All posts by jwbaker

James Baker is Director of Digital Humanities at the University of Southampton. James is a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and holds degrees from the University of Southampton and latterly the University of Kent, where in 2010 he completed his doctoral research on the late-Georgian artist-engraver Isaac Cruikshank. James works at the intersection of history, cultural heritage, and digital technologies. He is currently working on a history of knowledge organisation in twentieth century Britain. In 2021, I begin a major new Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Beyond Notability: Re-evaluating Women’s Work in Archaeology, History and Heritage, 1870 – 1950'. Previous externally funded research projects have focused on legacy descriptions of art objects ('Legacies of Catalogue Descriptions and Curatorial Voice: Opportunities for Digital Scholarship', Arts and Humanities Research Council), the preservation of intangible cultural heritage ('Coptic Culture Conservation Collective', British Council, and 'Heritage Repertoires for inclusive and sustainable development', British Academy), the born digital archival record ('Digital Forensics in the Historical Humanities', European Commission), and decolonial futures for museum collections ('Making African Connections: Decolonial Futures for Colonial Collections', Arts and Humanities Research Council). Prior to joining Southampton, James held positions of Senior Lecturer in Digital History and Archives at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab, Digital Curator at the British Library, and Postdoctoral Fellow with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College, a convenor of the Institute of Historical Research Digital History seminar, a member of The Programming Historian Editorial Board and a Director of ProgHist Ltd (Company Number 12192946), and an International Advisory Board Member of British Art Studies.
Neuroscience, Public talk, Research, Writing

Keeping it human

1 Comment

If you asked Ernesto Priego (who makes a timely appearance on my annual WordPress report) for some tips on how an academic can best ‘curate’ their online presence, I’m sure somewhere near the top of list would be something along the lines of ‘keeping it human’. This probably doesn’t stretch to live tweeting the final of The Great British Bake Off, but it does mean offering a little of yourself to the world. Some of my favourite academic tweeters do this very well (see Kathleen Fizpatrick, Brian Croxall, Mark Carrigan, Phil Ward, Rebekah Higgitt), seamlessly combining work with play, professional with personable, projection with conversation. In the sense these are the qualities which also make a good blogger. I am no neuroscientist, but Neuroskeptic has captivated me for some time now with his no nonsense, jargon-lite, and humorous takes on bad neuroscience. It seems an obvious point, but if his blog had been dry I might never have bothered reading.

This is not to say that I have been successful in keeping my online presence either free of dryness or overly personal content (indeed the latter is something I was particularly guilty of in the early days, as revealed by my twitter archive), but I hope that when the awkward ‘I know you from twitter’ moment occurs at conferences that people know a little more about me than my academic endeavours.

One of the ways I attempt to insert the ‘personal’ into my online presence is through music. I listen to a great deal of music. Music accompanies me when I work, when I am on the way to the office, and during my travels. It would seem perverse then to consider this too personal to project, discuss, and share. So, in the interests of keeping it human, my last post of the year will finished with a list (sorry…) of the music that made my 2012. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, but the top 10 constitute my ‘best of’. So enjoy. And If you haven’t listened to Portico Quartet’s eponymous record, I implore you to do so. Now. Right now.