Airminded is 20 years old today. That’s a long time in blog years.
I was an almost-young almost-PhD student. Airminded was going to be a place for me to talk about things I’d found during my research.
I was a recent PhD graduate, trying to get an academic job. Airminded was a way of feeling like I was visible.
I was a junior academic. Airminded was something I did which other historians mostly didn’t.
I was part of the academic precariat. Oh, and there was a global pandemic on. Airminded was a way of feeling like I was still part of a wider community.
Airminded at 20
I’m now no longer an academic, though I still work at a university. I still research, and I still write, but I have to manage my time more carefully. Airminded is still a place for me to talk about things I’ve found during my research. But the book has to be my writing priority, and while it is now humming along – in fact, because it is humming along – poor old Airminded has had to take a back seat. The archives (of course) tell the story: just 4 posts in the first six months of this year, less than half the rate of my least productive blogging years (2022 and 2024) and less than a twentieth the rate of my most productive (2007 and 2010). Blogging is still a core part of my self-identity as a scholar and a writer, and while I can’t commit to doing it as often as I would like, I have at least given the blog itself a makeover for the first time in over a decade.
Airminded isn’t going anywhere, but it’s not what it was. But nothing ever is, so that’s okay!
Image source: IWM Q 58452 (and see also Airminded).
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