My work for this term is over! At least teaching-wise. I will be bringing the makings of my next chapter, as well as some marking, home. But for now, the deadlines that had to be met, have indeed been met. I am trés pleased.
Choir went exceedingly well all of this past week, with an advent procession in the cathedral, a big Sunday service, and then a concert and carol service on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Our director is changing jobs next term, so it was his last week with us, and it ended up being rather emotional, but very lovely.
Also, I'm happy to report also that my students seem to be doing very well--no truly terrible essays, and a few very impressive ones that I definitely could not have produced my freshman year of college, so kudos to them. I met with almost all of them individually to go over their work, and hopefully that was helpful to them as well.
It is bloody cold here, and damp, and I am currently wearing three layers and a scarf indoors. Last night I spent the evening with my back against the radiator in my room. It's pretty gross, is what I'm saying. But I got a second duvet the other week to stuff in with my first one, so I'm sleeping very cosily at least.
Above all, I'm looking forward to being home for the holidays, but seeing as that's coming up very soon, I really have no reason to complain!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
We have been granted!
I'm very pleased to announce that a bid for an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) grant that my friends/colleagues Nicole and Bea and I wrote up has been approved! As such, we'll be organising and running a training programme focussed on archival research into Sir William Armstrong and his role as a scientist and philanthropist in the Victorian northeast this coming spring. It's going to be a big project, and we've got a fair chunk of change to do it, and I'm quite excited about the prospect of making it happen. If it comes off well, it will be a big feather in all our caps.
Durham was totally flooded the other week when we had torrential rain for a few days, and as such two of the central academic buildings in town, both of which are usually occupied by the departments I work for, have been shut down, because someone had the bright idea of keeping all of the electrical workings in the basement, so as soon as the river climbed a few feet higher than usual, all of it got ruined. As such, I taught one of my classes all the way across town, and I had to retrieve a whole bunch of my books from the postgrad study room before everyone was shut out of the building entirely. Also, my advisor is now in exile from his office. It's all rather inconvenient. We can only be thankful, I suppose, that it occurred so close to the end of term, so that they have time to fix everything over the holiday.
In any case, the term is winding down or up, depending on how you look at it--I just finished with my last teaching session, and soon it will be time to mark essays madly and have a marathon session of handing them back and meeting with all my students, and as previously stated, do a lot of choir. Also I should probably get more mundane things done, like cleaning and laundry and errands, but those are secondary at the moment. Oh right, and I should fit some research in there as well, that would be good. There is a vague feeling of hectic-ness in the air, and it is very distracting. On the whole, I am tired.
But! I have a direction for my last thesis chapter, and a lot of books to read for it, and an idea of how to go about doing a big chronological overhaul of all of my chapters so that they begin to cohere to each other, as well as internally. So that's good. I was in a coffee shop today between class and choir and managed to write a good page of introductory material that better articulates what it is exactly that I'm trying to do and why I should bother to do so, which is encouraging. As always, I fear that I am better at pontificating than analysing, but sometimes some free pontification is very helpful for clarifying my thoughts, which can then be used more analytically. Or something.
All in all though, I am looking forward to Christmas! I require reading by the fire, pianos that are not keyboards, and kitties. Not necessarily in that order.
Durham was totally flooded the other week when we had torrential rain for a few days, and as such two of the central academic buildings in town, both of which are usually occupied by the departments I work for, have been shut down, because someone had the bright idea of keeping all of the electrical workings in the basement, so as soon as the river climbed a few feet higher than usual, all of it got ruined. As such, I taught one of my classes all the way across town, and I had to retrieve a whole bunch of my books from the postgrad study room before everyone was shut out of the building entirely. Also, my advisor is now in exile from his office. It's all rather inconvenient. We can only be thankful, I suppose, that it occurred so close to the end of term, so that they have time to fix everything over the holiday.
In any case, the term is winding down or up, depending on how you look at it--I just finished with my last teaching session, and soon it will be time to mark essays madly and have a marathon session of handing them back and meeting with all my students, and as previously stated, do a lot of choir. Also I should probably get more mundane things done, like cleaning and laundry and errands, but those are secondary at the moment. Oh right, and I should fit some research in there as well, that would be good. There is a vague feeling of hectic-ness in the air, and it is very distracting. On the whole, I am tired.
But! I have a direction for my last thesis chapter, and a lot of books to read for it, and an idea of how to go about doing a big chronological overhaul of all of my chapters so that they begin to cohere to each other, as well as internally. So that's good. I was in a coffee shop today between class and choir and managed to write a good page of introductory material that better articulates what it is exactly that I'm trying to do and why I should bother to do so, which is encouraging. As always, I fear that I am better at pontificating than analysing, but sometimes some free pontification is very helpful for clarifying my thoughts, which can then be used more analytically. Or something.
All in all though, I am looking forward to Christmas! I require reading by the fire, pianos that are not keyboards, and kitties. Not necessarily in that order.
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