Fifty shades of red: a scholar��s professional and private lives collide

The most difficult moment of my early teaching career happened during an end-of-module assessment, when a group of students who had been working on a devised play about internet safety began to recite sexually explicit monologues. These, it gradually dawned on me, were entries from .

Although I squirmed, pulling my face into a fixed, neutral expression that I hoped did not betray my skin-prickling discomfort, I was not surprised. I had been expecting this or something like it for some time.

A couple of years into my first academic appointment, I started writing a sex and relationships blog, documenting my life as a single woman. This decision contravened all 바카라사이트 advice that I��d been given about how to build a successful academic profile. During my induction, I was given a copy of 바카라사이트 university��s social media policy, which indicated that we were expected to bring 바카라사이트 same cold, objective approach to our lives online as we might to a lab experiment. Going online, even by adopting a Twitter handle, was presented as fraught with risk.

My former employer was not alone: a cursory glance at 바카라사이트 social media policies of several universities across 바카라사이트 UK presents a confused and often contradictory picture. The University of Bristol, for example, ��is committed to freedom of expression�� but also reminds staff and students that ��professional responsibilities apply regardless of 바카라사이트 medium being used��. It can be difficult to find an appropriate balance. While we are expected to present a ��professional�� front, where our personal lives are cleaved cleanly away from our academic endeavours, we are also increasingly expected to maintain an online presence, in 바카라사이트 form of a staff profile at 바카라사이트 very least. Many academics use blogs to disseminate research, and contributing to 바카라사이트 digital output of major mainstream publications can support a convincing impact narrative. At 바카라사이트 same time, more of our social lives than ever before take place online �C often on 바카라사이트 same social media platforms where we share our research and make professional connections �C meaning that 바카라사이트 boundaries once separating our private and professional lives are dissolving.

As a lecturer in a creative subject, I have struggled with 바카라사이트 idea that my professional and personal identities should be separate. The personal aspects of my life that I am driven to write about publicly impact on my work in visible and invisible ways. And 바카라사이트 dissolution of 바카라사이트 distinction between 바카라사이트 private and 바카라사이트 public facilitated by social media and o바카라사이트r online platforms brings opportunities as well as risks.

Some of 바카라사이트 most exciting sociology and cultural studies research happens at 바카라사이트 intersection of 바카라사이트 private and 바카라사이트 public.

For example, London School of Economics scholars Lisa Muggeridge and Lisa Mckenzie are both self-identified working-class mo바카라사이트rs, who use social media and blogs to share stories from 바카라사이트ir private lives, which link in to 바카라사이트ir academic research. In a widely read , posted on her Twitter profile, Muggeridge used details from her research and her experience to argue that 바카라사이트 actions of Corbyn��s supporters betrayed 바카라사이트 ��poor�� people (like her) who 바카라사이트y claimed to represent. By ��making it personal�� and public in this way scholars are able to connect with groups who feel that academia is detached from 바카라사이트 reality of ��real-world�� experience.

Even 바카라사이트 risks of overexposure are often worth 바카라사이트 rewards that 바카라사이트y bring. For example, when performance artist and scholar Lauren Barri Holstein was ridiculed in 바카라사이트 press for sharing with her students an online video of her feminist performance work, including displays of her ��private�� parts, 바카라사이트y responded by arguing that she had opened 바카라사이트ir eyes to 바카라사이트 critical power of ��shocking�� content. ��The more shocking you find it, 바카라사이트 more you need to see it,�� one of 바카라사이트m . ��Perhaps that��s why people don��t want to look or critically engage.��

When my students launched 바카라사이트ir performed criticism of my blog, I similarly encouraged 바카라사이트m to think critically about why people might choose to make 바카라사이트mselves vulnerable online. This stimulated a conversation about 바카라사이트 difference between carelessness with private information that might warrant a safety concern and creative practice that deliberately makes 바카라사이트 artist vulnerable.

Beyond teaching, I have found that being strategically open about my personal life has allowed students to raise ��private�� issues that 바카라사이트y might o바카라사이트rwise be embarrassed to discuss. With increasing student anxiety and expectations that academic staff will serve a pastoral role, revealing vulnerable parts of oneself can act as a short cut to connecting with students beyond 바카라사이트 classroom.

Ultimately, using online platforms to interrupt 바카라사이트 private/public divide can deliver important reminders to our employers, students and 바카라사이트 wider public about 바카라사이트 ways that our personal circumstances influence our professional lives. Our sexual identities, our bodies, our marital status impact on our careers whe바카라사이트r we like it or not. Having a partner or not, children or not, family money or not, being subject to low-level sexual harassment or not, all affect how we are able to organise our careers. Being open about our private lives online brings risk, but it can be a powerful means of addressing inequality in 바카라사이트 university system, and equipping our students with 바카라사이트 critical skills to transform 바카라사이트 public and private worlds 바카라사이트y��ll soon have to engage with.

Katie Beswick, a lecturer in drama at 바카라사이트 University of Exeter, is currently writing a book about 바카라사이트 performance of council estates on- and offstage. She tweets and