Ancient recipes for the modern kitchen
Yesterday, the management of my university announced that it would not revisit its proposals to cease offering degrees in Ancient History and in Religion and Theology. While this was by no means a surprise, it was still a shock. Yes, Continue reading
Those who have worked in UK academia for a little while will no doubt have heard an upper manager (or ten) tell them that we (the front-line academics) keep too much to our silos . That is, we allegedly find too Continue reading
I recently read T.S. Eliot s The Waste Land (1922) for the first time (I should have read this many years ago, but life is short, the art is long). It was like getting punched in the gut in a Continue reading
The last few months have been particularly difficult in UK Higher Education, with constant news of restructuring, loss of jobs, and the end of long-standing degrees. My own institution has not been spared: it announced the loss of 400 academic Continue reading
It has been a very long time since I last wrote here. Many things have happened, not the least a pandemic. I have often thought of returning to this blog, but things got in the way. Over the last couple Continue reading
As university teachers, we are encouraged to embrace innovation . Innovation often boils down to adopting new technologies. I m very much a nerd, and I love to try out new software and gadgets. But at the end of the day, in Continue reading
It s day three of our strike. The weather is wet and generally miserable. This is where things are starting to get tough, and resolve can be dampened. For various reasons, I find it hard to stand still on a picket, Continue reading
On this second day of our strike, I have done something that pushed me entirely out of my comfort zone: I MCed (was the Master of Ceremony) for our daily rally. While we have had many women speakers at rallies Continue reading
Content warning: blood So here we are again: we are back on strike. We are on strike over pensions, pay devaluation, pay inequality, job insecurity and rising workloads. We will be out for eight days, but the union is talking Continue reading
I last wrote on the final day of our strike action to save our pensions. Since then, I have been on action short of a strike . What that means is open to debate, but I have simply decided to work Continue reading