(academic) newsletter recs

advice, ideas, updates

As the summer enters its twilight and the school year emerges on the horizon,¹ I come to you all with a meta offering of sorts. In this newsletter (by me, an academic), I present a list of newsletters by academics. These recommendations range from letters that are topic-focused/extensions of research, to advice columns for academics, to general updates.

I’ve already shared my own thought process about deciding to write a newsletter. It’s my sense that newsletters offer a way to work out ideas, provide regular writing practice, and connect with an audience. Newsletters are also a great opportunity to share our research beyond the ivory tower. A few of my mentors have been excellent models for reaching broader audiences with their work— with projects that are focused on producing academic research and data but that also engage in public-facing writing or practitioner-focused partnerships.² Scholars are expected to publish with academic presses and journals, of course. But we can be expansive.

So newsletters are one potential platform for project updates and public outreach. For individual academics, newsletters can also help us show the thinking and creative practices within our research— working as a kind of blog or online notebook and demystifying this work for those interested. I remember the summer before I wrote my dissertation proposal I started a research blog, just as a mode of writing through the process. That blog was just for me, but it’s a practice of mine that lives on, via part and parcel.³

If you’ve got a favorite academic newsletter you like to read, shout it out in the comments.

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Kitchen Table History

Historian Jessica Marie Johnson writes a regular newsletter about her research and thinking. Johnson offers a window into her thoughts, with reading, art, and culture recommendations that are focused on Black women, Black lives, and history.

Hard Histories at Hopkins

Martha S. Jones is a prolific scholar and author, and she runs this newsletter focused on excavating histories of racism at Johns Hopkins University, a campus that looms large over Baltimore and is deeply implicated in the city’s struggles.

#MHAWS: Mirya Holman’s Aggressive Winning Scholars Newsletter

The awesome political scientist Mirya Holman’s newsletter is a refreshingly honest take on how to succeed in academia amidst any number of challenges and hidden rules you might not know about.

Jenn M. Jackson

My brilliant friend and Black feminist scholar, Jenn, runs a newsletter that has monthly updates on their work, commentary, and information for their Black Feminist Book Club.

Austin Kocher

Austin’s substack is a new follow that’s proven to be really excellent and informative.⁴ He writes about migration crises and politics in America with the commitment and clarity that such a major human rights issue deserves.

Publish Not Perish

This newsletter by UT professor Jenn McClearen offers excellent advice on how to navigate academic life. A piece I recently enjoyed was this guest post by Briana Barner on how a postdoc can truly reinvigorate one’s research and thinking.

Noted by Jillian Hess

Noted is written by CUNY English professor Jillian Hess and is an absolutely lovely deep dive into note-taking processes by historical figures, artists, and writers. This one on John Lennon’s childhood notebooks made my soul happy.

1. Enjoying every last moment of quarter-system extended summer bliss.

2. I am a proud alumn of The P3 Lab, The GenForward Survey, and The Black Youth Project. All three have newsletters and/ or regular site updates you can keep up with.

3. I also keep a blog called Power Structures, where I document my work and thoughts on monuments.

4. Shoutout to p&p reader and friend, Ramón, for directing me to Austin’s letter : )