After finishing my studies in New York City, I moved back to Chile where I started teaching courses on migration and museums for undergraduate students. Through the contact with my students, I realized that my passion for research, history and knowledge was not easily translatable in the classroom. The reading of specialized journal articles was not always relatable or effective for everyone in class. This did not mean students were not interested in the subject, but specialized articles and scholarly writing made it difficult for some of them to understand certain concepts.

 

As a scholar, one of my main objectives is to connect and spread knowledge both within the scholar community and to a larger public. With this in mind I started to write about history in social media. The platform of choice was Instagram because it combined esthetics values with photography and written texts.

 

What started as an experiment, quickly turned into a project that today sheds some light on the possibilities the digital era has to offer. Through my Instagram account Historiadicta (history – addict), I was able to connect with individuals that I would have never been able to reach through traditional scholar channels.

 

Historiadicta was born out of the necessity to connect and transform research into something that could appeal broader audiences. The possibility to exchange ideas with people from all kinds of fields, social backgrounds and all around the world is an enriching experience. Historiadicta is an ongoing process which has been very successful on Instagram, with over eleven thousand active followers, and today I am exploring new platforms to expand on. For the year 2020, Historiadicta is expanding its format to podcast.