Early Career Researchers Making Their Own Luck – With Help From The Internet

Launching our new blogging platform for early career academics, Kathryn Eccles, historian turned digital humanist, extols the career benefits of staying open minded and switched on

"What in the world is a historian doing at an internet institute?" It's a question I've been asked many times – by colleagues, students and friends – and one that I've asked myself more than once too.

For the past four years, I have been working at a research centre dedicated to understanding the societal implications of the internet. The research my colleagues are engaged in is rooted in the here and now, the very recent past, and often the future. I'm feel very lucky, but as this recent blog post by Sarah Werner (@wynkenhimself) suggests, sometimes you have to make your own luck and keep an open mind as you develop your academic career.

How did I get here? After finishing my doctorate, I did what many humanities PhDs do and picked up some teaching work while applying for jobs. I was asked to give a talk to incoming graduate students, imparting my top 10 tips on getting through the PhD process, and that got me thinking about how much the process had changed since I started my own doctoral studies. A lot of those changes were related to the seeming ubiquity of digital technology.