The Experimental Humanities Collaboration Network grant sponsored a guest lecture on "Writing Academic Blogs" by Sonya Farquharson (Diplomatische Akademie Wien), an expert on academic blog writing, on March 18, 2024.
Lecture was exploring and experimenting with the genre of academic blog writing. The lecture was geared toward two specific cohorts: the MA students of International Relations, as a part of their academic writing instruction in their first year; and BA students. The lecture encompassed such themes as the genre analysis, the genre's evolution, the challenges and opportunities for academic writers, especially in the discipline of international relations. The academic blog genre is particularly suitable for experimenting with modes of academic research and knowledge dissemination. The genre targets both academic and non-academic audiences, translating current and complex research trends in a jargon-free way. It challenges writers in many ways; for example, it asks them to negotiate a fine border between a personal perspective and experience on the one hand and findings of objective scholarship on the other. Importantly, it also challenges writers to create a conversation with other scholars, both within the blog post itself and in an added comment section.
Outcomes:
• IR students were encouraged to start a student-run blog (possibly weekly) that would be accessible via the IR website.
• BA students of genres of writing will complete an experimental writing task that builds on the themes covered in the lecture. One such a task is, for example, to write a profile of an audience reading a specific blog (Profile is another genre covered in the course, Genres of Writing).