Why blogging matters (to me)
Amidst suggestions that they still don’t quite hit the academic ‘G’ spot – see here and here – below is my impulsive, knee-jerk (ergo non-academic) celebration of the blogs that are having a HUGE academic impact on my research, thinking, and teaching.
In fact, I’d argue that they are all ‘academic’ on the grounds that they have meaningful impact: they are transformative because they are engaging a wide-ranging academic community of teachers and researchers, including me, who would otherwise not be aware of these ideas. If this kind of impact is not ‘academic’, then why is it not?
Since I work across several inter-weaving domains (education-philosophy-EAP (English for Academic Purposes), the following collection of blogs may seem random to you, but it makes perfect sense to me.
I list my regular fixes/fixtures (i.e. ones I have set up alerts for) in no particular order and off the top of my head (mainly from memory or a as a result of those I have read most recently), but if you know of other blogs that you think should also be on my radar, then do let me know:
- Understanding Society: Prof Dan Little on the Philosophy of Social Science
- Critical Realism Network: posts, webinars and podcasts on the Philosophy of Critical Realism
- The Sociological Imagination: Dr Mark Carrigan on Sociology
- BERA UK: on Education
- WonkHE: on Higher Education as a sector (policy, politics, economics)
- Philosophical Disquistions: Dr John Danaher, a philosopher and philosophiser
- Patter: Prof Pat Thomson on Research Writing
- Explorations of Style: Dr Rachel Cayley on Research Writing
- Thesis Whisperer: Dr Inger Mewburn on Research Writing
- Doctoral Writing SIG: a collective on Research Writing
- Write4Research: Prof. Patrick Dunleavy on Research Writing
- Tactile Academia: Dr Alke Groppel-Wegener’s embodied approaches to Academic Writing
- Spin Weave and Cut: Dr Nick Sousanis on Visual Literacies, Comics, Education, Science, Maths
- Impact of Social Sciences: a range of thinking on Academic Publishing, Social Policy, Academia
- Teaching and Learning EAP: Dr Alex Ding on the EAP industry