As part of the impact agenda and the increased focus on realising social and economic returns on research investment, universities have increasingly sought to promote and train academics to carry out research collaborations across disciplines and with non-academic partners. Whilst this kind of research can be impactful, Helen B Woods argues that attempts to direct research in this way can […]
Category: Featured
Why social scientists should engage early in the research life cycle
Research in the social sciences can be a linear process of data collection, analysis, publication that ends with dissemination. However, in practice it can also be a non-linear cyclical process, especially as new forms of digital communication allow ideas and findings to be shared and receive feedback at different stages throughout a research project. In this post Michelle Kuepper, Katie Metzler and Daniela Duca highlight […]
Book Review: Networked Selves: Trajectories of Blogging in the United States and France by Ignacio Siles
In Networked Selves: Trajectories of Blogging in the United States and France, Ignacio Siles studies the evolution of the blog both as a technological platform and a medium of personal expression, focusing particularly on the different conditions that have shaped the creation, adoption and transformation of blogs in the US and France. The book provides powerful insights into the mutually constitutive relationship […]
10 Counter-intuitive insights from an academic writing coach
Academic writing is a difficult and creative undertaking and advice to authors can often be to follow a single method or to copy the approaches of other academics. In this post Chris Smith draws on his years of experience working as an academic writing coach, to provide 10 counter-intuitive insights to help you understand and improve your own writing practice. […]
If we have to endure plenary + panel conferences, how can we make them better?
The default format for most academic conferences is that of a plenary presentation followed by panel presentations. In this post Duncan Green argues that if we can’t revolutionise conference design, we can at least strive to make standard conferences and presentations better and suggests seven ways in which academic presentations could be improved. I recently attended a big and fascinating […]
If we have to endure plenary + panel conferences, how can we make them better?
The default format for most academic conferences is that of a plenary presentation followed by panel presentations. In this post Duncan Green argues that if we can’t revolutionise conference design, we can at least strive to make standard conferences and presentations better and suggests seven ways in which academic presentations could be improved. I recently attended a big and fascinating […]
Book Review: This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev
In This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, Peter Pomerantsev takes readers on a gripping journey through the disinformation age, drawing on his own family history as well as encounters with numerous figures positioned on both sides of the information spectrum: those working to manipulate our perceptions and those engaged in the struggle for a more facts-based public sphere. Ignas Kalpokas highly […]
Is who you know as important as what you know? Mapping the invisible colleges supporting academic prestige
A core principle of modern research culture according to the sociologist Robert Merton was ‘universalism’, the idea that the validity of ideas was independent of the status of the person making them. However, as a number of recent studies have shown in practice academia can also be exclusionary. In this post, Margath Walker shows how academic networks – invisible colleges […]
Why are Asian Academic Regulatory Bodies wary of blogging?
Blogs and blogging are an important medium for communication. In the Anglophone world they have taken on a particular significance within the academic community as a medium for discussing cross cutting issues that affect the universities sector. In this post Santosh C. Hulagabali argues that in Asia and India in particular, the dearth of institutional blogs has limited public discussion […]
How to Decolonise the Library
Decolonising knowledge is an important topic, but what does it mean for libraries? Will it result in throwing away books by Nietzsche and Kant and replacing them with books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Binyavanga Wainaina? Jos Damen, Director of the Library of the African Studies Centre in Leiden, gives some practical tips on building a more diverse, decolonised library. […]