This post from our partners at Bridging the Gap is written by BTG Fellows Danielle Gilbert and Erik Lin-Greenberg, who are now the new editors of the BTG Duck channel, coordinating contributions from BTG’s network of scholars.

The past twelve months have been fraught with challenges, yet they have also given rise to a host of new opportunities. We’ve faced a global pandemic, a contentious U.S. election, social and racial injustice, and assaults on democracy around the world. These experiences have led scholars to ask tough questions, have difficult—but critically important—conversations, and to rethink how we teach and conduct research. At the Bridging the Gap Project, we’ve tried to keep pace with these global shifts, including on our channel here at the Duck.

Beginning today, we’re the new editors of the BTG Duck channel, and we hope to build upon the great work of our predecessors Naazneen Barma and Brent Durbin. We look forward to publishing more content that helps scholars navigate the academia-policy space and to showcasing the work of members of the BTG community. We’re excited to feature posts about your research, teaching, and mentoring as they relate to policy and public engagement.

Specifically, we hope you’ll consider writing for us in one of these five areas:

• Research and findings: Is your area of scholarly expertise in the news? Could your research shape the public conversation? Share your policy-relevant findings with us! For recent examples on our channel, see here, here, and here.

• Research methods: What has your research process revealed to you about policy engagement? How are your innovative research methods changing the conversation? This is a great place to engage with these big questions about policy engagement and the research process. For recent examples on our channel, see here and here.

• Professionalization and career advice: Do you have wisdom to share about publishing, teaching, or seeking policy-relevant funding opportunities? How can our teaching and mentorship support a diverse and inclusive community of scholars? We would love to highlight your experiences! For recent examples on our channel, see here, here, and here.

• Book Nook: We’ll continue to run Book Nook videos about newly published books from our OUP series and across the BTG network. In these brief videos, authors introduce their findings to a broad audience (think: students and policymakers). For examples on our channel, see here, here, and here.

• Special Topic Forum:  Do you have a group of scholars or students who might like to engage on a single policy-relevant topic, event, or professionalization question in print? Let us know! For recent examples on our channel, see here, here, and here.

Beyond engaging with these important topics here at the Duck, BTG has looked for new, socially distant ways to deliver content that equips scholars with the skills needed to engage in policy-relevant research and theoretically informed policy work.

Our virtual programming, for instance, has engaged with important conversations about diversity and inclusion, explored how to conduct research in the midst of a pandemic, provided insights on publishing and pursuing careers outside of academia, and highlighted authors who have published with the Oxford University Press Bridging the Gap book series. These virtual panels have enabled us to amplify new voices and to reach a far broader audience than our normal in-person events.

Bridging the Gap has also—thanks to generous continued support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Raymond Frankel Foundation—launched and expanded several initiatives including our Diversity Fellowship, New Voices in National Security, and a partnership with the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab.

We’re excited to continue these conversations here on the BTG channel. If you’re among the hundreds of scholars affiliated with the BTG network and you’d like to have your work featured, send us a short pitch or draft at bridgingthegap@american.edu! (And if you’re not yet part of our network, visit our website to learn more about our full range of programming!)

We look forward to reading your work, learning from you, and amplifying your voices.