Research Blog
John Mandeville writing his travelogue. London, British Library MS Additional 24189, fol. 4.
The Medieval Studies Research Blog is a multi-author blog sponsored by the Medieval Institute. Our posts come from current and former members as well as friends of Notre Dame’s vibrant international medievalist community. The blog represents the full spectrum of research performed among medieval scholars, including faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, and touches on topics related to current research projects, pedagogy, the state of the humanities, working in the archives, translation and editing projects, and more.
Undergraduates play a vital role at the Medieval Institute. This blog showcases as well their academic contributions, pursuits, and successes as researchers participating in the university’s intellectual culture. Their work, often the product of rigorous coursework, demonstrates their ability to pursue their own academic research in a capacity that also appeals to the wider public.
Why is blogging valuable for graduate and undergraduate students?
Because curating an online presence is now a necessity for scholars, this form of professionalization can help graduate students manage their online profiles, making them more memorable, as Claire Battershill suggests in Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Teachers, Lecturers, and Students (Bloomsbury, 2017): “It is a good idea, in other words, for each grad student to take the time to craft an online presence that is what they want it to be—that is, intentional, professional, and memorable. Students should know what comes up when search committees or journal editors Google their names, and ideally they should try to make sure that the search results on the first few pages include some indication of their academic work" (158-9).
This site’s university affiliation means that it will show up first in Google searches, and its short article format means that it will add new content to the CVs and publication lists already present on their Academia and LinkedIn pages. Contributions are also circulated via Twitter and Facebook to expand their online visibility.
For undergraduates, these blog publications are meant to help students build a professional online presence they can use to show off their writing and communication skills as well as their digital humanities experience to potential employers. In addition to resumé building, these posts can be a fun, interactive learning exercise that deepens their knowledge of subject matter covered in their classes.
Make a blog entry an assignment!
If you have any students producing standout work on their essays, please encourage them to turn their essays into a short post for the blog and submit it for review to the blog manager, Dr. Richard Fahey (rfahey@nd.edu). If you are interested in creating a blog post assignment for your students, whether graduate or undergraduate, we would love to work with you. You might find our Sample Blog Post 1 and Sample Blog Post 2 helpful.
Interested in contributing?
Want to contribute an entry? We would be glad to consider you. The Quick Guide below will give you a sense of what's involved; the full guide is linked below it. Please contact the blog manager, Dr. Richard Fahey (rfahey@nd.edu) with any questions.
The Quick Guide for Submissions
- Schedule your post’s publish date with the blog manager, Dr. Richard Fahey (rfahey@nd.edu).
- Once the blog manager sets you up on the WordPress site, log in and click on “Add New” under the “Posts” button in the left-hand column on the page.
- Put your title in the title bar, and type or paste your 500-1,000-word post into the text editor.
- Add images (but be sure to get permission for any photos not in the public domain). Indicate in bold where you want the photos to go, and email the image files (JPG preferred) to the blog manager.
- Select the appropriate categories and tags on the right-hand side of the page.
- Edit your work.
- Click on “submit for review."
Read the full guide.