Going Public

This is an updated version of our social media overview, recorded in 2024 with Brook Wilensky-Lanford and Dheepa Sundaram. 

Mary Hunt, Omid Safi, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (57:26)

A Sacred Writes Public Scholarship training podcast

A Sacred Writes Public Scholarship training podcast

This episode lesson a brief overview of how and why social media can and should be part of your public scholarship, despite its risks. We’ll encourage you to find your voice on social media platforms while familiarizing yourself with platform-specific conventions and language, and practice writing a high-impact Twitter thread. You’ll hear from Sacred Writes training alums and other public scholars...

This lesson outlines strategies for effective communication with the public. We’ll encourage you to develop your own voice and style; explain the importance of building and maintaining relationships with media professionals; help you identify points of entry into public conversations; and get you started with pitching your public-facing work.

This episode focuses on the risks, rewards, and responsibilities for scholars doing public-facing work. We’ll provide some examples of what can make public scholarship both rewarding and risky for scholars, and ask you to consider to whom you are accountable when sharing your work with the public. We’ll hear from leadership team members, Sacred Writes training alums, and other experts on how they’...

This episode challenges you to expand your understanding of your own expertise, in order to establish and leverage your credibility outside the academy. Part of going public with your scholarship is learning how to communicate the things you know to non-academic audiences and show why you are someone the public should trust. We’ll encourage you to reflect on, expand, and translate your expertise f...

Being interviewed  is a distinct form of public scholarship, different from public writing and social media. With a little practice, you may find that this can be a rewarding way to have impact with a relatively low investment of time. In this episode, we want to provide you with guidance for sharing your research during an interview.  We’ll walk you through different types of interview requests,...

What is public scholarship on religion and why does it matter?   This lesson is designed to help you think about why you might choose to share your research and expertise with the public. We’ll talk about what public scholarship is and address some common misperceptions of this work. We’ll hear from members of our leadership team about why and how they went public with their research, and survey t...