Risks, Rewards, and Responsibilities
This lesson focuses on the risks, rewards, and responsibilities (r3) for scholars doing public-facing work. We’ll provide some examples of what can make public scholarship both rewarding and risky for scholars, and ask you to consider to whom you are accountable when sharing your work with the public. We’ll hear from leadership team members, Sacred Writes training alums, and other experts on how they’ve gone public with their work, what challenges they’ve faced in doing so, and why they think it’s worth it.
OBJECTIVES
discuss personal and professional risks of public-facing work
assess what makes public scholarship feel “worth it” or rewarding to you
consider your communities of accountability and responsibilities to them
WAYS TO LEARN
We’ve designed this training curriculum so you can get the entire content of a lesson just by listening to that lesson’s podcast episode on the audio player below. You can listen all at once, or click on the “list” icon to use chapter markers to navigate to a specific part of the conversation.
If you prefer a multimedia approach to learning, you can watch a slideshow version of this content.
You’re also welcome to simply read through the transcript for this episode.
However you choose to learn, we encourage you to pause and reflect when prompted to do so, and to take notes to share with your fellow trainees, if and as that’s possible for you.
And don’t forget to check the top of this page for essential resources, and the bottom of the page for additional resources.
Listen & Learn
Read the transcript.
GUEST VOICES
The training podcast contributions from Nyasha Junior, Simran Jeet Singh, Audrey Truschke, and Hannah McGregor are excerpted from previously recorded interviews. You can find full audio and transcripts of those interviews here.
Watch & Learn
Read & Learn
Read the transcript of this episode’s podcast.
APPLIED LEARNING: doxx yourself
Purpose: make your personal information harder to find online
1. Set up Google alerts for all iterations of your name. Here is a guide for how to do so.
2. Look yourself up on a data broker site like WhitePages.com or PeopleFinders.com and ask to have any information removed. Or subscribe to a service like DeleteMe.
3. Enter your commonly used social media handles into Namecheckr.com to see if you have accounts on apps that you never signed up for, or no longer use; remove them!
4. Update your most frequently used passwords to passwords that are long, unique, and easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess.
5. Optional: set up a password manager, like LastPass.com.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS
When you meet with your colleagues, we encourage you to discuss the following questions:
What responsibilities inform your public scholarship?
What would you like to get out of sharing your work with the public?
What kinds of risks do you face in sharing your research with the public–personal, professional, or otherwise?
How would your assessment of the risks, rewards, and responsibilities (R3) shift depending on different topics, audiences, or goals?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Vilk, “How and Why You Should Dox Yourself,” Slate (28 February 2020)
Guides to responding to online harassment:
Inside Higher Ed’s guide for asking colleagues for support