We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Glankler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.
Emily, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
People ask about Anti-Social Studies and if that means I am, in fact, against the teaching of social studies. Definitely not. For one, I thought it was a funny play on words but the bigger meaning is that I’m opposed to the traditional way we approach social studies education. Almost every adult I meet who finds out that I’m a history teacher respond in one of two ways: “I HATED history class in high school,” or, “I wish I had paid more attention back then.” These comments are incredibly telling and they both speak to an outdated approach to teaching history that focuses on “great men,” wars, and memorizing dates. The way most of us were taught history was completely irrelevant to our lives. When will I ever need to know the date of the Pearl Harbor attacks? Why do I have to memorize the preamble to the Constitution? Why do I care about ancient Egypt?
Instead, I want to create content that helps people connect the historical past to our lives today. Using the examples above, what if instead we talked with students about how US foreign policy changed as result of Pearl Harbor and compare it with the post-9/11 world? Why not read the preamble to the Constitution and discuss how our understanding of who is an American citizen with rights has changed over time? If we want to recognize how complex the modern Egyptian government is in the wake of the Arab Spring, wouldn’t it be helpful to know that they have lived under some form of authoritarianism since the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt? If we go against the traditional approach to history (and social studies more broadly) we can understand our current world, and the people in it, more clearly.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a historian and educator who is using social media to democratizing access to a good social studies education. I started out making my podcast, “Anti-Social Studies,” that covered world and US history in a way that was entertaining and accessible to anyone (whether they were current students or adults who wished they had paid more attention in history class.) This eventually grew into a website full of teacher resources, AP course and test-taking support on YouTube, and historical content and current events analysis on Instagram and TikTok.
My current goal is to help contextualize the chaos of the modern world through history. I’m proud of my ability to use my various platforms to help people know their own history and build more empathy and understanding through learning the history of others as well. Followers come to me with their questions on current events and political debates and I’m proud that I’ve built a brand that people trust can teach them (or their kids) more about the world. Especially in the current climate of book banning and curriculum restrictions, I love that I have found ways to reach students via social media and continue to educate them on the diverse and complicated history of the U.S. and also open their eyes to issues and stories from places around the world they’ve never even heard of.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
My business almost came together accidentally. I started out with the intention of just creating historical content that could reach beyond my own classroom and, five years later, I’m running my business and consulting with companies full time. The funding for my business has always come from fellow teachers. Patreon was an incredibly important source of additional income for me as I spent nights and weekends outside of my teaching job creating content for free. I’m really proud that the majority of my funding has always come from teachers and other individual supporters who appreciate the content I’m creating.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media has been the main source of my audience and my potential customers. I used social media as an educational tool and extension of my classroom. While there are many teacher accounts out there posting amazing content on what it’s like to be a teacher, etc. my accounts were unique in that I was using social media to actually teach my classroom content. I post Stories explaining current events and apply TikTok trends to historical figures. This approach – with the social media being about history instead of me as a creator – was unique and caught peoples’ attention as they scrolled past more mainstream creators. This is my best advice, as well: find your niche and be true to it. Don’t feel like you have to be everything to everyone; social media is inundated with creators so post the content that only you could create.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.antisocialstudies.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/antisocstudies
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antisocstudies/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyglankler/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/antisocstudies
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/antisocialstudies
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@antisocialstudies