About

Welcome to Blogger On Pole, a.k.a. Dr. Carolina Are’s corner of the Internet, covering pole dance, fitness, lifestyle, wellbeing, tech research, activism and writing. All in one blog. Wild, right?

WTF Is Blogger On Pole?

This is an About page so it’s all about me. YAY. You’ve clicked through so now you’ve got to read it. My name is Carolina and I’m an Italian Londoner. I’m a blogger, author, pole dancing academic, speaker, writer, freelance journalist, pole dance performer and instructor, and the Activist of the Year 2019 according to the Sexual Freedom Awards (which means I now own a gold flying penis that I can stroke at my leisure. Sue me!).

Originally from sunny Sardinia, I left my hometown of Olbia at 18 to study journalism in London. I have been actively blogging since 2011, at first while gaining a degree in journalism and then through to working in PR and freelancing in journalism and social media consulting.

Looking for a change of direction, I moved to Australia for a Criminology MA at the University of Sydney. I am now back to the Big Smoke as a pole dancing academic, but closer to my favourite places: London and Italy.

I know what you’re thinking. An academic? We’ve seen your butt way too many times on Instagram to take you seriously. Well that’s what this blog is about. While Blogger On Pole was initially just a space to showcase my passions – food, travel, events, fitness and pole dance – it soon morphed into much more. It became sort of a job, a platform to share my activism and to geek out about my academic research too. Because I’m all about the interdisciplinary vibes.

It’s a space for me to be my old awks self, talk about all the food I end up eating, my random holidays, all the mindfucks I end up having and about my life as a pole dancer… just to show you that people can be versatile, and that shaking your ass in a headstand doesn’t mean you can’t do research on cyber crime. ‘Cause I can. #getyouagirlwhocandoboth (or everything, and get a panic attack in the meantime).

Research

I’m currently working as an Innovation Fellow at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Citizens. Here, I’m working on research projects at the intersection between online abuse (the topic of my PhD) and online censorship (which went from being the main direction my activism was taking to becoming my main research interest).

I have published some of the first studies on shadowbanning, and I’ve definitely been the first to publish research on the shadowbanning of pole dance. So I guess you can call me an online moderation or platform governance researcher.

Since finishing my PhD in 2021, I’ve somewhat successfully blended my research and pole dancing personae, using this blog and my social media to increase my research’s impact.

Passed my viva with minor corrections today 💪🏼 I had decided this was going to be the day I brought Batman & Bruce Wayne together 😛 So I’m gonna close my academic-only Twitter & unify my presence under this account. Here’s why it’s important to me to be both people at once. pic.twitter.com/XzEC5zzek4

— Dr Carolina Are / Blogger On Pole (@bloggeronpole) December 16, 2020

Find out more about my research here.

Pole Dancing

I started dancing at the amazing place that is Sydney Pole in 2016, at a really low point in my life. Having just left all I knew to move to Australia, I was coming from a break-up, an abusive relationship and years of unresolved and accumulated anxiety, depression and PTSD. Pole pretty much changed my life giving me my body and my head back, together with strength and a purpose. Sometimes showing your butt is just the way forward, right?

*If you want to find out why many people find pole dance empowering, read this page and my whole blog lol*

But wait a minute: who is this chick? Why does she sound familiar? No, I haven’t done any sex tapes (yet). I did however create (and write for) a bunch of other blogs. Here they are.

London’s Calling – Londra Chiama

I’ve stopped paying for this blog so all you can find is its Twitter account, which I’ve left to show that the blog can’t come to the phone: Why? BECAUSE IT’S DEAD.

London’s Calling – Londra Chiama started right before the beginning of my journalism degree here in London. When I saw all my fellow classmates had done some work experience at a newspaper, radio, TV station and the like, I realised I had done fuck all and pretty much panicked. So I came up with the blog, which begun as a step-by-step guide to help Italians apply to university in London – and, I’ve recently found out, was responsible for most of the Italian population enrolling into my uni’s degree (#humblebrag) – and slowly morphed into a lifestyle blog.

I got sick of just writing in Italian so I then set up Couchsurfer Reviews.

Couchsurfer Reviews

In 2014 I completed my mission: surviving – and most of all enjoying – my first-ever Couchsurfing trip across the United States of America. The foundations of blog started then, during a trip was my last chance for an adventure before I became a real person with a real job. Since working in social media scarred me for life, I decided to remember my journey across America in full 21st Century style: through Internet over-sharing. Which was incidentally a viable tracking system in case I ended up in the next Ted Bundy’s hands.

Couchsurfer Reviews has now however fully re-branded and morphed into Blogger On Pole. When you Google couchsurferreviews.com, this blog will come up. The oldest posts will be very lo-fi because I posted them from my old iPhone 4 while travelling across America, and that’s ok. Tryna to be real here.

Why the rebrand? Because of my anxiety and depression I have struggled to continue being a Couchsurfing host or to Couchsurf when I travel. Even though Couchsurfing pretty much saved me from a really dark place I was in when I went to the US, in my crazy busy, slashie life in London and Sydney I often need time to breathe, be alone and switch everything off – including my social skills. Hence, I felt like calling this blog Couchsurfer Reviews wasn’t accurate or fair, and I’ve changed it to unify it under my Insta name and my current passion.

Find Me Elsewhere

• Read my slightly more academic opinion / research pieces in The Conversation
• Find me on Medium.
• Travel and foodie guides for BoE (The Business of Everything) magazine
• Travel and foodie guides for Hip & Healthy
• Restaurant reviews for Broadsheet Sydney
• For TimeOut Sydney

I used to blog for The Huffington Post UK, where I had a profile I used to ramble on about food, my twisted political views or my entertainment obsessions. For the Huff Post, I either went on a long tirade about something or wrote in a list format. Please be aware that:

• As I mentioned, I had a profile on the Huff Post UK blog, which meant that before they stopped having contributors I could write a blog post there and the team approves it or not.
• I was not a paid member of staff in the Huff Post Newsroom.
• I posted on it as per the blogging guidelines and FAQs.

Want to work with me? Click here.

Find Me In The Media Here.

Oh, and buy my novel please.