There’s a Duke Blog for That
Campus bloggers have the buzz on hot issues
In a 2008 story, when we looked at some of the prominent bloggers among Duke faculty and staff, blogging was still a relatively new contribution to academic and campus discussion. Just two years later, faculty, staff and students all regularly turn to blogs and other social media writing for essential information.
Many argue social media is changing campus culture. Many faculty and students use blogs to enhance classroom discussion. And Cathy Davidson, for one, argues that blogs and other social media writing should count in tenure decisions, at least in some emerging fields.
Here's an update on just a few of the recent additions to the Duke bloggerhood. A more extensive list of Duke blogs is embedded in the story below.
A wise prescription for health care
This past spring, when Congress was debating health care reform, public policy professor Donald Taylor was online, in print and on television cutting through the details of the issue. Now with health care reform passed, Taylor is still being heard. His "Free For All" blog tackles all aspects of health policy, with a focus on older Americans, Medicare and long-term care, which are his research interests.
Taylor, who followed the health care debate with his year-long series of op-eds in the News & Observer, started blogging around the same time. "It was a way to share my thoughts while documenting them for use later in classes," he said. "The blog was a big help in the comparative health system course (PPS 178) I taught in the spring."
He also pointed students in other classes to the blog when they asked him about health reform.
OTHER DUKE BLOGGERS
The wide world of Duke endeavors.
Kristin Goss on civic engagement
The Intrepid Philanthropist Blog
A variety of views from The Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
The Age of Personalized Medicine blog
Duke oncologist Amy Abernethy
Political scientist Peter Feaver on foreign affairs
Tips and tools on a range of topics
Black Popular Culture professor Mark Anthony Neal on culture and politics
Economist and political scientist Michael Munger's reflections on the news
Robin Kirk on human rights at home and abroad
HASTAC co-founder Cathy Davidson's blog
Nicholas Dean Bill Chameides on environmental happenings
Students talk about life and learning at the Nicholas School
The behavioral economist and author is also a prolific blogger
Research scientist Venessa Woods introduces humanity's closest relatives
Stories behind their motto, "Change yourself. Change your world."
IGSP assistant professor Misha Angrist chronicles the dawn of personal genomics
Divinity students' blog at the intersection of theology and arts
Blog of the Clergy Health Initiative
Fresh ideas from the Thriving Rural Communities initiative
Blog of the online magazine Faith & Leadership
The department's blog with news and views
Laura Sell has the buzz on new academic books
English grad student Alexis Gumbs offers fresh insights into race, gender and sexuality
Continuous headlines and fan comment
Anthropologist Orin Starn on golf's role in American society
Center for Instructional Technology staffer Randy Riddle's blog and podcast featuring vintage broadcasts directly transferred from original transcriptions
Research instructors at Duke Libraries share new and emerging tools for truly global studies.
Taylor has heard from many people drawn to the health care debate and to his expert opinions. "Some of them are mad," he says, "but I don't take it personally." At first he felt as though he needed to answer them all, but that became too time-consuming.
Blogging and writing for the newspaper have helped Taylor learn how to explain things more clearly. "Blogging has helped me realize a great deal of academic writing is done in a manner that makes it inaccessible to most people," she says. "Blogging can't replace academic publishing for a researcher, but is a key way to try and have an influence on the public policy discussions of the day."
During points in the health reform debate, Taylor admits that the blog and op-ed series "took over my life," but he's pulled back and blogs more selectively now. "I do it when I can," he says. He has also begun using Twitter to drive traffic to his blog and to participate in the active debate on Twitter that focuses on palliative care/hospice policy, a specialty of his.
What's in a name: Distance education
Marc Alan Sperber, educational technologies consultant at the Duke Global Health Institute, is among the newest of Duke's many bloggers and perhaps the first to admit to being indecisive about picking a blog name.
After his first couple of blog posts, Sperber said he decided to change the name of his blog to better align with what he was actually writing about. "I realized that with the former name, I was unintentionally limiting myself," he said in a post announcing the switch from "international online education" to "distance education," which he says is a broader term that encompasses international, national or transnational online education. "It also encompasses online, hybrid/blended and face-to-face education. I plan on covering all of the above here on this blog."
Sperber, the main consultant for the institute's piloting of iPads as a fieldwork research tool, keeps tabs on developments that are sure to impact distance education, such as a new undersea fiber-optic cable linking East Africa to networks in Europe and India.
Borrow insights from the experts
If you thought some meetings in Basel, Switzerland, of an obscure world banking group weren't worthy of your attention, law professor and former Wachovia Bank executive Lawrence Baxter wants you to think again. To throw some light on the under reported impact of the regulatory infrastructure is why he started theParetoCommons.
Baxter, who focuses his teaching and scholarly research on the evolving regulatory environment for financial services and beyond, has also signed up six other Duke Law contributors to offer reflections on regulation, law and public policy.
A safe place to talk race and politics
Law professor Guy-Uriel Charles has law and politics on his mind with his Colored Demos blog, which provides perspective on issues related to democracy, culture and race.
Charles, founding director of the Duke Center on Law, Race and Politics, gets an assist from Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and six other regular contributors.
In recent posts, Charles has examined the ability of the Supreme Court to affect societal change, the fate of school reform in the District of Columbia and a law student's demonstration of Sunday news shows' failure to represent even the limited diversity of the U.S. Congress in their guest pools.
An open door to Christian scholarship
Divinity School faculty members and their colleagues have a new place to reflect on topics at the intersection of theology, scripture, congregational life and racial and gender identity.
Stony Roads, the blog of the Office of Black Church Studies, is a space where theologians can share their personal observations on the last words of Christ or where prayers for Haiti can be posted or even where Divinity ‘09 alumna Kamille Williams can celebrate a different depiction of black women in an animated Disney film.
J. Kameron Carter, associate professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, says he saw blogging first as a classroom tool and then as a vehicle to amplify the scholarship of the Office of Black Church Studies beyond the Duke campus.
"We want to weigh in on contemporary issues and also use it as a forum for our students," Carter said. "This is a prime moment, culturally and politically. Race and religion are at the forefront of many issues today, and blogging does press you to speak to real-world issues."
Blog's palette rich with views
The Nasher Museum's large stable of contributing writers and photographers assures that its Nasher Museum Blog is brimming with lively commentary and news.
Wendy Hower Livingston, marketing manager for the museum, is the blog's editor and a frequent contributor, supported by student interns, the museum's curator of education and the occasional guest.
Livingston recently has been making connections between the Nasher's art and collectors in the Durham community. She chronicled her recent visit to the Bull City Boys' Night group, which has been meeting monthly for more than 20 years to bond over vinyl records. Obviously, it was the perfect venue to talk about "The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl," the newest exhibition at the Nasher.
A world of better outcomes
Duke students reflect on their global health experiences at Global Health Dispatch, a new blog started at the Global Health Institute.
At this central hub, you can see junior Nancy Yang's photos of Ugandan students eagerly showing off their new water bottles (the result of a solar water disinfection project) or read about students' fieldwork projects, such as Melanie Subramanian's research on bushmeat hunting, as well as Sierra Leone hunters' perceptions of zoonotic disease risk.