I was pretty much past the hands-on mothering stage by the time I entered my PhD program in 2003 as my kids were almost grown and one was already out of the house.

But I remain interested in the stories of PhD holders and students, especially those who share the joys and burdens of motherhood, so I was pleased to see the launch of a new blog within Inside Higher Ed, Mama PhD in which seven women blog about balancing motherhood with academic careers.

This blog sadly has not been updated since I've been working
on my dissertation (to be finished soon), and comments are
strangely disabled (to be fixed soon), so with permission,
I'm posting a response to last year's
Storytelling for College Students: Stealth or no Stealth:

I came upon your blog "A Storied Career" while researching for my workshop proposal aimed for storytellers to connect with college-aged audiences.

I am especially interested in your entry Storytelling for College Students: Stealth or no Stealth that was submitted July 3, 2005.

I started my own storytelling blog called "Voice – A Storyteller's Lifestyle." You can get there directly through http://www.storytellingadventures.blogspot.com"or you can go to my website and then click on "My Blog" in the upper right corner.

As for whether to use stealth or not for college students, here is my opinion –
When you teach what you normally teach, which uses storytelling, then the college students will gain an appreciation. They may not know what you are doing that is drawing them into your class. After about a couple weeks of storytelling, then you can share the importance of story. It's easier for college students – or anyone for that matter--to understand storytelling and its importance after the experience of storytelling.

With the college scene based primarily on lectures, students are not exposed to storytelling. Let's think about when someone learns to ride a bike. Before getting on the bike, a child had to perceive riding a bike as fun. Perhaps a neighbor kid or a sibling already knows how to ride a bike. A kid usually doesn't walk up to a bike, a strange assortment of metal and rubber, and want to ride the bike. Only when that bike is pedalled by others will the child now have a desire to ride a bike.

Another thing to consider is that, for many people, "storytelling" has people think of children, bedtime stories and library tellings. At first, college students believe storytelling is for children. By choosing stories that fascinate this age group, the students will realize that anyone can enjoy a good story.

One way to put storytelling in their vocabulary is to show examples of "storytelling" and "storyteller" used in other settings. For example, college students respect other types of media such as movies and music. Many times critiques say that there was amazing storytelling in such-and-such a film or that this director is a fine storyteller.

Show that storytelling is something that everyone strives to have.

I look forward to hearing your comments and more of your insight on college students and storytelling.

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman
Professional Storyteller
Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance
(801) 870-5799
mailto:rachel_hedman@us.aflac.com
http://www.rachelhedman.com
http://www.yesalliance.com

I approached January and February as a time to really get my dissertation research organized and plunge in energetically. But I'm stalled. That's not like me. I write and research easily. Could be the time of year. I've always thought of the "Jan-Febs" as the most depressing time of year – that dark, cold time with seemingly so little to look forward to. Even here in Central Florida, January is our only really cold month (and truth be told, it has been unseasonably warm this year). And spring will begin to arrive in February, the season of the dreaded greenish-yellow pollen.

Being stalled on one's dissertation is nothing new for PhD students. The trials and tribulations this ordeal are chronicled -- the dissertation story told -- in the blog Dissertation Hell, described as "a place to rant publicly but anonymously on the many tortures of writing a dissertation."

Today, my school's Institutional Research Board approved my research plan, so I can, in theory, move full speed ahead. Let's hope....

Given that I started this blog to synthesize and examine certain content areas in my PhD program, I'm interested in any commentary on the intersection between academia and blogging.

One such recent piece appears in Tax Prof Blog, a member of the Law Professor Blogs Network, which reports on a panel titled "Blogging: Scholarship or Distraction" at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting, with the program describing the session this way:

One of the most salient developments in the Internet revolution is blogging. Blogging has become a widespread cultural phenomenon and has had important implications for politics, the media and education. This panel considers academic blogging and asks the question whether blogging is a new form of scholarly activity or just a diversion from the pursuit of serious intellectual inquiry.

Lots of fascinating lists and categories in the report. A list of law-blog categories developed by panelist Lawrence B. Slocum could be adapted to just about any academic discipline:
1. Blogs by academics with a focus in the blogger's academic
discipline.
2. Blogs by academics with a focus outside the blogger's
academic discipline.
3. Blogs by non-academics with a focus in an academic
discipline.

Slocum went on to list 7 ways in which blogs are important for [legal] scholarship, adapted here for scholarship in general:
1. Internet-time (v. snail mail-time)
2. Open-source revolution
3. Google searches
4. Disintermediation (the declining influence of scholarly intermediaries)
5. Lifting the cone of silence (the waning of the acoustic isolation of the academy)
6. Globalization of the dissemination of scholarship
7. eBayization of scholarship (changing the marketplace of scholarly ideas)

Apparently much discussion in this panel centered on how blogging is harmful for untenured faculty, presumably both because it distracts time from "legitimate" scholarship and because junior, untenured faculty can be harmed in the promotion and job search by saying controversial or unscholarly things in their blogs.