Ann Little (Colorado State University) – Blogging, Tweeting, and Instagramming the Borderlands of Public and Academic History: Social Media as a Tool for Public Engagement

College and university History departments (once again?) say they’re in crisis: nationwide, our numbers of majors have shrunk dramatically over the past decade, not to mention the “job crisis” of the past 45 years that has outlived the expansion of the profession from 1945-1970 nearly twice over. What’s an academic historian to do about this? Social media like Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and Instagram can be tools for building interest and support for our work as historians, and can help build careers to boot.

This talk by Ann M. Little (from Colorado State University’s Department of History) will examine the promise (mostly) and perils of being a historian in public online.

In keeping with the theme, if you want to check out Ann on Twitter, she’s at @historiann or read her blog.