- Are you working on scholarly things, but you do not have scholarly surroundings?
- Do you like doing research, but you earn your living with non-academic work?
- Are you doing research as a hobby rather than a mandatory task for your job?
- Do you apply for conferences, but you do not have access to databases via affiliations to research centres?
- Are you leaving an academic job, but would like to continue working as a scholar on the side?
- Are you a student but cannot find fellow students that can talk to you about your research project, or you like the idea of doing more research after your studies but do not think an academic job is what you want?
- Are you concerned that you will be stigmatized in academia if you don’t have an affiliation?
- Are you unsure whether you want to work in academia?
Well, then you should definitely join us! Do it! Do it now! You will not be disappointed.
An independent scholar produces research, which can be published or presented at conferences, outside of a tenure-track teaching position in a university. And even if you are not working on scholarly projects at the moment you can still consider yourself an independent scholar! Very few manage to market this research, through paid conferences or family history consulting for instance, in such a way that generates enough income to pay their bills. They can therefore be retired, independently wealthy, hold day jobs or freelance.
Independent scholars can hold alt-ac day jobs in universities or libraries, or in completely unrelated fields. If they are freelancers, it’s usually by marketing language skills. Not everyone that fits this description identifies as an independent scholar, and that’s ok. We just wanna bring together people seeking mutual support for the similar challenges they face.
We are an international group of scholars within the humanities happy to help each other out. And we are sure your experience will help others too.
Email us and we will invite you to our Slack.
We’re looking forward to meeting you!