As COVID-19 hits Australian universities hard, how have online writing groups enabled researchers to stay connected and sustain their work?

The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the instability of funding streams in Australian universities, resulting in an already precarious system for researchers being exacerbated. However, in the face of an ongoing retraction of income which is threatening research and the livelihood of researchers, Dr Lisa Hodge and Dr Jason Murphy discuss the flourishing forms of academic community that have persevered by adapting and moving online. They discuss academic writing groups and the affective support that these groups engender and consider how online academic writing communities are providing examples of how those working in higher education can support each other and foster research – both now and beyond this pandemic.