This post is about the importance, and necessity, of graduate students getting their work “out there” into the community, upping their Google factor, and generally presenting themselves as scholars.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about as I become graduate faculty.
While older faculty and many universities still don’t recognize the ubiquitousness and power of the net, graduate students should be taking advantage of the online world to promote themselves. One way they can do that is through their own blog. However, many graduate students don’t have enough information, work, or time to do that. So what could be done instead?
In the Medieval Middle suggests that graduate programs create and maintain a graduate student blog, either internal only (which would not promote) or external, and encourage but not require posting from the graduate students.
I think this would be a great way to promote both the individual students and the degree program as a whole.
If there were limitations on posts, in terms of interest or scholarship, the blog could also hold a higher standard and perhaps garner more cache for the students through a limited “review” requirement.
What do you think? Would having a graduate program blog, where your best work was posted and discussed, have been a help to you?