One of my goals this year is to try to better connect my academic work (both research and teaching) with “the real world” I used to inhabit and still follow from my perch in the Ivory Tower. I’ve done a little of this since taking a faculty post at Northeastern, mostly through blog posts for the business school or interviews with the university’s journalist team (click here for a full list with links to the articles). It’s been fun, aside from people telling me I should be focused more on research (sigh…).
Despite that criticism, I want to have broader impact than just in academic journals. In fact, I think it would be a shame if everything I discover is accessible for such a small (and honestly often narrow-minded) audience. So, I’ve decided to reactivate and repurpose my dormant blog, previously created to allow family and friends to follow the cross-country, mobile writing retreat I took via Amtrak last year.
The plan is to drop thoughts (at least weekly) about what I’m working on, thinking about, or teaching - hopefully in a manner that will be enjoyable and useful for the masses. We’ll kick things off with some recent thoughts on the U.S. Government shutdown negotiations. Although this will be a repeat for some, I really want to start here and highlight the interesting responses my article created. As a teaser, I’ll note that my favorite response was a physical letter from someone across the country who apparently couldn’t rest until I was aware of a flaw in my logic.
Given that I’m teaching several courses this semester, the bulk of posts over the coming months likely will be related to content we are covering in the classroom (the teaching schedules will give you a preview of likely topics) . But, you should feel free to drop me a line and request a topic if there is something you are interested in hearing more about.