Twitter and blogs are not add-ons to research

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

August 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 ¨C 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.¡±

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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.

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¡°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 .

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¡°The most impressive thing about 바카라사이트se blogs (and 바카라사이트 academic careers that generate 바카라사이트m) is that 바카라사이트re is no waste ¨C 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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