So I’m not sure if you care overly much at all, but re: accessibility of knowledge to people through language— I mentioned this blog and its emphasis on language understandable by non-majors/non-members of academia in the pursuit of producing a counter to the white-heavy bent of American schools to my thesis adviser today (we were discussing how accessible a book I’d just read on the ancient grain supply to Rome was).
She’s the Head of the history department at UC Santa Barbara and was extremely intrigued when I mentioned that you took a lot of photos common to textbooks and made an effort to find the uncropped photos… She also liked the idea of the lack of gatekeeping. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but she wrote down the blog title and the url, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she passed it off to everyone in the European field. I think I just mostly wanted you to know (if you don’t already— I’m sure I’m not your only student fan) that you’ll probably be getting some serious academic perusal at some point and also that your crusade for accessibility is shared.
— liz-of-all-ladybirds
Eh, I've had some experiences with "serious academic perusal" of my blog, and it's been my observation that they either "get it" or they don't. Either automatic "Ahhhh YES exactly!!!" or "But...why isn't this blogger talking about technique/symbolism?"or "the info and sources are sound but why present it that way?"
I think there's a lot of dissonance when it comes to someone from a History, Literature or Art History discipline reading a project like this which is actually grounded more in Interdisciplinary Studies, which invokes all three and slaps some Sociology all over it.
My day job is really all about accessibility, which is related to why I have access to curricula and reading materials for undergrad classes. My position is one of those kind of esoteric academic ones that ends up on "jobs you never knew existed" lists, and having an educational background that's diverse in application is a constant help there, as here.
I'm glad to see there is at least some interest in accessibility happening in the cracks and crevices.
