Table Of Contents
Why Scholars Should Build Their Own Site with IndieWeb + Carrd #
As social media platfoms move more and more towards being walled gardens with ever shifting policies and AI creep opting out of these platforms takes on a new sense of urgency. For graduate students, contigent faculty, tenure track faculty, and independent scholars having a webpresence that does not rely on a university becomes increasingly vital.
My personal theory is that as we see more AI creep and the decrease in search enginges abilities to return meaningful results there is going to be a resurgent interest in directories and individual webpages, in short the 90s are back this time out of necessity not nostalgia. I believe that scholars still need a stable, independent home on the web --- and that's exactly what the IndieWeb and no-code tools like Carrd make possible.
Your scholarly identity deserves a real home, not a silo #
The IndieWeb isn't a fad or a niche movement --- it's a philosophy: personal websites, on your own domain, as your primary online identity. It champions owning your content, not renting your presence from algorithmic platforms. (indieweb.org)
For a scholar, that means instead of relying on fragmented, institutionally-controlled pages or transient social media profiles, you have a stable digital "room of your own." As many have argued, academics benefit greatly from such personal websites --- they offer a space for your CV, publications, syllabi, reflections, teaching philosophy, blog posts, and more. (Inside Higher Ed)
Your domain becomes a durable digital identity --- one that you control regardless of where life or your institution takes you. As one recent post noted, a custom domain "signals authority and permanence" (adamdjbrett.com).
💡 2. IndieWeb + "no-code" = low friction, high control #
If you're not a developer --- or simply very busy with teaching and research --- the technical overhead of building and maintaining a website can feel daunting. That's where no-code tools like Carrd really shine.
Carrd lets you create clean, professional, responsive sites in minutes --- no coding required. As highlighted in "Why Carrd.co Is the Best Platform for Simple, Responsive One-Page Sites," Carrd is ideal when what you need is a quick, budget-friendly online presence that still looks polished and professional. I have written on this topic previously, ("Why Carrd.co Is the Best Platform for Simple, Responsive One-Page Sites, with Discount Code")
For many academics, a simple one-page site --- with links to your CV, publication list, contact info, maybe a short bio or blog feed --- may be all you need. And Carrd gives you just that: minimal hassle, full control, and a site that works on any device. Virginia Woolf was right you need a room of ones one and a domain of one's own, ("Why Scholars Should Own Their Online Presence").
A personal website becomes your anchor --- and your "networked" hub #
When you own your site, you also determine how and where your content lives. A personal academic website can become a central hub: a place to house your scholarship, teaching resources, blog reflections, syllabi, podcasts, and more. You can link to social media, preprints, press coverage --- whatever represents your work --- on your terms (bastian.rieck.me).
Moreover, the IndieWeb encourages not just ownership but connection: by using its open-web standards, your site can participate in decentralized conversations, syndicate posts, and stay compatible with long-term web culture built on openness, not walled gardens (indieweb.org).
For scholars --- especially those in humanities and theology --- nuance and control matter #
As someone teaching courses working broadly in the "Digital Humanities (???)", I am increasingly concerned about how quickly and easily trendy and popular platforms fade in and out of existence. A personal site gives you the flexibility to curate how your work is presented: syllabi, lecture notes, reading lists, public resources, multimedia, etc.
DIY vs #NoCode #
I love building things for the web which is why I love and have built so many websites and projects with 11ty. While I believe that building and making your own site from scratch is not only doable but also fun! I realize that most other people have a very diffent definition of fund and hobbies and this is where high quality exportable #nocode tools like Carrd come into the piecture.
Low cost + easy setup = minimal barrier to entry #
With Carrd, you don't need to invest in complex hosting, themes, or devops. As the post "Why Carrd.co Is the Best Platform..." explains, you can get a polished site for just ~$19/year with the Pro plan --- cheap, accessible, and sustainable (adamdjbrett.com).
If you want to experiment --- maybe a simple homepage, a pointer to a CV, a short blog --- it's an easy "first step" into the IndieWeb universe without committing to heavy website infrastructure.
🔗 Want to explore more? try.carrd. If you sign up using this discount code you can save 40%.
P.S. I never know exactly how to write for the web. Do you like the parenehttical footnote style hyperlinks I did here or do you want a more traditional web forward style where I link relevant text? I prefer the ladder.