The Fiasco Fest pedagogy playbook is here!

Discover everything you have to know about the Fiasco Fest in an open, free book, and help us spread this concept beyond the Arqus Alliance. 

Developed by Sabine Bergner and Johanna Stadlbauner at the University of Graz, the Fiasco Fest offers researchers a space to talk openly about hurdles and failures with the statement that “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, since setbacks and defeats are not uncommon in the course of a career, but are often perceived as shameful and not openly discussed. 

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. 

The new Arqus Fest Party workshop pedagogy playbook was written as part of the “Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus” project and is freely available.

What is the Fiasco Fest?

Fiasco Fest goes Arqus is a project funded by the Arqus Innovation Fund that has been running since October 2024 at the universities of Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius, and Wrocław.

This workshop offers an open, festive environment in which researchers can talk about their highlights and failures of their research careers to date. 

The aim of the publication of this pedagogy playbook is to spread the concept of the Fisaco Fest party workshop beyond the Arqus Alliance. The book is designed to enable the competent delivery of a Fiasco Fest content, encouraging its adaptation to different audiences and different settings.