The University of Southern Queensland has generously funded a research project about academic blogging under a 2023 UniSQ Research Capacity Building Grant.

This project will be undertaken in conjunction with VIDA: Blog of the Australian Women’s History Network throughout 2023.

THE PROJECT

Title: Academic Blogging and the Public Humanities in the Twenty-First Century Knowledge Economy

Abstract: This project aims to investigate the influence of academic blogging on the twenty-first-century knowledge economy. Building on a developing literature about the position of academic blogging in the scholarly publishing landscape, this project is significant as the first mixed-methods study of its kind.

Expected outcomes include greater understanding of the use and impact of academic blogs across the three core domains of a university’s mission: teaching, research, and public engagement.

Benefits include insight into the function of academic blogging at a juncture when the importance of public-facing research outputs is increasingly recognised.

This research project emerged out of the mission behind establishing VIDA in 2016, which was “to create an open-access blog that makes knowledge of the history of feminism, in Australia and around the world, accessible, approachable, and inspiring.”

THE TEAM

The team for this research project brings together historians and social scientists who have experience with academic blogging:

Principal Investigator: Dr Ana Stevenson (University of Southern Queensland)

Co-Investigator (Mentor): Dr Kieran Balloo (University of Southern Queensland)

Project Officer: Danaé Carlile (University of Southern Queensland)

Graduate Research School Winter Research Scholar: Natasha Walker (University of Southern Queensland)

The Principal Investigator has long been involved with the Australian Women’s History Network as the Founders and Managing Editors of VIDA. The Project Officer was formerly a VIDA Editorial Assistant funded by the Graduate Research School’s Summer Research Scholarships at the University of Southern Queensland.

The Co-Investigator (Mentor) is a higher education specialist with a shared interest in academic literacies. The Winter Research Scholar is a former author for VIDA and a PhD candidate in the School of Humanities and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland.

The team thank the University of Southern Queensland for its support of this research project.

THE DATA COLLECTION

This research project will be recruiting participants who would like to participate in a survey and interviews about their experience of academic blogging across 2023.

For the Participant Information Sheets, please download the Participant Information Sheet – Questionnaire and Participant Information Sheet – Interview.

If you would like to express your interest in participating in the interview, please list your details via this Microsoft Form.

This research project has ethical approval from the University of Southern Queensland Human Ethics Committee {ETH2023-0103}.

THE OUTCOMES

In late 2023, this research project will culminate in one of its core outcomes.

The team will run a digital professional development workshop aimed at HDRs and ECRs across Australia and beyond. The PIs hope to offer participants evidence-informed advice about academic blogging, thus presenting an opportunity for historians and other scholars to use and apply the new knowledge to emerge from this research.

GET IN TOUCH

For further information about this research project, or to express interest in participating in the interviews or workshop, please contact Ana Stevenson: ana.stevenson [at] usq.edu.au

Feature Image: “fred and academic blogging” by davidsilver is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.