Scholars: We Promote Your Research Free

One of the reasons I founded Learning Life in 2012 is to help publicize scholars doing research of interest and importance to the broad public.  There are many scholars in the United States and abroad doing research on everything from health and safety, to history and literature, to human and animal behavior, that matters to our lives.  Much of that research though ends up in books or academic journals few people read.  Of course, some of it is shared via radio, newspapers, magazines and blogs, but the audience still tends to be a self-selected group of more educated people.  If academics are serious though about informing and empowering more people – especially those least educated – we can and should do better.

Learning Life’s approach to public education is different.  As helpful as going to school, taking a free course online, visiting a library, or reading a book can be, we believe we can reach more people by spreading knowledge on the surfaces of everyday life, from napkins, cup sleeves and placemats, to t-shirts and posters, to social media accessed on smart phones, tablets and personal computers.  In other words, rather than expect people to come to education, Learning Life aims to bring education to people.  This is especially important to reach those least inclined to come to or get an education.

Since 2012, Learning Life has partnered with local institutions – like Washington D.C.’s Newseum, and the City of Alexandria, Virginia – to help them educate the public about local and national history using napkins, wallet cards, tote bags and fortune cookies distributed free to the public at their doors as well as at stores, restaurants, cafes, ice cream parlors and farmers’ markets (check out our short video on Learning Life’s Newseum project).

But Learning Life also disseminates educational content (e.g., quizzes, facts, expert answers to big questions) via our website, e-newsletter and social media pages (check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest) on a daily to monthly basis.  Through Learning Life’s website, e-newsletter and social media pages, we have promoted the research of a few scholars, like Brian Wansink’s food behavior studies, historian Eric Kurlander’s work on Nazi era history, and philosopher Joshua Rust’s examination of the ethics of ethics professors.

But we want to promote more scholars, so here’s our invitation:

If you do research that’s interesting and important to the public, Learning Life wants to help you promote it, absolutely free of charge.  Choose one or more studies you have conducted on a topic, and email us at email@learninglife.info with copies of the articles (alas, we can’t examine books unless the book is fully available electronically).  That’s it.  You don’t have to do anything else.

We’ll review your work, and if we find we can use your research to produce facts, a quiz, or other educational content that’s interesting and important to the public, we’ll let you know via email, then produce the content and email it to you for your approval before we publish it at our website and/or disseminate it via our e-newsletter and social media pages.

Alternatively, you may create your own quiz, brief facts or other educational content about your research, but if you would like to do so, please contact us first so we can provide you with some guidelines.

Note: we cannot guarantee promotion for all comers.  Promotion will depend on the number of scholars who respond, our editorial judgment as to the public utility of the research submitted, and the Learning Life staff time available.

Of course, if we do promote your work, we will cite the research as yours, and offer a link to your website, blog or other page online (if available) where readers can go to learn more about you and your research.  If your research does not go out of date, we will promote your work on an ongoing basis via our Facebook, Twitter and/or Linkedin pages.  As our social media audience grows, so will grow the number of people exposed to your research.

Feel free to contact us at email@learninglife.info with any questions.  We look forward to hearing from you!