How to Be a Public Scholar

An accessible, step-by-step guide for scholars seeking to broaden the public impact of their research, writing, and workMany scholars want to engage audiences outside the ivory tower—whether to influence policy, engage communities, share their work through media outlets, build audiences, or counter misinformation. But graduate training often doesn’t teach them the skills they need. Betty S. Lai fills this void by showing scholars how to plan, build, and scale the reach of their research. Drawing on interviews with seventy-five public scholars and media experts, she shares actionable strategies backed by real-world examples. Whether your aim is media interviews, op-eds, social media, book launches, newsletters, or podcasts, How to Be a Public Scholar will help you expand the reach of your ideas while honoring scholarly values of knowledge and responsibility. Guiding readers each step of the way, Lai explains how to weigh the various options for public scholarship, assess the benefits and drawbacks of different platforms, and formulate a plan for reaching and engaging audiences that makes the most sense for you and your goals. She discusses how to find opportunities, make new connections, develop content, and grow one’s audience. She also provides guidance on how to broaden the reach of your public scholarship work and sustain it while navigating the challenges of publicly engaged work. Along the way, Lai highlights the personal and professional value of doing public-facing work and tackles common questions about self-promotion, time management, the perils of the public sphere, and much more. Focusing on general strategies that translate across platforms, How to Be a Public Scholar features hands-on exercises, checklists that guide readers through each topic, a launch plan example, a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for further reading.