A Shift in Focus

For the past five years, I have published a blog post every month — barring a short hiatus and the recent Summer Book Club, which saw me publish two posts a month.  I have shared everything: my initial plans for my PhD, how my research changed over the years, my anxieties and achievements, as well as snippets of my research, conference papers, and book reviews. This blog has really helped me to feel less alone in my research; it’s introduced me to so many new people, both online and in person. It always reminded me that I had achieved something, even in the lowest, most imposter syndrome filled moments on this journey. And, to be really, truly honest, it has really opened so many doors for me in my academic career.

But my PhD is done. I have been so unbelievably fortunate to secure a postdoctoral position as an Early Career Academic in Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Derby. In this role, I will be researching digital feminist and popular feminist responses to INCELs and the manosphere. I want to research how online feminist activism and non-fiction books for general audiences by feminist authors are taking on the manosphere, and how we can use them to make real-world changes in both increasing understanding about these terrorist groups and dismantling them. 

Although people have asked, I am not planning to create a blog for this research. This is partly due to personal safety concerns (I am openly researching a violently misogynist group, with which I have already had unpleasant dealings — remember when I made a joke about Mr Men?). It is also because I have much bigger plans about how to generate and distribute research into INCELs and the manosphere. 

So please stay tuned for more information about that over the next couple of years. 

However, as my conference bios say, due to the proliferating nature of the genre of contemporary feminist adaptations of Greek myth, my research in this field is ongoing. That is why this blog post is not a goodbye. Although I am shifting my primary research focus, I am going to also continue researching this field as it continues to grow and change. I still hope to turn my thesis into a monograph. There are more books being published all the time in this genre. There are Netflix shows in the works that I know I will need to write about. News rocks the Classics / Classical Reception community all the time. I have upcoming conferences where I am presenting research in this field. 
So, this blog is in no way defunct. I will continue to publish book reviews, myth spotlights, and research snippets, just less regularly than I have done in the past. I am shifting my focus. 

Thank you for everything, 

Shelby.