Week 23: 18th – 24th February
I’ve been thinking a lot about impact and sharing my research outside of the university, so I decided to join a number of online groups to find out about others in a similar situation. Perhaps the term ‘joined’ is a bit of misnomer, as many networks exist in a way that people can dip in and out of them as and when the topic is relevant and/or useful.
Although there is an argument to be made for online privacy, I believe that this kind of open sharing format is beneficial for growing a conversation outside of expected boundaries, and is probably a reason why Twitter is so popoular.
Social media
The useful thing about participating in these kinds of groups is being able to share your work with a like minded audience who can offer advice. Particular favourites of mine are the facebook group PostgRAD Study Gang: School Of Hard Thinkin’ and the twitter account @PhDforum. Recently, the latter retweeted a request from a researcher in Manchester (Eljee Javier) who was looking for PhD candidates who blogged about their practice and process. This was an ideal opportunity for me to reflect on what I hoped to gain from sharing my process on a blog.
The question was why and how do you choose to document your research in the form of a blog? and the answers were to be used in a slide presentation about the benefits of blogging and social networks as part of the PhD process. After the presentation, Eljee emailed the handouts and slides over to me, which also made me aware of the Slideshare facility for sharing presentations online.
Why blog?
My personal reasons for documenting my work in this way related to the benefits I’d seen in blogging my practice over a number of years and the artistic relationships and opportunities I’d built up through the use of social media. I was a bit wary at first about talking about my research online but my supervisors were very supportive and felt that it was a boost to the school for prospective students to be able to see the process of someone undertaking a Practice-led PhD.
This has been evidenced by the number of people asking for information about applying and about doing research in general, so I feel that I can shed a bit of light onto the subject, even if it is just through my own experience.
Online profiles
Managing online profiles seems to be a hot topic at the moment, especially in relation to personal and professional identities. One of the threads on the aforementioned Facebook group turned up this: http://earlyamericanists.com/2013/03/05/with-malice-toward-none-an-academic-blogging-manifesto, a kind of how-to guide on blogging etiquette, which attempts to get people over the fear of posting their research in a ‘less-than-scholarly’ format.
In particular, it warns against judging an online post in the same way that one would a peer reviewed article, or in only valuing a particular kind of publishing. Personally, I feel that a blog is a good way to exorcise those writing demons by grouping thoughts / references / quotes together in a way that makes sense, but that also leaves room for conversation and development. Of course, there’s more than one way to write a blog, but that helps me get over my own perfectionist streak.
Through participating in online groups, I not only feel that I’ve been able to share an insight into my work, but I’ve also learned a lot about others too. I also have a big list of research blogs to get stuck into!
Other research blogs
http://inexplicablevoices.wordpress.com: Racial Liminality in American Lit and Culture
http://mgreenphd.wordpress.com: The Fat Body in the Cultural Imagination
http://predominantlymisc.wordpress.com: Blow by blow accounts of things other people get on with without complaining
http://potteringabouttaipei.wordpress.com: Enjoying the big city while attempting to learn Chinese properly