I designed the Faculty Pitch Clinic in to help academics reframe and extend their work to mainstream audiences and publications, thereby increasing readership and perhaps even earning a little money. Participants might rewrite, update, and/or recontextualize part of a dissertation or other scholarly work, write an op-ed(s) to help promote a book and/or to share thoughts about a current issue, and/or produce new exploratory, analytical, or personal essays on topics of interest. The Clinic consists of three meetings, each focusing on different steps of the pitching and publishing process. We'll discuss various types of pieces (op-eds, analytical essays, etc.), identify publications that would be a good fit for people's work, brainstorm and develop pitches that will get green lights from editors, and adapt our academic writing to mainstream audiences. We will also review a comprehensive list of possible publications, as well as editorial contacts for those venues. In 2021 and 2022, Pitch Clinic meetings were held via Zoom (future meetings remain TBD based on the needs of participants). Participants meet will for approximately 90 minutes at 3- or 4-week intervals, with "homework" (identifying possible publications, drafting pitches, etc.) in between meetings.

I ran the Faculty Pitch Clinic through the College of General Studies at Boston University in 2021 and 2022, and will run it again in the fall of 2023. If you’re interested in having me run the Clinic for faculty in your department or at your school, please contact me. I will run a Clinic with anywhere from 5—12 participants.

The following pieces (among others) resulted from Pitch Clinic participation:

Joshua Pederson - "I have a 7-year-old son. Here’s why I’m going to stop pushing him to play sports." Washington Post (10/21/21)

Adam Sweeting - "The End of Indian Summer" Boston Globe (10/21/21)

Megan Sullivan - "Higher Ed Institutions Would Benefit from Hiring More Faculty and Staff with Disabilities" BU Today (10/25/21)

Davida Pines - “Flattery Might Get You Everywhere, But it Shouldn’t Get You Into College” Boston Globe (4/2/22)

Stephanie Byttebier - “An Antidote to the Vitriol in Popular Discourse” Boston Globe (3/2/23)