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January 16, 2006
A reflection on academic blogs
A former student of mine posted this reflective comment on her blog, which she started for my course last summer:
i had forgotten how much i love reading other people's blogs! i occasionally read the [often politically charged] blog of one of my friends - and when i was perusing it today, i found a link to the faculty blog for the chicago law school. that got me thinking about my summer anthropology professor and how i used to read both his blog. after doing some searches, i've found quite the array of academic blogs and i'm kinda perplexed at my fixation on them. is it some vicarious attempt at social [and intellectual] mobiliy on my part? by reading about the lives of these 'successful' people might i be able to learn some 'tricks of the trade'? humbug! what i think is really going on here is that i truly enjoy a well-written, articulate, perceptive and reflective piece of commentary interjected with voice, personality, and humanity. and you know what? these blogs of professors and academics often offer that, in addition to really interesting links to more reading material and other media (film, music, literature, etc.). these high-end academics don't seem so distant anymore, so ivory towerish, if you know what i mean. sure, you get heady crtiques and analyses of current events and issues, but they're not written in the inaccessible worthy-of-publishing-in-a-reputable-journal jibber jabber. their voices are those of people, spouses, parents, neighbors, photographers, hikers, shoppers, foodies - the professor becomes a person in their blog. their identity isn't so fragmented into all its multiple roles - you can read about how they are all roles and more simultaneously. so it's great that your professor on sabaatical in amsterdam goes out to pubs every night or that your other young professor is having to face the biological clock while on a working vacation in spain. i love it - voices of interesting, intelligent people that have so much to offer, and now, in a way, they're accessible. yay for the internet.
Posted by johnn at January 16, 2006 03:02 AM
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