How should academics communicate their research to the general public? Maybe through memes, quizzes and click bait?
If you’ve read Chris Rodley’s two part Buzzfeed posts on Post-Structuralism Explained With Hipster Beards you might actually nod and think that might not be such a bad idea. And here is an example of post-publication peer review for that particular piece, snatched from a comment in the Buzzademia Facebook group:
“The post-structuralist via hipster beards list was a powerful piece that was both funny/engaging and helped me better understand post-structuralism. It’s the perfect example for what Buzzademia can and should do!” — Dr. Cheryl E. Ball, Kairos Editor.
Anne Cong-Huyen, Wendy Hsu, Kim Knight, Mark C Marino, Amanda Phillips, Chris Rodley have decided to go for this academic click bait and launch Buzzademia, which is “a peer-reviewed journal 4 Buzzfeed-style scholarship”. Here is the Facebook group, where scholars are discussing how to make quizzes about which feminist theorist you are (here are instructions for creating a quiz on Buzzfeed – and here are other tools for creating Buzzfeed content, which anyone can do) and using Pokemon to understand Deleuze (A thousand Pikachus: Capitalism and Transmedia) And here is the manifesto, published on Buzzfeed as a listicle, of course: 10 Reasons Professors Should Start Writing Buzzfeed Articles.