🍎your Scholarly Digest 26th June, 2025

Academia essentials hand-picked fortnightly for the mindful scholar

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Hi Scholar,

We’ve been thinking, and importantly, talking to readers of The Scholarly Letter. In previous editions, we’ve said that these Letters are for scholars: not necessarily just academics, but anyone with a passionate desire for knowledge, and a commitment to living in relationship with it.

Until now, our vision of the scholar has focused primarily on those who produce and create knowledge: researchers, scientists, teachers, and students. But we’ve come to realise that we’ve been overlooking those individuals who are equally devoted to inquiry, yet whose contributions come not through production, but through stewardship, curation, and support.

Have you ever thought about the people working in academic publishing: committed to getting research out into the world without compromising its integrity? (Even though academic publishing as an industry has become dominated by profit seeking, it is essential and needs to be reformed, not dismantled). Or the librarians who act as custodians of recorded human intellect, ensuring that knowledge is preserved and accessible? Or the often-overlooked technicians whose expertise brings research to life in ways that even academics can’t? These individuals play an essential role in the culture of knowledge in our society. Their work profoundly shapes the conditions under which knowledge is produced, shared, and preserved and with it, the very structures of knowledge itself.

A few Letters ago, when we wrote The Scholar Manifesto, we introduced the idea of a knowledge ecology. We admitted the concept was still in its infancy and we’re still figuring out what it could fully mean. But in continuing to think (and talk) about it, one thing has become clear. We need to recognise and open up dialogue with a broader community of scholars: those who relate to knowledge not just through creation, but through care, support, and facilitation.

BRAIN FOOD - OPINION

Accuracy or Inspiration: What's the Point of Science Communication?

- Written by The Tatler

Two weeks ago, The Critic was invited to give a presentation at a science communication workshop alongside fellow sci-comm creators @ellieinstem and @richarddyer. The attendees were (apart from yours truly) faculty and PhD students at the university hosting the workshop. Science communication is increasingly seen as vital, with more and more research grants awarded containing funds specifically designated for sci-comm activity, hence the importance of events like this. To my surprise however, one of the most common questions asked of the presenters by the audience was:

What makes YOU qualified to communicate science online?

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