Have you ever spent hours researching an idea only to discover it’s going nowhere? Sometimes you end up with a mountain of data that only demonstrates that such and such an idea is not a profitable avenue for research. As a graduate student, almost every good idea you might have has been examined by someone else. If you think your idea is “original”, odds are that someone else has thought of it, too, done the hours of research, and abandoned it as a dead-end. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way to alert others that the idea is a dead-end? To that end, I’ve often mused about creating a periodical called “The Journal of Dead-End Research in Biblical Studies.” Since no one would ever pay for it, I suppose it would work best as a blog or website like this one. Alas, I have no time to create or administer such a website right now, but it would be a useful service for graduate students in biblical studies IMO.
How about hanging something off this site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.religionacademy.com
I've got a few things that would fit on such a site. :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry, but your idea was already thought of for biblical studies.
ReplyDeletestephen, why am i not surprised? a friend and I had been discussing this idea several years ago during our coursework at UW. i put it out there now because I was sure many others had probably had similar experiences.
ReplyDelete