This, however, is more about me than about you, since you seem to still have no problem (I’m sooo jealous) with your legitimatized and mandated professional writing On the privacy issue – I think this is a very real concern. You might consider starting a new blog and leaving your discipline unnamed, while emailing your regular commenters to let them know where you have gone. The concern doesn’t disappear completely, but it’s far reduced, IMHO. You can also protect yourself by never mentioning to students/colleagues, etc. that you blog. I mentioned it once to a student who knew me very well (she was a student, mentee, and my son’s nanny — she REALLY new me) and the little stinker actually was able to find me in a matter of days.

I hope that you keep blogging. You’re good at it.

For what it’s worth, I really enjoy reading blogs written by other soc/crim faculty (especially recent grads and new faculty), and hope that you will continue blogging. (I’ll even add you to our blog roll!) That said, I can understand why you might decide to close up shop. It’s uncharted territory, this blogging thing!

Good luck…

I have decided to continue blogging. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons. The key is to be careful about what one says, of course, but the bottom line is that I’m not willing to walk on egg shells for the next five years. I try my best to be measured and thoughtful in my comments in the department — I’ve been told my several senior faculty that I do an excellent job here, and if anything, they wish I would speak up more often — and I try to do the same on my blog. But that doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t get ticked off by something I say. We all come from different social locations, and reasonable people just have to learn to disagree reasonably. If that doesn’t appear to be the case, I’ll go some place else or find a different line of work. Life is too short to be cowed into silence and complicity just because my title begins with “Assistant.”

Last, I think there’s a considerable difference between what you (and I) write and blatant criticism or gossip about a department. I see nothing wrong with writing, “I’m new, I’m struggling with this, and here’s why.” If you do it with respect and senior faculty still lash out about it, then that says more about them than it does about you.

It’s been a frustrating week, but I’m confident I have the support I need to go forward. I hope you will, too.

I’ve benefited a lot from the posts and comments that have been floating around here, so thanks. Selfishly, I hope you continue this blog (or turn it into a group one where SEVERAL newbies contribute!), but totally sympathize with your reasons for taking it down.

Your blog is wonderful to read BECAUSE of your “newbie” status (faculty/recent grad student perspective). I always look forward to your posts and find your blog one of the top three I go to first! While I don’t post very much, I have to agree with olderwoman–reading the words of others is time consuming. I had my own blog at one point and joined forces with Anomie because of time constraints/paucity of posts.

Could you join this new blog in your substantive area AND occasionally guess blog with another (still get the positives you enjoy)?

Whatever your decision, I wish you nothing but the best!

Second, I hope you don’t close up shop, newsocprof. Your blog was really the one that convinced me that it would be “okay” to join in the conversation. It seems to me that the internet is now allowing us the chance to have the kind of collegial conversations about ideas and life that things like status and personal neuroses get in the way of in our own departments. I’d be sorry to see a great contributor to that disappear.