"Failure and rejection are part of life, but preferably not your own!" This statement gets to the heart of the current culture of failure in academia. Setbacks and defeats are not uncommon in the course of a career, but are often perceived as shameful and not openly discussed.
And this is where Fiasco Fest comes in: the main aim of the "Fiasco Fest goes Arqus" initiative is to destigmatise rejection in academia and encourage learning from mistakes in a supportive environment.
But what is Fiasco Fest?
"Fiasco Fest goes Arqus" is a project made possible by the Arqus Innovation Fund and has been running since October 2024 with the following universities Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius and Wrocław.
The Fiasco Fest Party workshop offers an open, festive environment in which researchers can talk about the highlights and, above all, the failures of their research careers to date. The new Pedagogy Playbook was written as part of the "Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus" project.
The aim of this publication is to spread the concept of the Fiasco Fest Party workshop beyond the Arqus Alliance. It is designed to enable the competent delivery of Fiasco Fest content, regardless of the person leading it or the group participating. It encourages adaptation to different audiences and different settings.
The book is freely available and can be easily downloaded at this link: Fiasco Fest: The Pedagogy Playbook