"Twitter and its Discontents: Social Media and the Socialization of Academics"

In this talk, Professor Chatelain discusses her experiences launching the Twitter campaign #FergusonSyllabus, a response to the crisis that emerged after Office Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown. Using #FergusonSyllabus as an entry point to consider social media and academic life, Professor Chatelain will focus on the tool¿s ability to facilitate interdisciplinary thinking and engagement, magnify the work of scholars of color, and create broad-based coalitions of educators. Yet, social media also exposes scholars to state-sanctioned surveillance, troubling institutional policing, and can undermine the depth of our scholarly contributions. In thinking about social media and academic life, Professor Chatelain considers the history of academics doing their intellectual work in public and the implications of academics utilizing social media as a platform for the education and mentoring of graduate students.