I have yet to teach my own class and there isn’t one in the near future (need to complete comps first) but if I wait to think about teaching until I’m in front of a bunch of students I’m in trouble. Research and writing may have been the reason I entered graduate school, but teaching is why I stayed. I enjoy research projects, but I also find teaching to be incredibly valuable to the research process. Courses are almost always broader than a research topic, which provides an alternate lens through which to view your projects. Going over the Progressive Era in the US history survey class certainly made me think about my research on Progressivism differently. Engaging with non-History majors excites me the most, though. History and skills taught in history classes are vital to healthy societies and informed citizens. And let’s be honest, there’s a lot of fun stuff (pop culture, memory, etc) you can do teaching a history class.

So what do I know about teaching? While I certainly have a lot to learn, I already give advice to students on how to take notes, write better papers, study for exams, and read course materials as a teaching assistant and a tutor. Collecting my thoughts is valuable to me because I will have a foundation from which I can continue to build.

So why do I feel the need to make even more useless categories of blog posts? Part of it (probably 60%) is to keep myself accountable. Instituting Follow Fridays, will make sure that I am reading things outside of the readings assigned in my courses. Similarly, reviewing projects forces me to explore what other people are already doing. Writing on my dissertation will force me to continually think about the project and, ideally, will stifle my impulse to procrastinate (I mean come on, it’s not due for another four years).

The other main part (35%) is my relatively recent pledge to open my research process. Blogging my dissertation progress is the most obvious way in which I am opening my research process. However, I also want to show how I think about the digital humanities, which ultimately influences my research. Also in the spirit of openness, I will have another new feature this semester, reading reflections from my digital humanities seminar. Every week our class has a set of readings and will have to post a short reflection. Since I am already writing the content, simply re-posting my work here (every Thursday) is only a little extra work for me, but an action that holds potential for increased discussion.

The remaining 5%? I want attention. By consistently producing content that others may find valuable (particularly reviews of projects and blogs), I hope to get people checking my blog every so often as a resource.

Why I decided to try blogging

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a little while now. I registered a WordPress account to use on the WHA’s Digital Frontiers blog for the WHA’s 2010 meeting, which gave my abstract thoughts some concrete possibilities. Although since it is now 2011, I clearly dragged my feet, (mostly fearing I would prove true the saying “Better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt”) but with some encouragement from friends I have decided to test the waters.

I thought for my first post I would explain (and weigh) my motivations behind blogging in hopes of explaining my blog (or at least how I envision it right now):

50% (Academic) Self-Improvement – The main reason I have starting a blog is because I think the experience will benefit me. While I hope blogging semi-consistently will help my writing skills, I am more interested in improving my ideas and creative thinking more generally. I intend this blog to be a place where I can play with ideas, voicing and developing them, while occasionally making silly comparisons in the name of trying to conceptualize my work as a historian and digital historian in different ways. I envision my posts as starting points for contemplation and (hopefully) conversation. I fully expect to contradict myself and use less than ideal grammar at times (though I will try not to), but I hope articulating some of my thoughts will lead to new and improved ideas that will ultimately benefit me in the long run.

35% Digital Presence – It seems a pretty obvious point now that people in any field should try and manage their presence online. Especially with a relatively uncommon name, I attempt to make sure anyone Google-ing me will find relevant (and positive) information. Currently, my department website and twitter account are the first two results, about which I am rather pleased. Using a blog as another way to build my online presence is inspired by the blogging of other academics and in-person conversations, or both as is the case with Jason Heppler.

5% Ego – Everyone thinks they have something important to say and I am no exception. I think highly enough of myself to move my internal rants and scribbles on scraps of paper to a public forum.

5% Bored – My relationship with the internet has been going a little stale recently. My addiction to Twitter has been growing since I joined in August, but aside from that I have been trying to cut down on my time-wasting websites (including Facebook), which has led to checking the same news websites and email accounts constantly. Any resistance I had to blogging has been worn down given I have nothing better to do (online).

5% Procrastination – Even though I just said I have been trying to reduce my time-wasting, I am still a chronic procrastinator. I certainly do not need another excuse to procrastinate, but hopefully this medium will make my reluctance to be productive somewhat useful.

I also am happy to report that my post Build It and They Will Come made the History Roll for February. The History Roll is a blog that publishes good historical writing and reviews and compiles a list (the Roll) of five good blog posts on historical topics each month. I’m sure my knowing one of the editors helped, but I still consider it quite an honor to be recognized.

You will have to go back to my original wordpress blog for my initial attempts at blogging, but all my future posts will be here. As for my blogging, I think I have settled on how I will proceed, at least initially. I still plan on posting longer pieces under the category “Full Posts” once a week (Mondays are my target date for publishing during this semester). During the rest of the week, I will publish really short posts, usually either questions I have been thinking about or a link to an interesting article, which can be found under the “Scribbles” category (I got the name from thinking of my blog as a “Digital Notepad” in which I can both write longer reflective pieces and short thought-provoking statements). Other general administrative things, like this, will be under the “Housekeeping” category. More information about me can be found in the “About Me”  section and information about my research can be found in the “My Work” section.

Thanks as always for reading!