The History Blogging Project is funded by the 
Having attended a workshop on academic blogging hosted by the Faculty of History, University of Oxford, helped me to define my own attitude towards blogging and clarify some doubts which I had about the activity. Meanwhile, the workshop, and especially the discussions, revealed a number of ‘grey areas’ which still exist in…
Tag team blogging: The pros and cons of the communal blog It was never my intention to join the blogosphere when I began my PhD two and a half years ago. Blogging, it seems, sometimes creeps up on you until suddenly, there it is, perspectivesonafrica.wordpress.com, appearing as an entirely logical extension, causing you to wonder why you haven’t had one all along. In my,…
To blog or not to blog? The academic’s conundrum Yesterday, at the History Faculty, University of Oxford, I gave a presentation on blogging and debated the role of blogging in academia. The use of blogs and social media is, generally, a fairly new phenomenon and is certainly viewed with some suspicion in academic circles.
Therefore, in the spirit of the day, I thought I’d outline some of the main…
What’s in a name? Choosing a blog title Looking through the blogs in the History Blogging Project blog showcase, I’m struck by the variety of blog titles chosen. Some, such as Developing an Empire, have a title that reflects the content of the research project discussed on the site (in this case colonial development and the Marshall
…
How I stopped hesitating and started blogging I was inspired to start my blog, Parliament and Women, by the History Blogging Project. I’d been thinking about it for a while, but it wasn’t until I went to the project launch that I decided to go for it. The main reason I’d been hesitating was that I felt it was rather…
Current affairs and blogging: when academic work meets political events What happens when what you write about becomes a political event? History does crop up in public debates, such as Niall Ferguson’s championing of empire as a positive thing. During the protests over university fees changes at Cambridge University, the comments on this news article called into question the validity and relevance of my…
Blogs as conversational spaces? This post has been removed at the request of the author (January 2012).
A Social Engagement When I began blogging at GeorgianLondon.com in the Autumn of 2009 it was out of a sense of regard for the many individual Londoners of the eighteenth century I felt I had come to know in almost a decade’s study. It was also a protest against the Hogarthian stereotypes of a ‘lumpen-proletariat’ consisting of…
All our tomorrows: why Today isn’t the only way of engaging Public engagement is a little bit like Foucault: great in theory, recalcitrant in practice. Historians love to talk about reaching out to wider audiences, but when asked to explain their ‘big idea’ on a sheet of A4 the ink runs dry.
Actually, I take that back. As a journalist and writer recently arrived in academia, one of the things I’ve…
‘Modern’ History – Blogging and Outreach Humanities are under threat. Governments are able to dismiss us as being out of touch, as being irrelevant to ordinary people. We don’t contribute to the economy, we don’t produce anything tangible or worthwhile. Sure, it’s all very nice sitting in an ivory tower, reading letters between India and Britain in the nineteenth century, or analysing the rhetoric employed in…
How blogging changes you The reasons I began blogging were not particularly good ones. I was just about to start a part-time postgraduate degree in history after six years away from university. My study habits were rusty, and I figured that having somewhere to post my thoughts would encourage me to synthesise my views on the seminars I was attending and the books
…
Why I started blogging my PhD research I had three main motivations for starting a blog for my research. Firstly, blogging is a creative medium that I hadn’t explored and I wanted to see what it was like – I thought it might be fun. Second, I quite like my research – I wanted to be able to share the interesting things that come out of it…
Blogging, funding and ‘impact factor’ Academia is increasingly scored and rated – by citations, by the new Research Excellence Framework, by funding bodies. Every assessment talks about impact factor, and increasingly about economic impact. As money gets tighter, it’s not just about impact factor based on citations and mutual respect within the academic community anymore.
As many of us are funded, or are hoping to…
Diving In and Learning From Others This post has been removed at the request of the author (January 2012).
How to choose a blog host One of the first things anyone needs to do when they decide to start a blog is to choose a blog host, the place where the blog will live.
There are two main types of blog hosts:
1. A blogging service such as WordPress, Blogger,
How to find time to blog
Anyone who reads my own blog will know that actually, I don’t always find the time! I’ve been blogging in various guises for about 5 years now, so these are the best ways I’ve found to avoid a blog being just a flash-in-the-pan activity.
Be realistic
As a busy PhD student, you’re not…
Conference and Training Day, Northumbria University, 10th – 11th May 2011
Keynote speaker: Prof Steven Fielding (University of Nottingham)
This free two-day event, funded by the AHRC and Northumbria University, provides an opportunity for postgraduate researchers to explore both the practical and the theoretical issues arising from public engagement through new media. The event will include training…
History and the PublicThe Swansea University Postgraduate History Forum invites research students in History and related disciplines to attend
‘History and the Public’
a one-day AHRC-funded postgraduate workshop to be held on Friday 8 April 2011 at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
This event will explore ways in which historical research and academic learning can be…
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