Not (yet) an academic blogger? Call for contributions to the TRAFO blog, now partner of CrossArea

Since early 2015, CrossArea has a new cooperation partner: the TRAFO blog. Jointly founded by the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung in 2013, the TRAFO blog –an acronym for “Transregionale Forschung” – serves as a discussion and information platform for all who are interested in area studies and transregional research. The blog aims at both providing information about events (e.g., conferences, call for contributions) as well as presenting up-to-date reports, research results, and interviews with scholars in the field of transregional and area studies. As such, the TRAFO blog is not only an information tool but also an outlet to publish shorter academic papers, report on ongoing research (e.g., field research, archival research), and share (first) scientific insights, thereby entering into fruitful dialogue with academics as well as the broader audience. Having become increasingly common in recent years, academic blogging offers researchers, especially early career researchers, the opportunity to communicate about their work, while more generally allowing them to break out of restrictive publishing loops as well as reinforce their academic impact on the wider world. Ideas and suggestions for posts on the TRAFO blog are thus highly welcome! If you are interested in contributing to the blog, please contact Sarah Ruth Sippel who is coordinating the posts on behalf of CrossArea (sippel@uni-leipzig.de).