Pro and cons of academic blogging

In 2016, there are problably few and few academics wondering what blogging is and why we, as educated people, we should use this medium to share our ideas to the world. Many of my academic friends already experienced at least once the bloggosphere, either as guest writers or as owners of their blog.

However, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and confusions regarding the advantages of blogging for academics and I am here to share some of them.

Let's start with the cons:

- Not every kind of scientifical domain can be easily blogged about. For instance, as a mathematician discovering new formulas, writing a blog post about this, will most probably not reach more than the usual people that are already familiar with your very niche activities. So, why to waste time setting up a couple of sentences about?

- Talking about time...one of the big arguments against blogging among academics is the waste of time. In a highly competitive academic world, where publish or die is still the motto, you better use every dime of time for forwarding your research, apply for academic conferences. If you also have a family, you practically do not have any extra time for scribbling.

- The blog post does not equal the academic article and will not (yet) be considered a reference for applying for a serious permanent academic position.

- It increases the risk of being caught in various commercial traps, especially when various companies or institutions are keen to offer sponsorship and thus, diminish the credibility and independence of the academic individual and research.

- It has the temptation of easy journalism, and may affect the hard polished academic skills which includes precaution and long preparation of the texts as well as cross-referencing.

The advantages are equally noteworthy:

- It offers visibility to ideas developed by academics, by offering a medium to share and discuss. This is particularly available for academics in the field of human sciences and politics. 

- It makes academic work transparent and relevant to the public and take back the intellectuals in the agora as parts of the public discussions. 

- It help spreading knowledge in parts of the world without a proper educational network. Wherever they are, people can read and get in touch with new ideas.

- Outside the rigid institutional settings, academics are free to express opinions not only about their daily work but on issues of public interest.

- It offers academics important opportunities to collaborate and share ideas. It also offers the chance to find people sharing common interests and researching similar topics, wherever they are. 

Probably there are many more things to outline about academic blogging and I will keep writing about this in next posts. As for me, I will always keep telling how grateful I am for being alive these times, with tremendous learning opportunities, many of them for free. 

Academic book review: Buying a bride, by Marcia A.Zug

A couple of months ago, while looking to download some titles for my Kindle I discovered some indie series called Mail-Order Brides. I realized what the topic might be about, but the images of the cover too convinced me to do not overcharge my e-book device with some non-sense. 

When I started to read this book I assumed that it covers the usual angles on this topic, mainly the human trafficking and women abuse, but surprinsingly, there is a completely new perspective opened. Although there are cases of abuses, the mail-bride system can be, in fact, an opportunity for many women to improve their life. Far from portraying images of desperate women, ready to sell themselves from a visa, the author covers various historical and geographical cases when mail-brides were in fact the engine of change. 

Definition

The cases extensively studied are Canada, and most specifically the US, starting with the 17th century.Although the author acknowledges the problematic choice of wording, she decides to keep the "mail-order" term, but for offering a critique and challenge the assumption of exploitation of the women using this system to acquire a husband. It is defined "as a marriage resulting from some form of advertisment or other public request, soliciting women to enter into a marriage with previously unknown man and typically travel a significant distance to complete this (...)". The definition excludes in any case the idea of women getting married against their own will. Mail-order husbands were also possible but at a smaller extent and not studied by the book.

History

The phenomenon started in the 17th century, mostly part of larger state plans to expand towards previously unconquered lands, both in Canada and the US. The mail-brides were thus part of a national policy aimed to dublicate the national family models. The relationships with Native Indian women were not encouraged and in some cases forbidden by law, being considered as "a danger for European men to abandon their civility". The rights of women moving to colonies were more generous compared to the Eastern coast of the US or Europe, they being offered equal wages with their male counterparts, the right to trade, to sue and to be sued, to sell property etc. The right to vote was offered first to women from the Western part of the US, long before those from the Eastern coast benefited of the same advantages. An interesting assumption of the book is that in fact the mail-bride systems contributed to the advancement of women's rights. 

Another merit of the book is to offer a transversal perspective into the genesis of the elites and social classes in different American states. 

In both the US and Canadian cases, 'the complex forces of feminism, imperialism, capitalism and racism created a situation in which divergent interests aligned to produce support for a variety of large-scale marital immigration programs'.

The medium

A special section is dedicated to analysing the ads aimed to attract potential suitors, after the Civil War when the state policies were less predominant in encouraging this kind of immigration. By the fact that the women authored or authorized the content of the ads, they were given more control over their marital process. Actually, this kind of process through which a marriage takes place is distinguished from the arranged marriages, which may explain why, for instance, India was not included as part of the cases analysed by the author.

In parallel with the spread of the phenomenon and the increase of women coming not only from Western Europe, but also from East and South Europe, or as far as from China or Japan, the negative perception of the mail-brides developped. It was reflected not only through the negative media reports, but in the prohibitive legislation aimed to discourage the process. 

Now and then, there will always be men interested to marry overseas and women ready to leave a life of poverty and without hope. "Today's mail-order brides and grooms are not a throwback to an earlier, unenlightened time. Instead, like the most of us, they are simply men and women who believe marriage will improve their lives, and we should support this choice".

Overview

The book is seriously documented, based on a detailed bibliography which covers historical, literary, media, anthropological and legal sources. It covers well and clearly couple of good centuries and outlines new academic perspectives. 

What I did miss was a more quantitative focus. The author herself reckon that statistics in the success rate of mail-order mariages are hard to verify, but more data and comparisons between different periods of time and the racial profile of women might have help to counter stereotypes about the issue. 

A recommended read for both academics and journalist covering immigration related topics.

Disclaimer: I was offered the book for review part of the NetGalley.com network, but the opinions are, as always, my own. 

Back in the academic blogging business

Almost two years without a blog post, and not too many academic achievements...True is that there were a lot of challenging taking place and the academic perspectives and experiences helped in finding solutions. Although academic writing and the improvement of the academic CV was relatively slowing down, or put on hold for a couple of months, it was just a provisory situation.

Right now, fulll of energy and ideas for at least one book until the end of the year, I am back and ready to use the blog as a tool for sharing ideas about books, academic life and academic travels and history. I am preparing a couple of reviews of interesting academic books that caught my attention recently and the blog will be updated at least once the week. 

With plans to upgrade my academic CV and some long time projects for the medium term. 

All being said for now, I am back preparing my next post!

Keep in touch with good academic news! Soon, very soon!