Academia.edu

If you're looking for a way to get in touch with academic peers, then Academia.edu is a site you'll find most interesting. Through this site, you'll be able to use the many advantages of social networking that allow academics from universities around the world to create profiles and make connections with their peers. It's also a great way for people who are doing research to find someone who might be involved in the same field, allowing for quicker data gathering. The linking feature is also amazing, with its tree-like structure. This makes it easy to see who's associated with whom.

One of its strengths for me, is the option of linking postgraduates (PG) as well as faculty. Some Schools at UB don't have sufficient PG profiles up on the web (our School doesn't have any PG profiles up) or still rely on paper-based ones in the digital age. Who has the time to physically pop over to Otago to check out what researchers are doing there when you can and should get that info online. Academia.edu is also a good way to make sure that your publication details are up-to-date quickly. You can include a link to the publisher or amazon.com, etc. to plug your monograph, not to mention update keywords (which act like meta tags when people search for you/your field/interests), and keep in touch with other researchers and their work (by 'following' them or making them 'contacts').

I'd be interested to hear what people think of Academia.edu, and I invite you to post your responses and experiences here in the comments section of this post.

http://www.academia.edu

Facebook Manners

Whoever said using the Internet will make life any easier obviously didn’t think about the social consequences of people’s actions when they type the wrong thing to the wrong person.

July Book Group

Primo Levi. Photograph: Martin Argles

The book group will next meet at 2.00 pm on Sunday 5 July at The Known World bookshop (Sturt Street) for Primo Levi's If This Is a Man (US editions as Survival in Auschwitz). Please contact Alice Mills or Jane Mummery for further details.

BSSH Research Intensive Week-Long Workshop in July

What’s the idea of the workshop?
It can often be difficult to find enough time for writing a paper or a chapter or a grant application. So, here’s the solution: invest a week of your time to focus on writing - and nothing else. No meetings. No teaching. No form filling or other administrivia. It’s also important to present your draft work back to your peers, both as a way of getting feedback on your ideas and to celebrate your achievements. Participants can choose to write as a sole author or as joint authors – whatever suits your needs. So, in the spirit of scholarly collaboration and support, BSSH is holding its first Research Intensive Week-Long (almost) Workshop.

Who is the workshop for?
This workshop is open to all staff and postgraduate students in BSSH. We would like to encourage everyone to participate. This workshop is not just for early career researchers or those who want to “kick-start” their publications. It’s for everyone: academic staff from levels A to E, postgraduate students, and research officers.

Dates
The workshop will be held over a four days during the semester break. The days are:
Monday 13 July – Thursday 16 July, 2009. This week has been chosen to avoid teaching commitments (examinations and marking, and courses committees), and not encroach on teaching preparations for semester 2.

How will it be run?
The workshop involves two sessions for all participants (Monday morning and Thursday lunchtime), and four optional sessions (two morning teas and two pitstop consultations). Aside from that, we want it to be as flexible as possible to meet your individual needs.

Monday 9 am – 10 am over an early morning tea (for all participants)
At this first meeting, each participant (or co-authors / group of participants) explains what they are aiming to achieve by the end of the week. This will involve a brief description of the target journal, proposed title, list of authors or co-authors, an outline of the paper, and word length.

Monday 1 pm – 2 pm First pitstop consultation (optional)
This is an optional session for postgraduate students and early career researchers. It provides an opportunity to gain advice from experienced researchers about the craft of writing your paper / chapter / funding submission.

Tuesday 10:30 am – 11 am over morning tea (optional)
This second meeting is informal and optional. It’s an important opportunity to get together and share information about your progress, talk to colleagues who might have an idea or a resource that could be useful, compare callouses on fingertips, etc. Morning tea is supplied.

Wednesday 10:30 am – 11 am over morning tea (optional)
This third meeting is informal and optional. It’s an important opportunity to get together and share information about your progress, talk to colleagues who might have an idea or a resource that could be useful, compare callouses on fingertips, etc. Morning tea is supplied.

Wednesday 1 pm – 2 pm Second pitstop consultation (optional)
This is an optional session for postgraduate students and early career researchers. It provides an opportunity to gain advice from experienced researchers about the craft of writing your paper / chapter / funding submission.

Thursday 1 pm – 3 pm (over lunch, off campus) (for all participants)
This is the ‘show and tell’ session that signals the end of the workshop. Each participant (or group) will report back about their achievements over the past four days (what has been written, what still needs to be done prior to submission). Participants will be invited to make some reflective comments on the value of the workshop, whether it should be held again (as a biannual event) and how it might be improved.
Lunch will be supplied.

Senior researchers in Psychology, Humanities and the Social Sciences (who themselves will be workshop participants) have volunteered to make some time available each day for consultation. This can be by phone, email and/or face-to-face. So, if you have a question or need some advice or a word of encouragement, just get in touch with them. During the week, participants can work wherever they will be most productive: in their offices, at the library, at home, in cafes, in a holiday shack at the beach …

What to do if you’re interested…
Email Sally Grist with the following information:

Your name (and co-authors if applicable)
Proposed title
Target journal or chapter or research grant funding scheme etc.
Brief outline (no more than 50 words)
Approximate word length.

Addressing Disadvantage & Inequality in Education & Health

UB extends an invitation to met infomrally with Dr Shirley Steinberg of McGill University to discuss her research as Director of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy.

Shirley Steinberg is Associate Professor at McGill University in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. She is the author and editor of many books and articles in cultural studies including Media Literacy: A Reader (2007), Teen Life in Europe (2005), the award winning Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia (2005), Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (2004), The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World (2004). Her newest books will be out in the fall of 2009: Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture, and The Encyclopedia of Boyhood Culture to be followed in Spring 2009 with Diversity: A Reader. A former theatre director, Shirley is a contributor to The Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette as a cultural critic. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Pennsylvania State University.

Thursday 11 June 5:00 - 6:00 pm
Room T317 (Education Building)
University of Ballarat, Mt Helen Campus

Links of interest:
The Freire Project
Shirley's personal blog

June Book Group

The book group instigated by Alice Mills and Jane Mummery (Habeas Vol 1.1 Winter 2009) met on Sunday 7 June at The Known World bookshop (Sturt Street) for Samuel Beckett's 'Imagination Dead Imagine'. About 14 bods turned out on the public holiday weekened and lively conversation ensued the reading, spurred on by the breakdown of the coffee machine. I'll do my best to post relevant points here regularly. Please contact Alice or Jane for further details.