Hello, blog readers, and happy New Year!
Welcome to the newly launched blog of the American Philosophical Association. I am the lead editor, Lewis Powell, and I thought it would make sense to start things by telling you all a bit about the plan for the blog, the sorts of content you can expect to see, and, most importantly, to encourage you to get involved yourselves in a variety of ways.
The plan for the blog is to provide regular content that is interesting and useful to APA members, to provide a forum for APA members to share their perspectives, and to create some new channels of communication between the APA’s membership and its leadership.
The editorial team and I have broadly divided the blog’s content into six “beats” or areas of coverage: Teaching, Service, Research, Diversity/Inclusivity, Work/Life Balance, and Issues in the Profession. In addition, the blog will periodically host communications from the APA’s staff and leadership.
Within these different beats, we will be hosting some recurring posts, such as APA member spotlight interviews, coverage of funded research initiatives, teaching Q&As, and course design/curriculum discussions, to name a few. But not all the content on the blog will need to be slotted into these recurring series. If you have any ideas for what you’d like to see on the blog, tell us what you want to see!
The link above takes you to the suggestion/submission form, where you can propose ideas for posts. The form includes a place to indicate whether the proposal is something you have an interest in writing, or whether it is something that you simply would like to see get written. This is one of the most important parts of the blog, because it is how we can make sure that the blog really is providing a forum for APA members to contribute (rather than simply leaving the editorial team to rely on our own professional networks as potential contributors), and it helps us to ensure that the content we produce lines up with readership preferences.
One thing you won’t be seeing a lot of is content written by me. Part of treating this blog as a forum for an organization as large and varied in membership as the APA means that my role is going to be focused more on soliciting and editing contributions and working to ensure that we are getting content covering a broad array of interesting topics.
And remember, if you ever find that the blog isn’t producing the sort of content you’d like to see, do not despair! Instead, tell us what you want to see! If you have other questions, comments, or concerns, you can contact me or one of the associate editors.
[…] called “Blog of the APA” (BAPA? BOT-APA?). Lead editor Lewis Powell (Buffalo), in the inaugural post, describes what’s in store. You can read more about the editorial team here, and their […]
Glad to see this blog up and running! The more ways we have to be in touch with other, the better! Steffi Lewis