Bengal Institute is hosting, for the first-time, a two-week long nonfiction writing workshop titled, "Public Space and the Commons", from June 4 to 20, 2023.

According to the circular of the event, "the workshop will encourage participants to think—and write—about the idea of the commons and public(s), particularly what constitutes a public or a commons or multiples of that, their spatial dynamic show are they formed or deformed, and what necessitates their formation and development, or even displacement."

Participants at the workshop will be introduced to a variety of texts and materials on these topics. It will focus on writing as both craft and concept, how to think about them to write about  them.

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The organisers note that participants are expected to read and critically engage with assigned texts and materials on the theme, and draw inspiration from them in order to produce their work. Sessions will be divided into discussion, writing, and feedback on pre-selected topics. 

There will be a series of writing exercises in English and in Bangla, including writing on prompt, experimental writing, pair-writing, short and long form writing. Bengal Institute participants encourages women, and people from religious and ethnic minorities, to apply to the program.

The workshop will be headed by Parsa Sanjana Sajid—a writer and researcher based in Dhaka, whose interests lie in politics, social movements, urban and social spaces, art, and culture, particularly digital cultures. Her recent projects include an oral history collection on the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent and online networking and organising in Bangladesh.

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Sajid is currently working on an edited volume on national imaginaries and attachments to be published by Routledge.

The workshop, which will be two classes or meetings per week, is open for all.