Activity: Public Scholarship 1 / 3 / 6 Plan

Make a plan for your public scholarship after our time together ends! In keeping with Liz’s nautical metaphor, give some thought to:

• boats — which topics or elements of your research do you want to share with the public?

• ports — where might you want to place pieces? which audiences do you want to reach?

• docks — how can you draw audiences into your work? are there anniversaries, holidays, or other events in the news cycle you should schedule for?

Set goals for the next month, three months, and six months. Give some thought to this plan before our final video conference, and share your plan with your podmates by 20 August.

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

Hear from Drs. Audrey Truschke, Simran Jeet Singh, and Erin Bartram

https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/2925709949

our last meeting of the training! come prepared to think about your public scholarship plan for the next month, three months, and six months.

https://meet.google.com/fzp-vwyj-aop

ACTIVITY: SAFETY DOXX

MAKE A PLAN

Hopefully you’ll never need to respond to online harassment. But if you do, it’ll be much easier if you already have a plan in place.

• Check out this guide to responding to harassment.

• Find out if your university and/or department have resources in place to support you in case of harassment or abuse. (They probably don’t, but find out for sure.)

• Find out if your professional guild/s have resources in place to support you in case of harassment or abuse.

• Ask your colleagues for support.

• Arrange to have a friend or colleague monitor your email, DMs, and mentions until the harassment abates.

Share your plan with your podmates by 13 August.

Activity: Safety Doxx

You can doxx (yourself) if you want to! You can leave your trolls behind.

Doxxing refers to finding someone’s private information online and making it public, usually with the intent to encourage bad actors to harass or threaten that person. Here’s an explanation of why it makes sense to dox yourself and how to go about doing just that.

• Vilk, “How and Why You Should Dox Yourself,” Slate (28 February 2020)

• Kozinski and Kapur, “A Guide to Doxxing Yourself on the Internet,” New York Times Open Team (27 February 2020)

This is going to look like an overwhelming amount of information to process, but don’t get bogged down by all the things they’re telling you to do. Just pick one for now — or a couple, if you’re feeling ambitious. Set up a google alert on your name so you know what information about you is being indexed. Check Spokeo to see if your info is listed and ask to have it removed. (Ask to have it removed even if the info’s not current, and don’t forget to go back in 2-3 days to be sure they’ve removed it!) You can always come back to the “Doxx Yourself” list and do more later.

SOCIAL MEDIA SECURITY & PRIVACY CHECKLISTS

• Kozinski and Kapur, “Social Media Security & Privacy Checklists,” New York Times Open Team (27 February 2020)

Again, there’s a lot to do on these lists! Don’t get overwhelmed. Just pick one thing to do. Maybe update some passwords or start using a VPN (Opera and Windscribe are both good starter options).

Activity: Get Ready for Your (Audio) Close-up

Prepare for, practice, and record an interview with Greg Soden, host of the Classical Ideas Podcast.

The finished episode will each be ~30 minutes in length and run as a Sacred Writes cohort series this spring. Greg writes, “the series will discuss their views of how Sacred Writes is helping them grow into the world of public scholarship and will focus on an area of their work they wish to focus on.”

Greg is a professional and will provide you with a detailed outline of questions in advance (this won't always happen). He wanted us to tell you that you can tell him at the end of the conversation if you would like portion deleted. There are no “gotchas” on Classical Ideas. This is a safe space for you to practice and get a recorded podcast interview under your belt!

PREPARE

• Before you start, set three style goals for your interview (e.g. avoid saying “um,” speak slowly, pause after sentences) and three content goals for your interview (e.g. tell story of moment I was surprised doing this research, show diversity of Muslim community, explain why increased visibility of Muslim Fashion is not always a good thing). Write all your goals down.

• Send Greg one piece of your writing that will act as springboard for your conversation.

• Prepare your core message by identifying a central learning objective, triangulate different approaches (problem, significance, and solution), and consider a brief story.

PRACTICE

• Set up a time with your podmates for this module to practice discussing your research in a conversational manner by 6 August. Perhaps give each person a set time (10-20 mins). Share with them your three style goals. Please specify if you:

  • prefer only comments about is working well or

  • are open to constructive feed back about what to improve on.

• You might want to revise your style goals after this exercise.

Activity: Get Ready for Your (Audio) Close-up

Get in touch with Greg Soden from the Classical Ideas Podcast to schedule your interview during the month of August.

Activity: Draft & Pitch an Op-Ed

RNS editor-in-chief Paul O’Donnell will be reading your pitches and providing feedback.

Email your pitch to Paul at RNS, subject line: SW pitch + [Working Title], by 30 July.

He will provide feedback on your pitch by 13 August.

Activity: Draft & Pitch an Op-Ed

Review & Respond

Check out your podmates’ pitches

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

And workshop by 28 July. Be sure your pitches include:

• a short, clear statement of what you’re arguing

• why the topic is timely

• why you’re the person to address this issue

  • (don’t forget to pull on your credibility madlibs!)

Activity: Draft & Pitch an Op-Ed

Write

Unlike other forms of public writing, Op-Ed pitching requires that you first draft the Op-Ed (700-800 words) and send it along with your pitch. Pick a topic that draws on your expertise and has a newshook (current event, anniversary, holiday) and draft an Op-Ed.

Be sure to answer:

• What is your argument?

• Why it is timely?

• Why you?

Sample Pitch

(Courtesy of Liz)

Dear $EDITOR,

In November the Democrats proposed to alter a 182-year old House rule that bans hats from the floor, in order to allow Representative Ilhan Omar’s headscarf. No one is discussing what I find to be a disturbing premise of the Democrats’ proposal, mainly that a hijab might be reasonably equated with a hat. In my op-ed I argue why equating a hijab with a hat is both ridiculous and dangerous.

I am a Professor of Religion at Northeastern University and have studied Muslim women’s clothing for the last 14 years. I have written an award-winning book on the topic, Pious Fashion, as well as op-eds for The Atlantic, L.A. Times, Zocalo Public Square, and most recently The Conversation.

The piece is pasted below my signature. Because the swearing in takes place tomorrow I will assume if I have not heard from you in a couple hours that you have passed, and I’ll submit elsewhere. Thank you so much for your consideration!

Best,

Liz

Share

Upload your pitch by 23 July. 

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

Activity: Explain(er) Yourself

Team Blue Jeans

Email your pitch to Kali Handelman of The Revealer, subject line: SW pitch + [Working Title Here], by 16 July

Kali will provide feedback on your pitch, after which you should consider pitching it for publication!

Team Overalls

Email your pitch to Nicola Menzie of Faithfully Magazine, subject line: SW pitch + [Working Title Here], by 16 July

Nicola will provide feedback on your pitch, after which you should consider pitching it for publication!

Activity: Explain(er) Yourself

Review & Respond

Check out your podmates’ explainer pitches.

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

Workshop your pitches together by 9 July.

Be sure your pitches include:

• What kind of explainer you’re pitching (news hook, anniversary/festival, religious literacy, “curiosity question”)

• What topic you’re addressing

• How you’re helping readers better understand the topic (3-5 points)

• Why this topic matters

• Why you’re the person to write about it

Activity: Explain(er) Yourself

Use your twitter thread from our social media unit to pitch an explainer!

Review

Your twitter thread from the last unit. You already have your topic, your argument, and most of your sources ready to go! Good job, you. You don’t have to use your thread to springboard your pitch, but it might save you some time and help you gauge interest (yours and your readers’) in the topic.

Write

Check out Kalpana Jain’s guide to writing an explainer before you start.

Be sure your pitch includes:

• What kind of explainer you’re pitching (news hook, anniversary/festival, religious literacy, “curiosity question”)

• What topic you’re addressing

• How you’re helping readers better understand the topic (3-5 points)

• Why this topic matters

• Why you’re the person to write about it

And don’t forget: public scholarship is about building relationships. As always, you can claim your expertise and still talk to editors like they’re intelligent human beings (because they are).

Share

Upload your pitch by 7 July.

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

https://meet.google.com/kga-qsux-hjr

No official homework for this meeting. We’re just curious to hear how training has been going for you and eager to hear about what avenues of public scholarship you’re thinking about pursuing.

Looking forward to seeing y’all soon!

Activity: Thread It Up

Review & Respond 

• Check out your public scholarship pod members' threads!

• Ask a question, suggest another resource, tell them what worked for you or what you’d like to know more about by 25 June.

Activity: Thread It Up

Write a thread on a topic related to your research or teaching! It’s great if you can find a news hook for your thread, but that’s not required.

Here are a few examples of threads Megan has written.

Include

• at least five threaded tweets

• at least one item of visual interest (GIF, image, etc.)

  • remember to include a text description of the image in the alt-text!

• at least one multimedia resource (video, podcast, song, etc.)

• at least one external link to a public-facing print resource (news item, public scholarship not written by you, etc.)

• at least one external link to something you’ve created (formal article, podcast interview, op-ed, etc.)

• @SacredWrites and #SmartInPublic in at least one of your tweets, so we can find your thread!

Post

your thread by 18 June. Don’t forget to tag us @Sacred_Writes!

https://meet.google.com/xus-rkkp-kgm

No official homework for this meeting. We’re just curious to hear how training has been going for you and eager to hear about what avenues of public scholarship you’re thinking about pursuing.

Looking forward to seeing y’all soon!

Activity: Pitch to Keep Their Pants On

Email your pitch to Dr. Kelly Baker, subject line: SW pitch + [Working Title Here] for feedback by 11 June.

Kelly will provide feedback on your pitch by 25 June.

Can’t wait to read all your pitches!

ACTIVITY: PITCH TO KEEP THEIR PANTS ON

Pick a publication you'd like to write for and write a pitch for them!

Review & Respond

As in real life, this pitching activity has a tight turn-around time. Workshop your pitch with your pod by 4 June.

• Team Blue Jeans folder

• Team Overalls folder

Be sure that all your pitches include:

• What your article is about

• How it fits the publication and would be of interest to their readers

• Why you?  

• Why now?

ACTIVITY: PITCH TO KEEP THEIR PANTS ON

Pick a publication you'd like to write for and write a pitch for them!

Write

Check out Kelly’s guide to pitching before you start. Liz has also included tips for writing for non-academic audiences and a few sample pitches to get you started.

Be sure your pitch includes:

• What your article is about

• How it fits the publication and would be of interest to their readers

• Why you?  

• Why now?

And don’t forget — public scholarship is about building relationships.

You can claim your expertise and still talk to editors like they’re intelligent human beings (because they are).

Share

• As in real life, this pitching activity has a tight turn-around time. Upload your pitch by 2 June.

  • Team Blue Jeans folder

  • Team Overalls folder

Activity: Credibility Madlibs

Review & Respond

• Check out your public scholarship pod members' madlibs! (Remember to check for notes about what kind of feedback your podmates have requested.)

  • Team Blue Jeans folder

  • Team Overalls folder

• Arrange a way to discuss this exercise with your podmates. Discussion format is up to you: video chat, old fashioned phone call, DMs, asynchronous written feedback -- whatever works best for your group is A-OK with us. You and your podmates should provide and discuss your feedback before 28 May.

n.b. the podcast says you’re submitting your madlibs to Liz as well, but we decided to make that part optional this time. If you want to discuss your credibility madlibs with Liz, please schedule an appointment during her office hours.

Activity: Credibility Madlibs

[Adapted from The Op-Ed Project peak credibility game)]

Practice this formula

Hello, I’m  ____________.

I’m an expert in ____________________

because ______________. 

Rules

• Use exact credibility formula

• Be specific

• Pick one subject to be an expert in (you are likely an expert in many things)

• No notes!!

Consenting to Feedback

We want to make sure this exercise builds your confidence, and owing our expertise makes us vulnerable. So below you receive any feedback from your pod please specify if you 

• prefer only comments about is working well or 

• are open to constructive feed back about what to improve on

Share

• Decide as a pod the format you want to use (share audio/video files, jump on a video chat). Each cohort member gets one shot. If you’re uploading files, be sure to have your materials on our shared drive by 26 May at midnight.

  • Team Blue Jeans folder

  • Team Overalls folder