It’s
been just over a year since I started the blog, so I figure it’s as good a time
as any to reflect on the blog and, more generally, my life as a scholar online.
When
I first heard about academic scholars in the humanities using Twitter to
connect with other scholars, I couldn’t imagine anything stranger. Even now,
when it seems the most natural thing to me, I mention it to other
non-twittizens, and they bristle a bit. I can see them thinking of me in a different
light—I’m one of “those people”; I’m a tweeter!
While
I’m sure I could very easily do much of my research without every foraying into
the world of e-cademia, I have found so many advantages to being on Twitter.
I
have become exposed to all sorts of scholars whom I wouldn’t otherwise have
heard of, merely because they mostly write about the Victorian period or the
Early Modern period. Or they are from some other discipline that I wouldn’t
otherwise come into contact with. And yet their links, thoughts, comments and
responses have often brought some interesting issues to my attention.
Though
Twitter I have also found more 18th-century blogs as well as blogs
about literature, culture, representation and the body. And occasionally these
blogs have actually revealed to me texts, images or historical personages about whom
I have heard but didn’t know where to find this information.
I
have even met people on Twitter…and then met them in real life—at conferences!
And
finally…without Twitter, the readership of this very blog would be much lower
than it currently is. I have found that the two platforms complement each
other, allowing my ideas and words to become part of a larger conversation—even
if I only post once or twice a month.
Even
at only a low-to-moderate rate of publication, however, I’ve managed to write
about female cross-dressers like the real-life Hannah Snell and the fictional
Harriet Freke...
I’ve
written about films set in the eighteenth century, like A Royal Affair…
I’ve
explored issues of pedagogy, such as teaching eighteenth-century women poets
and how to approach teaching literature survey courses…
I’ve
even commented on issues of professionalization, such as conferencing successfully and top interview questions at job interviews.
Finally,
I’ve had the opportunity to make connections between the 18th
century and our own time period and culture. I’ve discussed bearded women,
strong female protagonists, racial representation, and…well…pockets!
The
blog form allows for a variety of topics, from the serious to the
light-hearted. It also encourages interaction and discussion and open-endedness, as opposed to more traditional forms of academic writing (the dissertation, the
journal article, the book), which are about one person making a clearly-defined
and supported argument, whose reviewers may engage with the text months or
even years after.
A
recent article by Anne Helen Petersen, who left academia to write for BuzzFeed,
discusses some of these publication issues. Petersen notes that one of the
aspects of journalism that she enjoys is that when she writes something,
thousands of people can read it—for free—as opposed to academic publications,
which are usually only read by other specialists in the field or the occasional
undergraduate working on a paper and are often inaccessibly priced.
While
in many ways I agree with Petersen, I believe the academic blogosphere is
opening up an increasingly-rigorous, exciting, and inclusive space in which to
discuss our scholarship and its relevance to the world around us.
So…thanks
for reading! I’m looking forward to another year of musing, writing, and
tweeting!
No comments:
Post a Comment