iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Position statement and guidance on generative AI and doctoral education @ougradsch.bsky.social @openuniversity.bsky.social #GenAI university.open.ac.uk/students/res... 2026 updates include: - choosing, refusing, resisting GenAI - declaration for who chooses to use it - resources and references

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I've been really enjoying our start to #PACEspace 2025-26. I'm now really looking forward to how your #DoctoralWriting shapes up ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ The Future is in the Now! {JM}

Photo of several books on academic writing, academic literacies, multimodal, creative, and sociological scholarship on writing as a critical practice and language as power. The books are laid out on a table for display and browsing during our first in-person and hybrid lesson.

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Recordings & slides relating to the 'Future of Doctoral Writing' are under 'Content'. This page is subject to edits but there's enough there for those interested to get a sense of what was discussed. Thank you to those who managed to attend {JM} #PACEspace #PACExtra www.open.edu/openlearncre...

Webpage of the event with 'Material - PACE EXTRA Guest Speaker Series (Graduate School)

Description
Content
Reviews

Material content
Below is the material content. You can click on any section here and it will take you through to this section of the material. The Future of Doctoral Writing: Critical Dialogues towards a Manifesto'

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

A pdf of my slides on 'AI and multiliteracies' is now available on the EATAW conference website and can be cited via doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Thank you to Jennifer Sizer (orcid.org/0000-0002-27...) for alerting me to #Zenodo (which lets you share presentations via #Orcid with a doi) #PACEspace {JM}

Snip tool of 2 of my slides on why archives matter discussed in the context of whose archives and how the AI bots are trained

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

V. relevant to our recent discussions: "Explicit conversations about the nature of the doctorate should enable consideration of how context matters in the conceptualization of doctoral purposes and practices" 'Defining the Doctorate in Africa: Aligning Purpose with Context' doi.org/10.6017/895b...

Some countries are making deliberate efforts to match the doctoral curriculum to the prevailing job market. While this is largely a positive move, positioning skills-based training for industry as the key purpose of doctoral education has the potential for the doctorate to be conceptualized primarily as a commodity. The consequences of constructing the doctorate—and by extension knowledge—as a product are numerous: time to completion becomes the focus instead of quality; production is foregrounded over the nurturing of a researcher; and the product is accompanied by a requirement to produce journal articles, which has led to the proliferation of predatory publications.

What Is Needed?

What is needed for doctoral education in postindependence universities across Africa are spaces to discuss the purposes of the doctorate with a greater reflection on unchallenged assumptions across countries, national policies, and within institutions. Such discussions should not attempt to pin down the doctorate to a narrow, shared purpose—rather they should open spaces for reflection on taken-for-granted and often problematic assumptions. They should allow for far-

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I'll be giving this year's keynote at #EATAW25 - alongside Suresh Canagarajah & Federico Navarro - on: 'AI Realism: Reclaiming the Human in AI-enhanced Academic Literacies' (cf abstract) {JM} 🤞 #PACEspace #AcWri #AcademicLiteracies #GenAI #CriticalRealism #OpenUniversity www.eataw2025.com/keynote

AI Realism: Reclaiming the Human in AI-enhanced Academic Literacies
Julia Molinari

Language technologies (LTs) are not new and a life without them means many things to many people: unimaginable, impractical, unavoidable, undesirable, undemocratic, maybe even a welcome relief. LTs include the familiar (dictionaries, machine translators, spellcheckers) and now the unfamiliar, which is rapidly becoming the new normal: LLMs (Large Language Models) powered by GenAI (GenerativeAI) and, apparently, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) are automating writing in unprecedented ways.

I wish to use this talk to press pause, just for a moment, to catch our collective breaths.

I would like to halt the dizzying speed at which these technologies are affecting our professional and personal existence by sharing a critical realist perspective (Archer & Maccarini, 2023) on LTs and what it means to be human (Molinari, 2025). This includes reflecting on LTs’ implications for academic literacies broadly understood as multisemiotic modes of communication, which include multilingualism (Lillis & Tuck, 2025). AI Realism entails neither techno-determinism nor techno-enthusiasm nor luddism. Rather, it provides a critical space in which to interrogate why AI has so abruptly irrupted into everyday life and how we might want to respond as educators. For example, it’s no coincidence that ChatGPT was released in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic (Hussain et al., 2024), with significant implications for the development of proctoring and surveillance technologies (McKenna, 2022). It’s also no coincidence that AI is associated with fascist ideologies (McQuillan, 2022). That it remains a black box in terms of how it is trained and by whom also raises concerns for academic writing (Gallagher, 2020). All this presents ideological challenges and opportunities for academic literacies that include, for example, re-visiting what we mean by criticality and agency if these foundational tenets of academi…

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

"AI applications are, for the most part, designed to be used by a human who has professional training, and not a substitute for that human" (p. 5 Dijkstra P, et al. BMJMED 2025;4. doi:10.1136/bmjmed-2025-001394) Important insights for doctoral research writers: how to be accountable for #GenAI use.

Use of AI applications requires human qualities,
such as humility and circumspection. In a recent
review, Messeri and Crockett discussed four visions
of AI: AI as oracle, AI as arbiter, AI as quant, and
AI as surrogate.24 The authors warned that these
various roles are cognitive traps that can produce
various illusions: the illusion of explanatory depth
(assuming that the explanation produced by AI is
more profound than it actually is); the illusion of
exploratory breadth (assuming that the AI model
has covered all possible hypotheses relevant to the
question when it has actually covered only a limited
number); and the illusion of objectivity (assuming
that the AI model has produced an unbiased view
from nowhere when in reality it reflects, and might
even magnify, the various biases inherent in the
published literature on a topic).

BOX 4 | WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION'S (WHO) SIX ETHICAL
PRINCIPLES FOR USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE
Summarised from WHO guidance on ethics and governance of Al in healthcare25
1. Protecting human autonomy. Humans should remain in control of medical
decisions, and people should understand how artificial intelligence (Al)
is used in their care (including how their privacy and confidentiality are
protected).
2. Promoting human wellbeing and safety, and the public interest. Al should no
harm people. The designers of Al technology should comply with regulatory
requirements for safety, accuracy, and efficacy.
3. Ensuring transparency, explainability, and intelligibility. Al technology
should be understandable to developers, healthcare professionals, patients
users, and regulators "according to the capacity of those to whom they are
explained".
Fostering responsibility and accountability. Patients and clinicians should
evaluate the development and deployment of Al technologies. This approach
should include mechanisms for questioning and redress for individuals and
groups that are adversely affected by decisions based on algorithms.
Ensuring inclusiveness and equity. Al for health should be designed "to
encourage the widest possible appropriate, equitable use and access,
irrespective of age, sex, gender, income, race, ethnic group, sexual
orientation, ability, or other characteristics protected under human rights
codes". Al technologies should not encode biases to the disadvantage of
identifiable groups (especially already minoritised groups; ie, fairness,
box 3).
6. Promoting Al that is responsive and sustainable. All Al role players
(designers, developers, and users) should "continuously, systematically,
and transparently" assess Al applications during actual use. Two aspects
are important for sustainable Al systems: firstly, their environmental
consequences should be minimal; and secondly, their effect on the
workplace, including workplace disruptions, trai…

BOX 5 | TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT A PAPER THAT REPORTS AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) BASED DECISION
SUPPORT SYSTEM
1. What was the study design and (excluding the Al) aspects for now) does it meet established criteria for methodological rigour?
As with all research, studies of Al systems should be conducted with systematic methods, on samples that are large enough and
representative enough to produce trustworthy findings. For example, If a randomised controlled trial was appropriate to the research
question, was a randomised controlled trial done (and if not, what were the limitations of the non-randomised design)? Did the sample of
patlent participants reflect the wider population with the disease? If an intervention and a control arm were Included, were participants In
both arms comparable at baseline In terms of, for example, age distribution, gender balance, and disease severity? Were assessors blinded
to the allocation arms? Al studies typically have two key groups of participants: the patients on which the Al algorithm was tralned and the
users of the Al system (consider their baseline characteristics and how they were familiarised with the Al system). This scenario Is similar to
surgical Innovation studies where both patient and operator characteristics are Important and should be reported."9
2. What was the intended clinical use of the Al system (ie, what decisions is it intended to support, by whom, and with what purpose)?
Be clear about the purpose of the technology. The Al system might, for example, be targeted for use in patients with suspected breast cancer
and used by radiologists, with the goal of Increasing detection rates of breast cancer and reducing false positive screens.
3. What type of computational task was the Al system designed to support?
The computational task is likely to be one or more of the following: prediction (eg, estimating the risk of a person developing a specific
health outcome), classification (eg, estimating the presence or…

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The 'Politics of Difference' as it relates to #AcademicWriting by Dr A. French: > Is 'failure to meet academic writing conventions often treated as a personal failure rather than the result of wider systemic inequalities'? #AcWri #UCL #IoE mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/120494 listen from 1'30" of 60'

See relevant slide available here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/academic-writing-centre/academic-writing-seminar-series

See relvant slide available here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/academic-writing-centre/academic-writing-seminar-series

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Huge thanks to all who travelled & made it, wrote & stretched 😉, and gave feedback on our all-day #PACEspace 'Writing Retreat' last week in #ThePark - the sun streamed and we *all* got tons of writing done ✍️✍️✍️🥳 #DoctoralWriting #PhDLife #ThesisWriting @ougradsch.bsky.social @oulibrary.bsky.social

Open University Library at dusk with signposts to different areas, including The Park

Open University Library, 2 researchers taking a break from writing to read

Bunting feedback with various handwritten messages in response to: 1) What have you found useful or enjoyed? (Green bunting) and 2) What could we do better next time? (Yellow bunting)

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Wee glance into the sorts of discussions we get into at #PACEspace 😱 {JM}: kick-starting 2025 with a session on 'Commitment, Risk, and Voice' in #DoctoralWriting #ResearchWriting #AcademicLiteracies ✍️ @ougradsch.bsky.social #ZombieNouns #Nominalisation #AcWri #PhDLife #WhatMakesWritingAcademic👀

PACE Workshops Block 2 Session 1Writing the Doctorate
Commitment, risk, and voice
Julia Molinari
January 8th 2024

book cover design featuring a stark contrast between text and imagery. The title "Risk in Academic Writing" appears prominently in white text against a deep blue background at the top, followed by the subtitle "Postgraduate Students, their Teachers and the Making of Knowledge."
Starting points: ‘How to Books’ on academic writing […] tend to over-generalise, over-simplify, de-skill students […] implicitly and explicitly perpetuating a restricted and deficit model of student competence and language use. The Guides […] tend to focus on how students can imitate existing conventions based on massively problematic assumptions about student homogeneity and the stability of the disciplines (Thesen and Cooper, 2013, p. 4)

Book cover of The Scientist’s Guide to Writing, 2nd Edition: How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career, Stephen B. Heard
Starting points: Legions of undergraduates have been told that scientists should write in the passive voice (and never, ever, write “I”). This advice is wrong. The passive is prevalent in the literature – but it hasn’t always been, and the tide is shifting back towards the active (Heard, 2022, p. 174)

Image of a newspaper article depicting an orange brain against an orange brick wall to represent how writers become alienated from their writing.
Starting points
Academic writing: why no 'me' in PhD?
[…] by removing the first person point of view and the active voice from your writing, what you're actually doing is removing yourself. […]
This is a big problem since more than half of the academic writing that already exists is on subjects that are difficult to understand for most non-academics. And when you remove the distinctive self (or voice) from your writing, it can become unbearable to read. When you alienate the 'I' from your dissertation, you are taking a big risk: turning your writing into a mere juxtaposition of facts and figures.
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/apr/19/academic-writing-first-person-singular

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Season's Greetings from #PACEspace {JM} Wishing you all 🕊️, rest, good health, and space to think. Signing off until January 2025 with some words of hope and wisdom from #AcademicDiary on why #HigherEducation still matters. #AcWri #DoctoralLiteracies #DoctoralEducation #ResearchWriting #OpenAccess

White on Red cover of 'Academic Diary Or Why Higher Education Still Matters' by Les Back

Letter to a new student
1. Listen but don't be silent
2. Care about your grades but don't make them your only goal
3. Read and buy books
4. Don't try and do it all the night before
5. Don't be just a consumer
6. Follow your interests
(Les Back, pp 17-24)

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Must read asap {JM} #DoctoralWriting #ResearchWriting #AcWri #WritingCircle #tleap#AcademicLiteracies #HigherEducation www.multilingual-matters.co.uk/page/detail/...

$To view keyboard shortcuts, press question mark View keyboard shortcuts Messages Image description Introduction: The Writers' Circle as a Portal to Knowledge-Making Chapter 1. A Threshold Space of Difference: Introducing the Thursday Circle Chapter 2. The Yellow Folders Draw Me In: Looking for the Trace Chapter 3. Surface Tension: Writing in the Shadow of the God View Chapter 4. HA HA HA: Shaking the Tree of Language Chapter 5. One Word at a Time: Finding Rhythm in Writing Chapter 6. Punctuating the Flow: Reflections from Beyond the Circle Chapter 7. 'I remember a few rogue popcorns': Teaching for the Trace (with Clement Chihota and Aditi Hunma) Conclusion: Knowledge-Making at the Water Point Post Conversation Professional Academic Communication in English @pace_ou Must read asap {JM} #DoctoralWriting #AcWri #WritingCircle #tleap #AcademicLiteracies #knowledge https://multilingual-matters.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781800419612 Introduction: The Writers' Circle as a Portal to Knowledge-Making Chapter 1. A Threshold Space of Difference: Introducing the Thursday Circle Chapter 2. The Yellow Folders Draw Me In: Looking for the Trace Chapter 3. Surface Tension: Writing in the Shadow of the God View Chapter 4. HA HA HA: Shaking the Tree of Language Chapter 5. One Word at a Time: Finding Rhythm in Writing Chapter 6. Punctuating the Flow: Reflections from Beyond the Circle Chapter 7. 'I remember a few rogue popcorns': Teaching for the Trace (with Clement Chihota and Aditi Hunma) Conclusion: Knowledge-Making at the Water Point This book seeks to disrupt the narrative about the process of academic writing and the written products which are currently valued in the university by juxtaposing the messiness and deletions of the writing process with the hegemonic imaginary of what research writing should look like. The author uses writing as both a subject and a method of enquiry in an ethnographic deep dive into her long-ter…$

This book seeks to disrupt the narrative about the process of academic writing and the written products which are currently valued in the university by juxtaposing the messiness and deletions of the writing process with the hegemonic imaginary of what research writing should look like. The author uses writing as both a subject and a method of enquiry in an ethnographic deep dive into her long-term engagement with a postgraduate writers' circle in an elite South African university. The book engages with growing global interest in the geopolitics of research writing and its relationship to patterns of epistemic privilege, drawing on current work on decolonising knowledge production. It opens a space to widen and deepen how we imagine the relationship between writing and knowledge-making.

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

This is a great resource for alternative #PostGraduate funding. Loads of A-Z charities that fund niche groups. If your uni has a subscription, you can download the 161-page pdf. for free. If they don't, ask them to subscribe {JM} www.postgraduate-funding.com/home @ougradsch.bsky.social #PACEspace

Webster and Davidson Educational Trust
https://www.thorntons-law.co.uk/
The Trust was set up to assist blind and partially sighted people. The Trustees have now resolved to use the
Trust's annual income to provide a Musical Education Award and funding towards Educational Visits. The Trusts
funds are not extensive and preference will be given to persons resident, or normally resident, in Scotland.
Wellbeing of Women
http://www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk/research/research-grants/?menu=1c
Funds research dedicated to improving the health of women and babies.
William Boreman Charitable Trust
https://www.thedrapers.co.uk/Charities/Grant-making-trusts/Sir-William-Boremans-Foundation.aspx
Grants to students under 25 resident in the London boroughs of Greenwich or Lewisham. Must be a UK
National, and have a family income of c.£25,000 per annum or less.
Wine Guild Charitable Trust
http://www.wineguilduk.org/
The Trust's objective is to enhance the education of the general public in the knowledge of

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PACE Graduate School Open University @pacespaceou.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

PACE supports post-graduate researchers at the #OpenUniversity @ougradsch.bsky.social by providing opportunities to develop the #AcademicLiteracies needed to complete a #Doctorate. DM or email pace@open.ac.uk for enquiries. learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/ouconten...

Professional Academic Communication in English (PACE) online resources
Communicating your academic work is central to your life as a postgraduate and scholar. Being able to communicate effectively will ensure that others hear about your research and ideas and that your work will contribute to building knowledge in your specific disciplines. Communicating effectively is something that all scholars have to learn to do, whether this is spoken communication such as presenting at seminars, written communication such as writing theses or journal articles, and increasingly a mixture of these such as academic blogs. The Open University offers a range of programmes to support you in developing these wide-ranging skills.

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