The Trickster Prince
Matt Houlbrook: mobile historian; beard growing, head shaving; occasional cycling.
Blogging is work (after #MBS2015)
You could read these thoughts on blogging as one of my responses to the questions and discussion at #MBS2015. I’m not sure. I do know that Lucy has made me think (as she always does) and that is a good thing.
I don’t write a blog for fun, but I do enjoy doing it. And yes, I know exactly how lucky that makes me.
I don’t blog in my ‘spare time’. It is part of my working life, and if I write a post for The Trickster Prince it means that I don’t do something else from that bit of my work bracketed as ‘research.’ And yes, I know exactly what personal and professional privileges let me make those choices.
I don’t think of blogging as ‘public engagement’, although as far as I can tell at least some posts get read by people who might get called ‘the public’.
Writing a blog is an important part of the work I do. Sometimes it is the most important, and I have placed greater emphasis on it than I have on grant applications when I have applied for promotion. And yes, I know exactly what privileges I need to check.
I don’t think of blogging as something distinct from my research. It is a fundamental part of my research process – a kind of thinking out loud or doing history in public that shapes my ideas and writing. It is also a substantive part of my research output that sits alongside my journal articles and books.
And yes, I know…
But at a moment when what we think of as ‘History’ is changing quickly, the more people like me write blogs and insist upon that writing (along with all those other related kinds of what some dismiss as not-quite-research) as work and as important, then the more chance there is that they will get the professional and institutional recognition they deserve.
I understand that the American Historical Association is canvassing its members on whether digital outputs should be considered in applications for tenure. These issues are up for grabs.
The Trickster Prince 
Is what you do not similar to the activities of Mr Pypes and other observers of times? Just recorded in a different medium
So, how is thinking through a blog different to scribbling on bits of paper only for private use? It’s not necessarily the comments, which are often sparse, nor perhaps is it the need to articulate clearly and concisely, though that’s a good discipline. Does it also answer a psychological need to be seen to be productive, to be heard, in an academic culture that places increased emphasis on delivery, on outward displays of busyness, on the need to justify one’s existence? Could blogging, for all that it undoubtely achieves that is intellectually positive and community-orientated, also be read as a symptom of diminished privilege, of that anxious need for validation? I blog too!
Yes — and I think you’re exactly right that the knowledge of being read (of even being able to see the number of readers in those coloured graphs) is both affirming and stimulating in equal measure. Not sure it’s quite validation though: you never really know what people think about stuff they read!
We need a mandatory comments section. ‘Please rate this post from 1-5; What did it make you feel? Please write a short response explaining how your thinking on this issue has changed.’ 😉
IMPACT!
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