What can students learn? What can researchers learn?
by Sammantha Holder
Writing for a popular audience requires a high degree of skill. Taking complex concepts and effectively communicating them in a clear, meaningful, and interesting way can be challenging, even for a skilled writer. For students who are attempting to master new material, communicating that material to a popular audience can be even more challenging. For most students, this assignment is their first introduction to a journalistic style of writing, which in many ways runs counter to traditional academic writing. The former involves short paragraphs, conclusions stated at the beginning rather than the end, and plain language.
This is the challenge the students in my bioarchaeology course are currently undertaking. Students have been tasked by instructor Dr. Laurie Reitsema with composing a popular media feature on a scholarly article published in the last year. Additionally, students are encouraged to contact the author of the article or another expert in the field to provide quotes for their assignment.
One student is writing her popular media feature on a case study of childhood leukemia in a Peruvian skeleton. This student contacted the author of the scholarly article, Dr. Haagen Klaus, and interviewed him. Her news feature benefited from direct quotes on the significance of Klaus’s research and the contribution of bioarchaeology to the study of disease.
This assignment not only introduces students to an important form of communication, it also provides students with a deeper understanding of their topic. By taking complex concepts and translating them into comprehensible information, students become more intimately familiar with material. A second student is writing his news feature on immigration in ancient Rome. This topic requires the student to engage with biochemical methods used to study migration in the past and learn about social hierarchies and ethnicity in ancient Rome.
By taking complex concepts and translating them into comprehensible information, students become more intimately familiar with material.
Communicating with a popular audience is a valuable skill for students and academics alike. Christopher Stojanowski and William Duncan argue the importance of communicating with a popular audience, stating “[i]f we marginalize ourselves then others may respond by either (1) filling the void themselves (e.g., Jared Diamond’s work) or (2) failing to include bioarchaeologists in public discussions.” As demonstrated by examples of student assignments on the study of disease and immigration in the past, bioarchaeological research is relevant to contemporary society and the onus is on us to communicate that relevance.
While the federal government, through taxpayer dollars, funds a majority of research in the U.S., there are real concerns regarding federal research funding under the new administration and congress. With threats to cut federal funding, it is imperative for academics to advocate the relevance of our research to the American tax payer.
Whatever the form—features in print and online media outlets, social media, and blogs—communication with the public by researchers is becoming increasingly important. Teaching undergraduate students how to communicate with a broader audience through the popular media feature assignment has underscored the importance of this form for me as a graduate student and researcher.
Further Reading
Jaschik, S. (2017). NEH on the chopping block? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/20/humanities-advocates-alarmed-reports-trumps-first-budget-will-seek-kill-neh-and-nea
Klaus, H. D. (2016). A probable case of acute childhood leukemia: skeletal involvement, differential diagnosis, and the bioarchaeology of cancer in South America. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26, 348–358.
Kreighbaum, A. (2017). Communication chill. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/25/guidance-agencies-communications-public-create-confusion-fear
Stojanowski, C. M., & Duncan, W. N. (2015). Engaging bodies in the public imagination: bioarchaeology as social science, science, and humanities. American Journal of Human Biology, 27, 51-60.
Samm is a second year PhD student in Anthropology department. Her research focuses on reconstructing lifestyles of past populations through analysis of the human skeleton. Her current research focuses on diet and nutritional stress in Napoleon’s Grand Army. Beyond peer-reviewed publication, Samm is interested in communicating research to broader educational and popular audiences.