Publication – English
Dissemination and the Digital: The Creation of an Academic Book Trailer
MESA Review of Middle East Studies, 2011
Abstract:
“Dissemination and the Digital: The Creation of an Academic Book Trailer,” is the fourth and final paper in a Special Section of the MESA Review of Middle East Studies edited by Shafique N. Virani entitled “Speaking Truth Beyond the Tower: Academics of Islam Engaging in the Public Sphere.” The paper suggest one possible approach, which draws from experience in digital humanities scholarship, to ensure that academic voices are heard in the public sphere. Citing evidence from the medical sciences, the article discusses how other academic fields are awakening to the danger of failing to adopt social- and multimedia methodologies for the dissemination of research-based knowledge. Arguing that the publication of the monograph must not be the end-all and be-all of humanistic scholars, the author asserts that we have a responsibility to ensure that our research has the greatest impact whenever possible, even beyond the Ivory Tower. This is, in fact, something that most granting agencies insist upon. He then describes the development of what is believed to have been the world’s first academic book trailer, similar to a film trailer, which helped launch his monograph, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation, published by Oxford University Press.
Cite this publication:
Virani, Shafique N. “Dissemination and the Digital: The Creation of an Academic Book Trailer.” Special Section, “Speaking Truth Beyond the Tower: Academics of Islam Engaging in the Public Sphere.” Edited by Shafique N. Virani. In MESA Review of Middle East Studies 45, no. 2 (2011): 192-198.
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