The Social Academic | Online Presence for Professors with Jennifer van Alstyne

Jessica Doble, a PhD candidate in English at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, uses social media to reach communities. Jessica’s research examines online communities, fandom, and popular culture media. In our chat, we talk about the politics around True Blood (HBO 2008-2014) and The Bold Type (Freeform 2017-present). Jessica talks about why she likes Instagram: “It doesn’t feel like posting into the void.” And, we chat about Tumblr, Twitter, and her favorite folklore hashtags. Jessica is my friend, in real life. I’m excited to share her with you today because she’s doing cool in-the-moment research (we talk about an episode that hadn’t premiered yet). And, she uses social media in a variety of ways. Having a curated feed and favorite hashtags to find community, is important to enjoying your social media life. Jessica knows that. Then, hear about how Jessica is managing social media for an academic journal. Read on The Social Academic

Daisy Shu, a postdoc at Harvard’s Schepens Eye Research Institute, uses social media to share her research life. Daisy’s PhD thesis explores how cataracts are formed, and “how we can prevent it from forming from a molecular biology perspective.” Now she’s made the journey from Sydney, Australia to Boston to research diseases of the retina. In our interview, she discusses her social media journey. From first hearing Hugh Kearns speak, to starting her popular Instagram channel in October. I love featuring academics like Daisy. She’s awesome at sharing what she does with her social media audiences. And, she has some great advice for you. Read on The Social Academic

Jazmine Benjamin, a 2nd year PhD student has used social media to network with researchers in her field. She’s received and given feedback, collaborated on projects, and now Jazmine is working to start a science policy group. Check out our interview for some great advice on contacting scholars via DM and how Twitter can create community. Featuring cool academics and researchers is my favorite part of The Social Academic. Read on the blog

For this episode of The Social Academic, I chat with Dr. Echo Rivera, who is all about good communication. I talked about how sharing your talk or presentation on social media is helpful for all sorts of people. What about when you get to the conference? Echo Rivera is here to help. Read on The Social Academic P.S. In 2024, Echo and I collaborate on videos for your personal academic website. If that's something you'd find helpful, don't hesitate to reach out. Let's chat on a no pressure Zoom call about working together.

Welcome to the 2nd of my interview series with faculty and grad students. This is The Social Academic, my blog about online identity in the HigherEd world. This week features Greg Loring-Albright. He’s a PhD student in the Communications, Culture and Media program at Drexel University. We chat about his life as a game designer and student. And, about social media. Read on The Social Academic

This year, I’m chatting with faculty and graduate students as part of a new interview series all about social media and the HigherEd world.My goal is to highlight the awesome work you do, and talk about how academics use social media now. The Social Academic interview series starts off with literacy professor Leigh A. Hall.