Dissertation Defense April 17, 2015

SCHOLARSHIP IN ABUNDANCE:

INFLUENCE, ENGAGEMENT, &

ATTENTION IN SCHOLARLY NETWORKS

BONNIE STEWART

FACULTY OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

scholarship what people had for lunch

NETWORKED SCHOLARSHIP

my research

¡ What counts as academic influence within open networked circles?

¡ How does scholarly engagement in networks align with institutional scholarship?

¡ How do attention and visibility operate on Twitter, and how do they shape participants’ experiences of

care and risk within networks?

¡  (PS – What are the consequences of opening up scholarly publics to networks’ viral scale?)

A THREE FOUR PAPER THESIS

WHY TWITTER?

(Lupton, 2014)

¡ How does networked scholarship assemble in

“differential patterns of matter-ing”?

A SOCIO-MATERIAL APPROACH

(Barad, 2007)

“situated knowledges”

¡  13 participants ¡  Twitter “residents”* for at

least 2 years ¡  Varied institutional

affi l iations & roles ¡  Canada, the US, Mexico,

Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Singapore, Australia

¡  200-15,000 Twitter followers ¡  Agreed to public ID

THE STUDY

*(White & LeCornu, 2011)

¡  ETHNOGRAPHIC §  Participant Observation §  24 hour Reflections §  Blog Posts §  Profile Reflections §  Interviews § Open Coding

¡  PARTICIPATORY §  Invitations to expand,

clarify, or reframe

METHODOLOGIES & METHODS

capacity to contribute to

“The Conversation”

scale of visibility

common interests & disciplines

shared ties

PAPER #1 INFLUENCE = CAPACITY TO CONTRIBUTE

INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION DOESN’T MATTER (EXCEPT OXFORD)

MATTER-ING MATTERS

Sometimes…I’ll choose someone with twenty

followers, because I come across something they’ve

managed to say in 140 characters, and I think “oh,

look at you, crafting on a grain of rice.” - @KateMfD

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/visualpanic/843670538  

PAPER #2 NETWORKED PRACTICES = SCHOLARSHIP

¡ Scholarship of discovery ¡ Scholarship of integration ¡ Scholarship of application

¡ Scholarship of teaching

!

(Boyer, 1990)

BUT A SCHOLARSHIP OF ABUNDANCE

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/92998734@N03/8466586880/  

PAPER #3 ATTENTION & VISIBILITY = VULNERABILITY

commodification + institutional indictments of deviance + re-inscription of societal biases

AND ATTENTION & VISIBILITY = CARE

¡ Networks operate in distinct patterns of connection, curation, and collaboration

¡ Networked scholarly practices enable and demand scholars’ individual – rather than institutional – cultivation

of influence, visibility, and audiences

¡ Digital networks offer participants a sense of being someone who can contribute, and contributions open new

doors into institutional prestige economy

¡  The intersection of high network status with lower or unclear institutional status creates identity dissonance

OVERALL FINDINGS: DIFFERENTIAL PATTERNS OF MATTER-ING

¡ Networks becoming institutionalized

¡  Consequences of public speech becoming amplified

¡  Class and growing academic precarity affect

whether/ for whom scholarly practices

continue to be viable

IMPLICATIONS + FUTURE RESEARCH

THANK YOU

Many thanks to Dr. Sandy McAuley & Dr. Udo Krautwurst of UPEI, & Dr. Alec

Couros of the University of Regina for support and direction.

¡  Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning . Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

¡  Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorit ies of the professoriate . Princeton, NJ : The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

¡  Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the priv i lege of part ial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3) , 575-599.

¡  Lupton, D.A. (2014). ‘Feel ing Better Connected’ : Academics ’ Use of Social Media . Canberra: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra.

¡  White, D. S. , & LeCornu, A. (2011). Visitors and residents: A new typology for onl ine engagement. First Monday , 16(9) .

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanit ies Research Counci l of Canada through a Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral

Scholarship award, by the University of Prince Edward Is land, & by BMO.

@BONSTEWART