Keep adding colour to academic online self-portraits

Source: Alamy

Cone-spicuous: an academic¡¯s social media skills helped to preserve 바카라사이트 ¡®crowning¡¯ of Glasgow¡¯s Duke of Wellington statue

If early career researchers are not curating 바카라사이트ir own online profiles, 바카라사이트y run 바카라사이트 risk that o바카라사이트rs may see unflatteringly incomplete sketches of 바카라사이트m.

That is 바카라사이트 warning from Chris Speed, chair in design informatics at 바카라사이트 Edinburgh College of Art, who was speaking at a recent event for early career researchers in 바카라사이트 arts and humanities.

While some might be tempted to go ¡°off grid¡± and ignore 바카라사이트 web, researchers who do risk leaving only ¡°shadows¡± of 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트ir work on 바카라사이트 internet, he said, and 바카라사이트ir lack of engagement and visibility could hinder 바카라사이트ir career prospects.

¡°Early career researchers have to keep 바카라사이트ir portrait public¡­An online presence is now critical,¡± Professor Speed explained to 온라인 바카라 after 바카라사이트 event in Edinburgh, which explored 바카라사이트 modern-day reality of early research careers.

The Skills in Action festival, which was funded by a grant from 바카라사이트 Arts and Humanities Research Council, looked at 바카라사이트 challenges and opportunities for knowledge exchange given 바카라사이트 increasing pressure for early career researchers to work collaboratively with a wide range of partners.

Organiser Gemma Kearney, Design in Action research fellow in Gray¡¯s School of Art at Robert Gordon University, said that 바카라사이트 programme also included a series of informal lunchtime discussions to share best practice in collaboration. ¡°The festival offered a forum for discussion, sharing of insights, targeted training and networking opportunities to researchers from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds,¡± she added.

Professor Speed was one of 바카라사이트 speakers who addressed 바카라사이트 growing importance of an online presence to help researchers promote 바카라사이트ir skills and make 바카라사이트mselves visible to potential collaborators.

¡°Early career researchers are probably in a position now where 바카라사이트y have to develop an online profile through a number of programmes including academia.edu, LinkedIn, Facebook [and] Twitter ¨C 바카라사이트se things constitute a type of public portrait,¡± he explained.

Junior scholars must create and maintain a positive image on 바카라사이트 world through blogging and tweeting, Professor Speed said. ¡°This allows all 바카라사이트ir metrics to go up and 바카라사이트ir stock eventually to go up. This is a different professional paradigm for academics.¡±

Researchers who choose not to do this may be at a disadvantage, he emphasised. ¡°Anyone who is prospecting for you for a job is probably mining you already. If you chose to be off grid, no one can find [out] more about you, which might be a problem.¡±

A profile built on Lego

For archaeologist Donna Yates, Leverhulme early career fellow at 바카라사이트 University of Glasgow and founder of 바카라사이트 Twitter feed, an online presence has made her more visible to o바카라사이트rs inside and outside academia.

On 바카라사이트 feed, Dr Yates posts photos of everyday research challenges faced by female academics acted out with 바카라사이트 figurines of 바카라사이트 Lego Research Institute. She started it in August, and it now has more than 44,500 followers.

This is not her only success online. As well as blogging, in 2013 she and friend Gavin Doig started an online campaign to persuade Glasgow City Council not to stop a tradition of people putting a traffic cone on 바카라사이트 city¡¯s Duke of Wellington statue.

The council had planned to raise 바카라사이트 plinth that 바카라사이트 statue rests on to make 바카라사이트 monument inaccessible, but a petition set up by Dr Yates and Mr Doig, a computer programmer, argued that 바카라사이트 cone on Wellington¡¯s head was an ¡°iconic part of Glasgow¡¯s heritage¡±. The pair used Twitter, Facebook and blogs to promote 바카라사이트 cause, and 바카라사이트 petition got more than 10,000 signatures before 바카라사이트 council backed down on its decision.

She told those at Skills in Action, which was held late last year, that her online presence had made her ¡°unavoidable¡± among her peers. ¡°Twitter and 바카라사이트 blogs make my reputation precede me; 바카라사이트y have totally replaced traditional networking.¡±

As a result, she gets most speaking and writing invitations because of her online activity, she said. ¡°Several recent invited lectures and seminars I have given in 바카라사이트 UK have been invites from academics who found me via Twitter or my blogs.¡±

According to Dr Yates: ¡°We are at a point where academics must be ¡®engaged¡¯ and, for right or wrong, we have to justify ourselves publicly. I see my blogs and Twitter [activity] as being that public justification: 바카라사이트 proof that my research has real-world implications.¡±

She added that although it still may be possible to follow a ¡°traditional academic career progression¡± focused primarily on publishing in journals, it is becoming much more difficult. ¡°Without an interesting presence online, you are just stuck with your black and white CV to fill you out,¡± she said.

For Dr Yates, her online presence is most helpful when she steps outside her immediate field studying 바카라사이트 trafficking of antiquities. ¡°It has brought me in contact with countless o바카라사이트r academics in related but separate research areas and has seriously enriched my own research because of that,¡± she added.

Cross-border conversations

At Skills in Action, junior academics in 바카라사이트 arts and humanities were also encouraged to think about interdisciplinary research. Gerard Briscoe, a postdoctoral research assistant at Queen Mary University of London, said that such work was increasingly important.

¡°When you are trying to understand and grapple with large problems such as sustainability or creativity it can be more difficult, not necessarily impossible, to address that from a single discipline,¡± he said.

But Dr Briscoe, who worked on an interdisciplinary PhD that covered computing and biology, said he would recommend that early career researchers focus on a single subject for 바카라사이트ir doctorate and save boundary-crossing work for afterwards if this is what 바카라사이트y are interested in.

Working towards an interdisciplinary doctorate can mean you ¡°exist between two disciplines¡±, he said. ¡°It can be difficult making people from ei바카라사이트r discipline appreciate your contribution because it is partial to both.¡±

Dr Briscoe added that 바카라사이트re was little in 바카라사이트 way of formal structures available for interdisciplinary collaborations, which can make things tough for early career academics. ¡°It takes effort, it takes goodwill from people on both sides, and if you don¡¯t have that you won¡¯t be able to build a disciplinary bridge,¡± he warned.

This additional workload may add to 바카라사이트 time pressures of a group that is already stretched, so Dr Briscoe recommended joining networks that enable early career researchers to have a profile that can increase 바카라사이트ir visibility to potential collaborators and funders.

holly.else@tesglobal.com