The scholar-blogger report
THE SCHOLAR-BLOGGER REPORT: The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on scholar-bloggers. Yours truly is quoted, but Daniel Urmann easily has the best line in whole piece. There’s also a good list of academic blogs at the end. UPDATE: Kieran Healy has some additional thoughts, including a good-natured jab at my colleague Jacob Levy. ...
THE SCHOLAR-BLOGGER REPORT: The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on scholar-bloggers. Yours truly is quoted, but Daniel Urmann easily has the best line in whole piece. There's also a good list of academic blogs at the end. UPDATE: Kieran Healy has some additional thoughts, including a good-natured jab at my colleague Jacob Levy. Two additional points. First, compared to a some of the reporters I've dealt with, I was pleased to see that my words weren't distorted in the Chronicle piece. Thank you, David Glenn. Second, I think the piece underemphasizes the scholarly reason for blogging. Picking apart the scholarship of a Michael Bellesiles or a John Lott is a rare occurrence. More important is the way blogs can engage an audience outside the small world of students and colleagues. At their best, scholar blogs can function as what Hayek called "second-order intellectuals," applying abstruse theories to real-world problems. They can open a window on the inner workings of ivory tower, debunking stereotypes of academics as detached from the real world. At their worst, no one reads them and you get denied tenure for engaging in such base pursuits.
THE SCHOLAR-BLOGGER REPORT: The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on scholar-bloggers. Yours truly is quoted, but Daniel Urmann easily has the best line in whole piece. There’s also a good list of academic blogs at the end. UPDATE: Kieran Healy has some additional thoughts, including a good-natured jab at my colleague Jacob Levy. Two additional points. First, compared to a some of the reporters I’ve dealt with, I was pleased to see that my words weren’t distorted in the Chronicle piece. Thank you, David Glenn. Second, I think the piece underemphasizes the scholarly reason for blogging. Picking apart the scholarship of a Michael Bellesiles or a John Lott is a rare occurrence. More important is the way blogs can engage an audience outside the small world of students and colleagues. At their best, scholar blogs can function as what Hayek called “second-order intellectuals,” applying abstruse theories to real-world problems. They can open a window on the inner workings of ivory tower, debunking stereotypes of academics as detached from the real world. At their worst, no one reads them and you get denied tenure for engaging in such base pursuits.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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