Re-launching Discovery: SAR Fellows In Their Own Words

Paul Ryer, Director of Scholar Programs

Back in the 1970s and into the 1980s, SAR published a journal, Discovery, in which Resident Scholars were each asked to write a brief essay about the work they were doing during their residence at the School.  Crucially, these essays, many of which became minor classics for their accessible and readable language, were intended for a public readership rather than as technical, peer-reviewed scholarly articles. In the words of SAR Librarian Laura Holt, “this was a way to get the excitement of the research in front of the public, and also to encourage scholars to articulate their work for a broader audience.”

Today, in the spirit of Discovery, we are launching our first blog series, SAR Fellows: In Their Own Words.  As with Discovery decades ago, we have asked each of our current Resident Scholars to put together a short account of the work they are doing here at SAR, aiming at a public rather than scholarly audience. Of course, times have changed, and instead of launching a new paper journal, this blog format allows us to quickly and efficiently reach readers across social media through SAR’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other media platforms.  And building on this twenty-first century technology, we have invited the scholars to enrich their posts with images, videos, gifs, audio files, and hyperlinks, as relevant to their particular projects.

Welcome to SAR Fellows: In Their Own Words. I hope you will enjoy this window into the scholarly work taking place here at the School for Advanced Research, and will find the variety and quality of these projects to be outstanding, stimulating, and memorable.

 

–Paul Ryer