Public-facing scholarship is academic work designed to be relevant to a broad audience and can serve many purposes. It can help academics reach a wider audience, thereby increasing the impact of their work. It can also serve as a form of public education, helping to inform public opinion and policy. By breaking down barriers, public-facing scholarship fosters engagement between academia and the public.
Examples of public-facing scholarship include op-eds, podcasts, public lectures, and social media, which makes research accessible and helps foster public understanding of important issues.
This kind of work is recognized by the university and is rapidly becoming a force of its own in many academic disciplines. Increasingly, even the job market is emphasizing public-facing scholarship. Doing this kind of work will help with tenure and promotion, winning grants, and with finding editors and book contracts.
Leverage the reach of public-facing scholarship to share your ideas, make scholarship relevant and foster informed, engaged communities.
You may already enjoy this type of scholarship through op-eds, blog posts, podcasts, and community talks but are curious about how to share your research with broader audiences. Through public-facing scholarship, you can engage the public through non-academic outlets to share meaningful information that makes a difference.
Because this is newer territory, Professor Clancy Martin is ready to help you navigate.
Please use the sign-up link below. You must select a time and share your ideas and experiences (if any). The sign-up process should take about five minutes. Then, within a day (longer over a weekend), a calendar invitation will arrive in your inbox.
Reserve a consultation time with Dr. Martin
For most, short public-facing publications don’t count for tenure or promotion, but you should consider writing them anyway. Academic blog posts will increase the impact of your academic publications and contribute to your recognition as a prominent scholar in your field.
Academic blog posts are short, fast turn-around publications that are a great way to road test a new coauthoring partnership or stake your claim in a field of study. These posts are also widely shared on twitter and other social media, contributing to interest in the author’s relevant journal articles. Beside all this, academic blog posts are quick and fun to write – and to read!
Dr. Rebecca Best knows a thing or two about publishing in academic blogs -- learn more about the advantages, how to write, and where to publish this type of public-facing scholarship, depending on your field.
Clancy Martin is the University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science and Philosophy at UMKC. His research covers the ethics of social and behavioral health, especially in the areas of suicide prevention and the treatment of addiction, and the use of storytelling as part of the therapeutic process. He has published more than 10 books on a variety of subjects, mostly philosophical, including two novels, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Ethics, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Harper’s (where he is a contributing editor), Vice (where he is a contributing editor) and dozens of other magazines, journals and newspapers. His work has been optioned for movies and television and has been translated into more than 30 languages, and he has won a Guggenheim Fellowship among other fellowships and awards.
Rebecca Best is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy and an Associate Faculty Member of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. Her research focuses on women in conflict, negotiations between states and factionalized insurgencies, and the reintegration of veterans. She has served on the editorial board of International Interactions and as the 2022 Program Chair for ISA Midwest, and is a contributor at Political Violence at a Glance.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/opinion/black-cleopatra-netflix.html