How and why you should build a professional academic website:

A professional website is an important part of being a 21st century citizen. Why, oh why, you ask?

It’s a great way to learn and showcase important digital literacy skills! These skills may come into use for:

  • Impressing future employers with your technical and story telling abilities. Regardless of what industry you hope to join, website building skills are in demand. Show a potential employer that you know how to make compelling websites, and you’ll be surprised what doors (both tech and non-tech related) might open for you.
  • Building sites for future projects or organizations you become involved in. Does every project or organization need a website? No. But it’s a great way to build community and visibility about projects and organizations you hope to help cultivate.
  • Starting a collective blog, online journal, or zine with peers. As humanities students, you’ll be writing a lot! Why not start sharing your writing with others?

It’s also a creative opportunity to present a dynamic portrait of yourself to potential employers, colleagues, and peers:

  • Traditional resumes are important, but websites enable you to use photos, videos, blogging, and design to enable the whole of your personality to shine through. Learn the art of balancing professionalism with personal expression to make your site stand out!
  • Have control over how your identity shows up in web searches.
  • Find potential collaborators with shared interests.
  • Cultivate your public communication skills by blogging about topics that you care about.
  • Turn the drudgery of producing a resume into a creative and reflective process.

What does an academic website look like?

Like anything you want, though it’s good to start with something simple and grow from there!

Here are some examples of academic websites from students and faculty to help get you started:

Excited? Let’s get started on building your very own!

Follow me to the tutorial!