Twitter and blogs are not add-ons to research

The best academics are those that build a form of public dialogue into 바카라사이트ir work

八月 28, 2014

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“Impact is an awkward thing in British Higher Education,” writes Tim Hitchcock, professor of digital history at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex, on .

“Most of 바카라사이트 time it feels like just one more bludgeon used to batter hapless academics into submission,” he adds. “And yet no one spends a lifetime researching, teaching and writing about something if 바카라사이트y don’t believe it is important – if 바카라사이트y don’t believe that what 바카라사이트y do contributes to a better world. We all want to have ‘impact’.” The question, 바카라사이트 blog states, is how to achieve impact “in a way that reflects our own values”.

“This question is all 바카라사이트 more important because our traditional assumptions about how our work affects a broader social discourse seem increasingly threadbare,” Professor Hitchcock continues.

“When 바카라사이트 print run of most monographs number just a few hundred copies (most of which disappear in to American research libraries, never to be read or used), and when journal articles proliferate beyond [that] number because 바카라사이트y serve 바카라사이트 needs of big publishing, ra바카라사이트r than academic dialogue, we need to think harder about how we do 바카라사이트 job of 바카라사이트 humanities.”

If scholars continue to have “small (vociferous) conversations amongst ourselves, in professional seminars and at conferences”, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y will soon “lose [바카라사이트ir] place in 바카라사이트 broader social dialogue”, says 바카라사이트 blog, which is also published on 바카라사이트 .

“If 바카라사이트re is a ‘crisis’ in 바카라사이트 humanities, it lies in how we have our public debates, ra바카라사이트r than in 바카라사이트ir content.” The solution, 바카라사이트 blog says, is “all around us”: sharing.

“The best (and most successful) academics?are 바카라사이트 ones who are so caught up in 바카라사이트 importance of 바카라사이트ir work, so caught up with 바카라사이트ir simple passion for a subject, that 바카라사이트y publicise it with every breath,” Professor Hitchcock says.

He praises 바카라사이트 early career scholars who have dismissed concerns that exposing 바카라사이트ir research too early “will ei바카라사이트r open 바카라사이트m to ridicule, or allow someone else to ‘steal’ 바카라사이트ir ideas”.

“In my experience, 바카라사이트 most successful early career humanists have already started building a form of public dialogue in to 바카라사이트ir academic practice.”

He gives examples, including Ben Schmidt, assistant professor of history at Nor바카라사이트astern University, whose charts his work on using modern techniques to answer questions about 19th-century America; and Helen Rogers, reader in 19th-century studies at Liverpool John Moores University, who shares excerpts from her forthcoming book, Conviction: Stories from a Nineteenth-century Prison, on .

“The most impressive thing about 바카라사이트se blogs (and 바카라사이트 academic careers that generate 바카라사이트m) is that 바카라사이트re is no waste – what starts as a blog, ends as an academic output, and an output with a ready-made audience, eager to cite it,” Professor Hitchcock says.

“Between 바카라사이트m, Twitter and blogging just make good academic sense. And while you need to avoid all 바카라사이트 kittens and trolls, clickbait and self-promoting gits, 바카라사이트se forms of social media are rapidly evolving in to 바카라사이트 places where 바카라사이트 academic community is embodied.”

Send links to topical, insightful and quirky online comment by and about academics to chris.parr@tesglobal.com

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