideas and writing prosperity. The second is that you typically move out of writing blocks and feel less stuck–you will flow in your writing and meet deadlines sooner (or testimonials here!)
Testimonials
Dr. Naber’s workshop is a profound experience for marginalized scholars seeking to explore complex questions that often affect us. Although I’ve gone to conferences and academic workshops previously, none of them seemed to address the root struggles I and other marginalized scholars experience in academia, nor how to adequately address such struggles. I entered her workshop completely uncertain if I could adequately write a page of my dissertation and left her workshop feeling a sense of place and purpose in my research.
Working with Nadine has helped me to take ownership of my writing and reorient the doubt or anxieties that emerge while writing in a way that is generative rather than destructive. I absolutely recommend this workshop!”
When I resumed research and revisited the notes from Nadine’s workshop. I am still under the spell of the thrill of coming up with a lens and an approach that are uniquely mine. This has restored my joy and passion in my research.
After Nadine’s workshop, I felt confident that I could really “do academia.” If I were in Nadine’s shoes, I would not change anything about this workshop. I will continue to benefit from it from here onwards. I would *absolutely* recommend it to other faculty.Nadine helped me minimize my reaction to what others think about me by helping me learn to empower myself with what uplifts and nourishes me, to make the worries smaller, and to remember why I do what I do. I miss my conversations with Nadine, but her words and what she taught me will forever shape my pedagogy and personal life. It was indeed a life-altering experience. There are not nearly enough people like Nadine who care and are willing to share their unique gift(s).
Nadine helped me minimize my reaction to what others think about me by helping me learn to empower myself with what uplifts and nourishes me, to make the worries smaller, and to remember why I do what I do. I miss my conversations with Nadine, but her words and what she taught me will forever shape my pedagogy and personal life. It was indeed a life-altering experience. There are not nearly enough people like Nadine who care and are willing to share their unique gift(s).
Before I participated in Nadine’s Liberate Your Research workshop, I was filled with trepidation, doubt, and dread. During the workshop that all changed. I was able to gain clarity and ownership of the research project. Led by Nadine’s amazing guidance in embracing your own methodologies, I felt both relieved and empowered to see how my methodologies were both fitting and necessary.
Since Nadine’s workshop, I’ve been on the job market for a tenure track position. I just signed the offer letter for my dream job and I truly feel like her workshop was invaluable to me in thinking through how to talk about my work during the job talk and interview process. It helped me to feel connected to my own research at a time when I was really struggling to do so.
Nadine’s “Liberate Your Research” workshop influenced me more than I could have imagined. She created an authentic and welcoming space, deftly guiding participants to connect with their research and each other. I have found myself thinking about, defining, and shaping my methodology in deeper and clearer ways. I’m charting my path in a way that finally feels authentic to who I am, what I know, and the contributions I hope to make.
Insights & Strategies
Dr. Naber shares her insights and strategies for healing from academic oppression and fostering writing prosperity.
Insights & Strategies
Dr. Naber shares her insights and strategies for healing from academic oppression and fostering writing prosperity.
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