After a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that academic blogging is worth-doing. I won’t rehearse the arguments here, as they have been explained thoroughly elsewhere (in here, here, and here for instance). Probably I’ll just sum up some good enough reasons for academics to blog: 1) testing one’s arguments and ideas 2) finding one’s “voice” and writing style 3) sharing one’s ideas to the general public in a more accessible fashion 4) boosting one’s confidence in research and writing, among others. Academic blogging is also useful as 5) a place to summarize one’s ideas and 6) a platform for future collaboration. Obviously the usual disclaimer applies: academic blogging should promote, and not hinder, the effort to produce scholarly writings.

Notice the prefix “academic” here, which means that academic blogging is to a good extent is a form of academic writing. Academic blog is not a personal blog. This does not mean that academic blog can’t be personal; in some contexts academic blog can be peppered with personal contexts, views, and experience, but it should be put in the context of professional academic writing.

I myself have been experimenting with various forms of blogs in the last couple of years. I found out that apparently I suck at personal blogging, but do a pretty good job at maintaining a professional blog (which serves as a virtual archive for my writings). This time I decided to “step up” and join the rank of academic bloggers out there (among Southeast Asianists some leading scholars have maintained this healthy habit, such as Adrian Vickers, Max Lane, Kevin Fogg, and Tom Pepinsky – several prominent economists such as Yanis Varoufakis and Greg Mankiw have their own blogs too).

So here it is, my latest experimentation with the newest trend in academia. More to come in the coming weeks.