In Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures, Tama Leaver, Tim Highfield and Crystal Abidin elaborate on how and why Instagram has grown to become an icon that has altered understandings of visual social media cultures. Students, scholars, social media practitioners and platform users can all benefit from the book as a great introduction to how to approach and study … Continued
Author: Taster
Are we all digital scholars now? How the lockdown will reshape the post-pandemic digital structure of academia.
The closure of university campuses in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, has resulted in the rapid adoption of digital technologies for almost all activities that could previously have taken place within the physical space of the university. Whilst this presents opportunities to rethink how many academic practices might take place in virtual environments. Mark Carrigan … Continued
Surveying student evaluations of teaching: Vital tool or flawed methodology – What do you think?
Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are an established feature of many academic systems and have been implemented across national research systems in many different forms, often influencing the prospects of individual academics and their institutions. Whilst SETs have recently been critiqued, it is unclear how academics themselves view these evaluations. As a first step in … Continued
“Inundated, overloaded and bombarded” – Seven insights for communicating research to busy policymakers
Parliamentarians and their staff want to use evidence to support their decisions, but they can often feel ‘bombarded’ with the sheer amount of material that is sent their way. Drawing on the findings of a wide ranging study looking at the use of evidence by UK parliamentarians and their staff, Dr David Rose and Dr … Continued
Knowing that and knowing how – Applying expertise to complex problems
Expertise is often understood in disciplinary terms, as the mastery of knowledge within a particular field of study. In this repost, Gabriele Bammer argues for the particular nature of expertise in research integration and implementation and suggests how this form of expertise is key to addressing the complex challenges currently facing society. What is expertise … Continued
Book Review: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
In a frenetic world obsessed with deliverables and results, Jenny Odell makes the case for How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, arguing not for passivity, wilful ignorance or sloth, but rather for the potential we create by refusing productivity and redirecting our attention to active modes of listening and contemplation. By shining a critical light on … Continued
Between fast science and fake news: Preprint servers are political
Preprints servers have become a vital medium for the rapid sharing of scientific findings. This has been made clear by the speed with which researchers have developed new knowledge about the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this speed and openness has also contributed to the ability of low quality preprints to derail public debate and feed conspiracy … Continued
The Locked-Down: We need more than headline statistics to understand the impact of Covid-19
For governments and individuals much of our understanding of the Covid-19 pandemic has been mediated through metrics of cases and deaths and shaped by heartbreaking personal stories. In this post, Leeza Osipenko argues that such metrics only scratch the surface of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and makes the case for more expansive data … Continued
“Success is not measured in how inspired we are” – Reassessing artist-academic collaborations under neoliberalism
Funding bodies and universities prize collaboration with non-academic partners. But do they create the conditions for equitable relationships? Sara de Jong and Alena Pfoser argue that however inspiring and innovative artist-academic collaborations can be, it is necessary to critically interrogate the conditions under which such collaborations take place. Highlighting the effects of, different remuneration structures, … Continued
5 Strategies for writing in turbulent times
For many academics currently working from home, writing will be a secondary consideration, or even impossible. However, for others writing can be an essential way to maintain a sense of stability and to meaningfully respond to the current situation. For certain kinds of research academic writing may now even be more vital than ever. For … Continued