A mitzvah: pass it on!

What a nifty, elegant idea. Do a mitzvah, pass it on. That is the heart of building both solidarity and networks. Historiann's "A mitzvah: pass it on!" was already sitting in drafts waiting for a short lead-in and exhortation to go out pretty much intact. Then I read Josh Boldt's Copy & Paste post about aggregating posts and plans for an Adjunct Project media board. They are not quite the same but headed in the same direction.  Now to weave them together like a complex essay prompt. Josh adds adjunct -specific context to what Historiann is working up to proposing when she writes ...


I had a phone call the other day from a historian I’ve never met who had assigned my book to a graduate seminar this quarter and who wanted to tell me how much he and his students liked my book.  (This was in a seminar in which they apparently scorched nearly every other book–unfairly, of course, but he passed this along to me because their appreciation for my book was so striking by comparison.*)  In the course of conveying these extravagant compliments, he said something very thoughtful and very wise:

It’s been a bad past few years here [at my university].  Since we’re not going to get recognition or support from our institutions for our work, I’ve decided to e-mail or call everyone whose book my students and I really like to thank them and let them know.

Isn’t that a great idea?  Let’s all do this!  I think the historian above is exactly right:  we need to share the love and support each other.

Closing Historiann asks readers....So tell me about the book you liked and the author you’re going to write to in the comments below. Are you wondering what this has to do with Josh's ideas for the Adjunct Project? 

Josh writes that his proposed media board, "will be a great place to keep track of the media coverage of our work. Bookmark it. It will also provide a solid entry point for anyone who is new to the project. Direct people to it who have questions. By the way, if you want to drive a little traffic to your blog, write a post that references the Adjunct Project and I’ll mention your blog here."

I don't really need to  keep on dotting t's and crossing i's do I? What Josh describes is reciprocity at least among adjuncts, bloggers, webists, page developers, online curators and sundry social media sorts, but also a mitzvah as we pass it on without expectation of gain or reciprocity. We'll find ways bring in the rest.


They visit us, comment, send their friends, that and appreciation is their mitzvah. Ours? Maintaining and expanding this network, we give them a place to speak out, connect, discover they are not alone. Every adjunct not just a hero, but a super hero. No media requirement to be so dubbed. We can do it for ourselves.


PS Don't be the Cliff Notes kind of person you tell your students not to be: read both posts: A mitzvah: pass it on! and Adjunct Project Media Board.