When I first raised the idea of developing a news site for historians of psychology, Chris Green (my collaborator at AHP and supervisor at York University) suggested setting a series of objective “go/no go” decision points. If the site failed to meet any of these goals, we agreed that this would indicate that the work required to support it could not be justified by its impact.
But the site has exceeded our expectations.
We have recently averaged ~90 subscribers, with a general upward trend. (Subscribe here.) Non-subscriber traffic has also been both consistent and strong, averaging ~80 visitors per day from countries around the world. (The most popular non-subscriber page is still the bibliography of recent histories of schizophrenia; the most popular subscriber page is the recent note about the role of history in Kuhn’s philosophy.) We have been mentioned and linked-to 75 times by interested bloggers. And, as Chris noted in a recent email to the listservs, we have received over 50 comments from “our hardy band of dedicated readers.”
We are also starting to get noticed within the profession: the Jean Piaget Society, for example, has added a link to the site on their resources page. And we were recently featured in one of the discipline’s leading journals as a “notable internet resource.”
I am therefore pleased to announce the continued expansion of the site and — particularly — the addition of a new contributor: Jennifer Bazar.
Jenn is a doctoral student in the history and theory of psychology program at York University. She is also currently the student representative to the Society for the History of Psychology (APA Division 26) and maintains the History and Theory of Psychology Student Network website. Her name will be familiar to AHP readers, however, because her efforts have been recognized several times in recent weeks: after the launch of the new HTNet site, following the publication of her award-winning essay on the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Toronto, and as part of our coverage of the HSS conference in Washington, DC.
Please join me in welcoming Jenn to the team. (Feel free to leave your comments below.) And thank you, also, for continuing to support our work.
I think the fact that Jenn posted an item before you introduced her as a new contributor may have lessened the impact of your announcement. Somehow I saw it coming.
Congratulations Jenn! This will definitely be a great new experience for you. Although, I agree with Jacy… somehow it seemed inevitable.