humanities researcher

That horrible moment when...

2012-01-20T14:27:00.001+11:00

You know the drill. You've submitted your thesis to the examiners, or your essay or book has gone through final proof stage when ... you discover a book published ten years ago on exactly your topic that for some reason you never came across and have taken no account of. Resigned to the worst, I trudge over to the library to find the offending, newly discovered volume, and turned with foreboding

Audio, video, Wagner: face, dream, Melancholia [SPOILER ALERT]

2012-01-15T21:46:00.002+11:00

Last week, three immersion experiences: painting, experimental video-audio art, and cinema. I am sitting for (I learn that "to" is also acceptable, though somewhat precious) a painter friend who is returning to portraiture after a few years painting in other genres. I sat for Kristin many years ago, and am once more enjoying the afternoons in her studio. We used to be neighbours and regular

Christmas highlight: redemption by family

2011-12-27T22:23:00.000+11:00

Our three day family Christmas marathon is over, and we are back to our funny little holiday routines of sleeping in, working, painting the back fence, and in my case, watching the father-son holiday project — painting a complicated historical time line covering 2,500 years of human history all down the corridor — taking shape. Pictures will follow soon. My holiday highlight was the kris

Happiness again

2011-12-19T17:54:00.000+11:00

Here beginneth the 2011 annual blog post about Christmas puddings. Each year, I make them later and later: we have just taken them out of the bain-maries this morning, but they are ready to go. I toyed with experimenting with a new recipe, but decided not to mess with perfection (thanks, Vogue Entertaining Guide of the mid 1980s whose cover has now been ripped away after so much use: maybe this

Come on in, ya mongrels!

2011-12-14T22:38:00.000+11:00

So, last night Joel's vocal group from school was supporting the Bigmouth community choir in Northcote. I thought we'd just go for their opening number, then we'd come home. After all, it's less than a week since he had all his wisdom teeth out, and he's been pretty low with the effects of the general anaesthetic. He also can't yet eat cereal (quite a big problem for a teenage boy), and I didn't

Here I am again

2011-12-10T22:54:00.001+11:00

Apologies, folks, for the break in transmission. It's been an incredibly busy couple of months. Though as I always maintain, blogging really isn't about having the time, or not. It's something more to do with mental and social energies, which have been pushed and strained somewhat over the last year. I have now finally given my last talk for the year, though, and am starting to think about

Cat Geometry

2011-10-06T17:09:00.000+11:00

Wulf and Orlando love each other dearly. But it's become clear to me that in addition to snuggling up on a chilly afternoon, they are actually solving complicated geometry puzzles. It isn't always clear what the specific problem is: Or what the rules are: Or whether they are working in a temporal dimension: Or working in another dimension to produce cloning: Sometimes Orlando

Five Years Down

2011-10-03T13:43:00.002+11:00

Five years ago, when this blog was only a few months old, it underwent a dramatic transformation from a blog about applying for grants, to become a blog about breast cancer and its affects on body and mind. Those first cancer posts, here, here, here and here, seem now to me exercises in controlled drama. And then, indeed, the main issue was how to get through the next day's treatment. This

SIck Day

2011-09-28T14:09:00.000+10:00

If you have to spend the day in bed with a rotten cough and croaky lungs, it's not entirely unpleasant to have two furry companions and a teenager on holidays who can make you scrambled eggs for lunch. Pink Floyd are floating up the stairs, and the rain has started, so the day is taking on a rather dreamy flavour. I do feel the unanswered emails and undone tasks mounting up, though. I'm

Writing Companions

2011-09-12T12:06:00.000+10:00

My adorable writing companions, helping me finish up my rather late essay, "Blogging, Time, and Displacement" for Literature Compass. Even the way they sleep is typical of their personalities: precise Orlando and sprawling Wulf.

My Dinner with Carol, Julie, Lyn and Hannah - or How a highly-paid attorney hijacked a pleasant evening

2011-09-10T13:34:00.000+10:00

Four of the five of us have birthdays round about the same time, and over the last few years we have developed a lovely tradition of having dinner together some time in March, and also a couple of other times a year. We sometimes exchange tiny presents or drink a glass of champagne to celebrate a promotion, send someone on their travels or welcome someone home. Last time we met we decided to

The Bike that Lee Built

2011-09-04T17:11:00.001+10:00

I booked my old Malvern Star Wisp in for a service down at the bike shop, the fabulous VeloCycles in Nicholson St. My bike was fifteen years old, and had served me well, but it had needed very regular servicing for the last couple of years. It was scratched, rusty and creaky. They put it up on the stand and gave it a quick assessment. Most of the gear teeth were damaged, the wheels were getting

Displacement activity

2011-08-29T10:33:00.002+10:00

So I'm writing this essay. It's about the way modern academics use online sites and activities like blogging, facebook, etc. and so I thought I'd do a little research amongst my readers. What does the term "displacement activity" mean to you. I've done a little reading around some behavioural/psychological texts, but I'm interested to know what we/you mean when we/you use the term, if we/you do.

In which I feel myself about to undergo an ugly transformation

2011-08-18T18:18:00.000+10:00

There are large white tents being erected on the lawns of the campus. The schedules have been drawn up. The powerpoints from last year are being updated. Yes, it's Open Day again. For the last couple of years I've done the little presentations to prospective students: this year I'm just on one of the desks on Sunday. They are predicting a mild and sunny day, which is a great relief as it is

Fragments of an aftermath

2011-08-03T17:26:00.002+10:00

A huge week last week. I chaired two public lectures, a two-day collaboratory and a one-day postgraduate masterclass. Life is slowly coming back to normal, though I am still fearfully behind on many things. I am still digesting the Hearts and Stones collaboratory, though in one sense it's easy to say it fulfilled my wildest expectations about having an interdisciplinary conversation with only

quick reminder

2011-07-28T14:51:00.000+10:00

A quick reminder to Melbourne readers: Jeffrey Cohen, from In the Middle, will be giving a free public lecture tonight, called "Feeling Stone," in the Elisabeth Murdoch lecture theatre A, (the one behind the white plaster figures escaping from the wall of the Potter Gallery at the university of Melbourne in Swanston St), at 6.00 tonight. It's utterly free, and will be utterly fabulous. Jeffrey

This is the most humble day of my life

2011-07-20T23:57:00.001+10:00

[Thanks to Gio Abate for directing me to this wonderful image, from the Tumblr site of Eva Truffaut: check out the animated version.] Last night, when I was supposed to be going to bed early, I stayed up, glued to my computer screen as the Murdochs appeared before the parliamentary inquiry into telephone hacking. James Murdoch tried to take control over proceedings and wanted to begin by

Human voices

2011-07-16T13:53:00.001+10:00

It's a cold Saturday morning, at the end of the school holidays. As arranged, Joel brings me a strong cup of coffee at 7.15. We climb into the car. Its newly fixed thermostat registers 2 degrees. We pick up Meg, then head into the city and down Punt Road. The sky is pale but clear, and we see three hot air balloons in perfect triangular formation flying low across Parkville. We are heading to a

The lifecycle of a keynote (or, The Great Bloggy Meet-up)

2011-07-14T22:23:00.002+10:00

First comes the invitation. If the organisers are good organisers, they give you plenty of time, freedom to speak on whatever you want, and are crystal clear about what kind of event it is, and what kind of funding they will provide. Then a year or so goes by and the lecture then starts to hove into view. You might have to provide an abstract around this time. Then your ticket is booked, and

Here comes the sun

2011-07-14T12:41:00.001+10:00

Twice a year, there is a period of a few weeks when the sun appears above our neighbour's roof, but lower than the eaves over my study windows. When there are no clouds, it can be bright enough for me to lower the blinds on the window. Today is the first day I've noticed this effect since autumn. The sun's a bit pale and weak, and the sky looks a bit anaemic, but I can see the shadow of my own

Orange mousie!

2011-07-05T11:20:00.001+10:00

The kittens have a favourite toy: an orange mouse with catnip inside that makes a very intriguing rattling sound when you skid it along the floorboards, even though someone bit off its tail on the way home from the vet a few weeks ago. I regularly have to scoop it out from under the couch, and there is then great joy and much scuffling to work out who will play first. They do take turns, there is

Blue and brown

2011-06-25T15:52:00.000+10:00

The young man is better, I'm glad to say, and has gone off to Chinatown for his customary Saturday lunch with friends, since he hardly saw them all week. But Paul and I are both struggling with colds of various degrees. I'm not too bad, but he and I kept each other awake last night with a barking cough. I struggled to Italian class this morning, and made a few neighbourhood stops on the way

Sick day

2011-06-20T10:37:00.001+10:00

Lovely post from Jeffrey about (US) Father's day. My parenting today consists of supplying my invalid son with tea, toast and vegemite as he recovers from a nasty virus (vomiting, skin rash, cough, headache). He's reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, trying to contain two Burmese kittens who think that a boy on a couch with a mohair rug is a perfect playground, and alternating with

Chuntering on...

2011-06-01T14:06:00.001+10:00

In my Middle English reading group we are reading bits of Piers Plowman. We read the Prologue and Passus I, then skipped over the whole Mede episode (I know: it's a scandal), and marvelled at the author's apologia for his life (newly introduced in the C-text). Today we read the conclusion to this passage, where Reason and Conscience send Will off to the church. "Wepyng and waylyng," he falls

Beginnin' to see the light

2011-05-21T22:45:00.000+10:00

For too long now I've been struggling. My job, while wonderful in so many ways, is also really hard sometimes. Yes, I get to work on wonderful material; and yes, I get to travel around a bit; and manage my own time. And indeed, I get a great sense of achievement in my work when I finish big projects. I am also the first to admit that my path through the professional and intellectual minefield

One for the protocol office.

2011-05-06T12:41:00.000+10:00

As my book edges ever closer to the precipice of entering final copy-editing, the lovely Caroline has emailed me wondering whether we should flag the mentions of Prince William and Kate Middleton in my book for updating. What a nice problem to have? We'll have to work out the protocol of referring to them before they became Duke and Duchess and all. And ... can I just say about all that stuff

Gow

2011-04-27T23:08:00.000+10:00

It's nearly three years since I blogged about my gorgeous ex-brother-in-law, Gow. I mentioned there his having come through a major health scare. Alas, there is every sign that his disease has returned. Two days after I arrived in London, I met my sister after work at Green Park tube station (she works in a small investment bank in Mayfair) and we travelled north to Belsize Park, where he was in

Rejoice with us, for we have kittens

2011-04-24T12:35:00.000+10:00

This has been a plan in the making for a month or two, now. I still feel the presence of dear Mima, and her photo is still attached to my computer screen. I also looked for her when I came home yesterday, after nearly three weeks away. But for a while now the house has seemed to lack a certain something; and yesterday we brought home two wee kittens, just three months old. One is dark brown, whom

Imogen and I go shopping

2011-04-22T03:02:00.001+10:00

OK, I have been a very terrible blogger. Something about finishing my book, then really having to work hard to finish a big lecture for the Piers Plowman conference in Oxford (it may not sound it, but it was a huge gig for me), and various other tasks, have made it less likely for me to blog. Though I feel I may be getting back to it. Starting with photos. Today I have spent a very pleasant day.

Friday night is pizza night

2011-04-02T11:45:00.001+11:00

Most Friday nights, for the past sixteen or so years, we have got together with our dear friends: our mirror family, as I call them. Two academic parents, one blond child, and a bunch of similar interests, politics and lives. When various family members are away, we meet anyway. We eat pizza (or sometimes cook), we drink an extra glass of red wine, we eat chocolates and lollies. We argue, we

History of Emotions website

2011-03-25T13:51:00.002+11:00

History of Emotions new website is now live. Click through to "Opportunities" under "Research" for details of all nine post-doctoral fellowships currently being advertised.

Post-doctoral opportunities...

2011-03-23T16:08:00.000+11:00

Updated version of the advertisement for the first round of post-doctoral fellowships: please forward and circulate to anyone and any list you think might be interested. ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR THE HISTORY OF THE EMOTIONS (EUROPE 1100-1800) The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions in collaboration with The University of Western Australia, The

Sixteen

2011-03-21T08:59:00.001+11:00

Many's the time, since I began this blog, that I have held back from banging on about my son or posting photos of him. Partly for his own privacy; and partly from a sense that there can only ever be limited interest in other people's children. If you find parents' rhapsodies about their children uncomfortable or irritating to read, you should click right on through to your next website

Finishing again. And ... post-doctoral fellowships advertised

2011-03-18T12:41:00.000+11:00

A very long blog hiatus. Why? Who knows, really? It's not so much that I've been busy writing. I stopped blogging around about the time I stopped writing my book. I'm spending long hours on email at the moment, though, trying to set up the Melbourne hub of the Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. The first round of post-doctoral fellowships was advertised on Wednesday, but because

Finishing

2011-01-20T21:14:00.000+11:00

There are many stages to finishing a book. But one of the biggest is when you send off ten files that include Acknowledgements, Bibliography and Table of Contents, as well as deathless Introduction (oh! ghost of Gwen Harwood, who used to use that adjective to mock academic prose, do you choose this moment to visit me now? *shudders*) and seven chapters. As I have just done. The study is a mess

Spelling word cloud

2011-01-17T11:02:00.001+11:00

I'm sorting out spelling for my final manuscript submission. I use "find and replace" and search for our to change to or, but can't do a global change since so many of my source quotes are English, and there are words, of course, that don't change. So this is not a job that can be done after midnight (are you listening, Stephanie?). Honor, favor, armor, but court, discourse, tournament. Also,

This house believes that restricting the growth of cities will improve quality of life.

2011-01-15T12:52:00.002+11:00

Interested in the question of urban sprawl and the management of cities? Interested in seeing how an international online debate can be structured and run? Skip over to The Economist and see how close is this debate between my Paul and Chetan Vaidya: you have about a week to vote or take part in the debate. http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/640

when the rains came

2011-01-14T11:38:00.000+11:00

You know the rains have hit Melbourne when you have to disconnect the agricultural pipe that fills the fish-pond from the run-off from the shed, so the pond won't overflow. That is all. Back to the footnotes to chapter four, and changing "honour" to "honor" throughout. Sigh.

Finishing

2011-01-11T08:46:00.001+11:00

Sometimes I think the book I am finishing is brilliant. Sometimes I think it's under-researched, under-theorised and badly written. Sometimes I think I'll have it ready to send off by the 21st of this month, as promised. Sometimes I think I'm just deluding myself. Nevertheless, it finally now feels I am on a train that won't stop till I get there. There's a closing finality about each long

Big chickens, little fish, long walk

2010-12-29T11:33:00.000+11:00

There's some furious work going on at my desk at the moment. Writing a new little section into Chapter One [check], some more polishing of Introduction and Acknowledgements [check]; and now having another look at the final chapter before the last round of revisions, removing excessive punctuation and starting to get footnotes in final order. So not much blogging or facebooking at the moment. In

I Am The Woman. And so is Bernadette.

2010-12-22T15:24:00.000+11:00

I Am The Woman. The woman who looked at Paul's reservation online and saw that his week-long delayed flight from Heathrow just looked a bit fishy. I am also the woman who phoned Qantas to find out it was a "fictitious" booking, a kind of place-holder that bore no necessary relation to any real flight. Because their system was saying he had already flown home. The lovely Bernadette is also The

Extremely rare guest post

2010-12-20T21:47:00.001+11:00

I am very sorry my love, but I have just come down to do a final check on my flight for today and it has been changed to Christmas day. I am stuck here!!! Attached is the latest version of my diary notes. Please distribute it to family and friends as you see fit and apologize to everybody for my absence. Love and everything, Paul @font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face {

Kindly corrections

2010-12-14T22:05:00.000+11:00

In the kindest possible way, Hypatia and another friend have reminded me that the saint customarily associated with breasts is not so much Agnes as Agatha. No wonder I couldn't find the reference in The Leopard to the St Agnes cakes. Thanks to my friend (who may not relish being named here) for finding the description: Scorning the table of drinks, glittering with crystal and silver on the right

Christmas, St Agnes and Hypatia

2010-12-12T11:56:00.002+11:00

About four years ago, I blogged about making Christmas puddings with my father, because I was too sick to stand and cut and grate and chop and mix and beat and stir. Two years ago, I blogged about feeling much better, and being able to do it on my own. This year, I'm a little late in making them, but am hoping a liberal extra dose of St Agnes's finest will make up for this in flavour. Each year

Life, death, book

2010-12-04T12:18:00.002+11:00

How weird is this? Two lovely bloggers on my not-very-long blog feed (Northern Lights and Sorrow at Sills Bend) are having or have been having pregnancy dreams about kittens. Not wanting to bring them down, at all, but these dreams remind me I am so much in a different stage of the life cycle. My boy is growing up; has been offered two days full work next week at the funky grocery store in

Quick update

2010-12-02T09:35:00.001+11:00

In Australia, we finish teaching around the end of October. And that's when it really starts to get busy. The marking (though I'm not complaining here as I've had a very light teaching load this semester). The meetings. The planning. The exchange approvals (this program has exploded in popularity since I was last in charge of granting subject approvals, and I'm seeing or emailing about three

That's how the light gets in.

2010-11-14T00:22:00.001+11:00

'There's a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in.' As Leonard Cohen sang these words, from "Anthem" (Ring the Bells) at Rod Laver Arena tonight, I was struck for the hundredth time this evening by his beautiful, flawed, romantic masculinity. Beautiful singing, extraordinary musicianship and grace all round, from detailed introductions, and slow bows to each band member and singer,

Chickens

2010-11-13T16:17:00.004+11:00

The chickens have now been out of the egg for about ten days. Whenever we open the lid of their box they jump up and start flapping their little wings, unless it's late afternoon, when they are settled down on their newspaper bed like one big fluffy pillow. Here they are when they were first put into their box after being in the incubator. Some of them are moving faster than others: for

Late with essay: here's a tiny installment

2010-11-10T15:01:00.001+11:00

Oh dear. I am running along as fast as I can, whizzing past a series of writing deadlines. I'll keep going, but will just pause to paste a couple of paragraphs: @font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "ITC Officina Sans Book"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }

Chicken scratching for my immortality (with apologies to Joni Mitchell)

2010-11-02T22:28:00.003+11:00

The incubator itself is nothing more fancy than a big polystyrene container. There are channels in the bottom to hold water; while the top has a small heater, with thermostat attached, and a small perspex square to look through. There's also a wire tray that sits on top of the water channels. Add a thermometer on a little stand; and that's pretty much it. You select clean eggs with smooth skins,

Late Hallowe'en tribute: The Headless Horseman

2010-11-01T11:22:00.000+11:00

The streets are quiet today; like a late Sunday morning. And why? Because it's the Monday before the Melbourne Cup. Only in Australia do you end up with a four-day weekend to celebrate a horse race that lasts about two minutes (though I'm sure it seems longer if you have put a lot of money on it). Anyway, I'm working on my Magna Carta essay; Joel is home because the teachers are only giving

Bad rufous night heron! bad!

2010-10-31T22:36:00.000+11:00

Early dusk, and the pale yellow light of a rain-drenched Hallowe'en shone on the huge reddy brown bird, perched solidly on the edge of the fishpond, amidst growth that after all this rain can only be described as verdant. And shining. I summoned the others to marvel at its beauty, then we ran outside, shouting loudly, to frighten it away from the fishpond. It flew away; but an hour later was

Looking for America

2010-10-30T13:50:00.002+11:00

After Italian class, popped into La Latteria for burrata and squaquerno cheese, olive oil from Gippsland, then Dench for grain loaf. After lunch, washing up with Joel playing Simon and Garfunkel's "America" which he's hoping to sing in his music class on Thursday (honestly, that class sometimes sounds like something from Glee) and the two of us singing along and harmonising as we went. Reminded

Check!

2010-10-27T15:57:00.001+11:00

Annual mammogram is clear: check! Annual ultrasound is clear: check! Annual physical exam is clear: check! Annual interview with the goddess: brief, but clear! Check! It's not that I was really worried: apart from a cold, I'm fit as a fiddle. But so I was when I first discovered the tell-tale dimple in the bathroom of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St Louis during a meeting of the NCS congress

A quick word from Hypatia

2010-10-24T11:19:00.001+11:00

Many thanks to all who've contributed suggestions to Hypatia's reading and listening list. She has emailed to say how grateful she is to everyone — "moved and cheered", she says. And she'll keep checking back, so if you think of anything else, please add it in. She also says she is very happy for you to picture her as Rachel Weisz, though I must admit this film passed me by completely:

It's quite simple, really

2010-10-22T15:37:00.000+11:00

At a book launch recently, I was moaning to someone that I was struggling to finish the last chapter of my book because I wasn't sure how it was going to end. Russell said, brilliantly, "It was an ARC grant, wasn't it? Just go back to the application." Oh. My. Goodness. I've just done precisely that, and pasted in a number of finely crafted paragraphs into my chapter to work from. Now I just

Pink breast cancer nonsense time again: but a challenge for you here.

2010-10-20T19:20:00.002+11:00

Yes, folks, it's October again; the joyous time of year when "awareness" of breast cancer is being sold, world-wide, to consumers of anything from hair-dryers to teddybears, water to yoghurt. I've written elsewhere (a long time ago) about the insidious association of shopping with medical research and the much-vaunted "awareness" of the disease (anything with "Shop for the Cure" associated with

What a lovely cat she was.

2010-10-20T14:39:00.004+11:00

My mother sent me three photos she found of Mima, all taken by my mother-in-law, in May 96. Joel was 14 months old; Mima a few years older. Lots of things to like here: that these photos have been circulated around among two grandmothers and a mother; to see Mima sitting safely on the window sill, observing the baby, and watching over him, but out of his way; and to see Joel's stripey jumper (

Word salads; salad words; salad days

2010-10-14T00:01:00.001+11:00

I am now really truly and seriously working on chapter seven. In it are Camilla's tampon; Annie Liebowitz; Virginia Woolf; the little model of St George and the Dragon that replaces the jaguar on the Queen's car when she rides out; a drinks coaster and a packet of chocolates. If only I could get the order right. But in the meantime, I am driving to Glenroy to pick up a new thermometer for the

Why a facial recognition problem is a problem

2010-10-09T16:54:00.003+11:00

At Readings for a book launch on Friday (the second that week) I was trying to get close to the action and found myself stuck in a long aisle with no chance of seeing anything. I passed a woman who smiled at me and looked familiar, and assuming she was a graduate student in my school (there are lots and lots) I made a cheery remark about what a terrible place it was for a booklaunch. (And it is,

Gadding about

2010-10-06T18:17:00.001+11:00

The last two or three weeks have been hectic. Two events in Perth; and then a day trip to Canberra on the kind invitation of Black Rod for the opening of federal Parliament the next day; then another departure, on holiday, to East Gippsland, with bikes on the train, the day after that. Lots to blog about; as well as many emails to catch up on; and book chapters and articles to finish. And the

Rumination, depression and other emotions

2010-09-25T10:22:00.000+10:00

The first day of the ASSA/CMEMS/IAS/ARC CHE (etc. etc.) interdisciplinary workshop on the emotions was suitably intense. We met in the beautiful wood-lined original old building of the UWA, which was at one time used as a cricket pavilion (I mean: just look at it). We are a bunch of about 20 psychologists, historians, literary critics and classicists. The workshop is called "Understanding

The oldest, the slowest and the best

2010-09-22T22:13:00.000+10:00

Everything had to be perfect. First, we had to find a day we could both meet the unusual and somewhat demanding schedule. Then we had to wait on the conditions. My instructions were to phone the afternoon before, for a preliminary go-ahead. Then, if all was well, we'd get an early morning call. It took nearly four months for all the pieces to slot into place. Yesterday, the phone rang at 4.15.

Queen of cities; queen of cheeses

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000+10:00

If ever you were in doubt that Melbourne is the queen of cities, you need consider only this: it's possible to return from two weeks in Italy when you ate burrata mozzarella every second day, and were utterly ravished by its soft, creamy clouds and twists, then come home and on one day be offered fresh buffalo mozzarella at The European for lunch, but turn it down, because at home you have a tub

World Triathlon Championships

2010-09-12T17:21:00.000+10:00

It's one thing to be the director of an ARC Centre of Excellence — and all power to Philippa Maddern at UWA, who'll direct our Centre for the History of Emotions. But it's another thing altogether to be the director of the only Centre that will be based at Melbourne *and* to come 7th in the World Triathlon Championships in Budapest. OK, so it was the Veterans' division, or some such, but this is

Call for papers: "Futures"

2010-09-07T17:39:00.001+10:00

A call for submissions for our wonderful, refereed postgraduate journal, antiTHESIS. Head here for the full call for papers on the topic "Futures." It has become increasingly difficult to conceive of our culture as following a dialectical progression from a shared past into a collective future, whether utopian or dystopian. We find ourselves instead at a point at which “The Future,” a key

How to mess up a job interview

2010-09-05T21:27:00.000+10:00

In a couple of weeks, my School will be holding a workshop for graduate students on academic job interviews. It will involve a mock interview, for which we are currently preparing a kind of script, with a mix of "good" and "bad" responses. In this country, we are usually pretty hamstrung in the questions we can ask, which are usually supposed to be the same for each candidate. In a nutshell,

Such a Fortunate Life Have I Led

2010-08-31T22:11:00.000+10:00

... that I have never received a bereavement card until the vet clinic that looked after Mima so well sent me a lovely card. Three pictures of serene cats, and a lovely message inside, along with a packet of seeds to scatter in the garden, and the wish, "May each flower bring a happy memory of Mima." Of course I understand this is not a bereavement on the human scale. But it does, all the same,

Sympathy

2010-08-27T17:08:00.000+10:00

Thank-you, everyone, for your kind comments and sympathies. It's both sad and comforting to feel others feel this sadness, too; and how it extends well beyond the loss of an animal, into a sense of the connections we make with them. I called in to the vet's last night, to let them know to take Mima off their mailing list for the reminders for her various medications and check-ups. It's a big

Learning to Die — a post for Eileen

2010-08-25T18:55:00.000+10:00

Thanks to all who posted comments and thoughts on my blogging paralysis. Today, I return to the blog with the familiar theme of mortality. We've not seen the little old cat Mima for three days now, and I think she has quietly gone away to die. Over the last week she was looking more and more uncomfortable, whether standing, or crouching. I'd not seen her curled up, or sprawling with ease for a

Look what Simone found

2010-08-18T15:56:00.000+10:00

Check out this report of Simone Marshall's cool discovery: a forgotten edition of Chaucer: http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/121305/chaucer-volume-significant-discovery

Early Modern Print Culture at Melbourne

2010-08-16T17:27:00.000+10:00

Two new initiatives around early modern print culture in Melbourne... Announcing the launch of two new websites: MELBOURNE PRINTS and DISASTERS IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE We are very pleased to announce that two websites developed with the assistance of a Scholarly Innovation Information Grant from the Baillieu Library are now Œlive‚ and can be found at the following

A funny distraction

2010-08-16T14:11:00.000+10:00

Thanks to everyone, here, and on Facebook, for comments about blogging and online communication. Yes, I let that remark get to me and overthrow much of what I really think about such things. More on this soon, I think, but in the meantime, do check out Tony Abbot's Iron Ladies: http://www.youtube.com/user/joholafaclub#p/a Clever, clever girls.

Sudden online paralysis

2010-08-09T14:24:00.000+10:00

... has been produced by a chance remark from one near and dear to me, to the effect that online writing doesn't form community so much as it allows the writer to project themselves, or an idea of themselves, into a network. I know there are other ways to think about this, but for the moment, it's done for me. That's all the projecting I can assemble today.

Death in North Fitzroy: Music, Mortality, Sleep

2010-07-30T10:11:00.003+10:00

Another school concert last night. Although J has a jinx of having his name left off the program for such things, last night he played piano and bongo drums to accompany the junior girls' choir, sang solo with a friend on acoustic guitar (Red Hot Chilli Peppers' "Snow"), played cello in the vastly improved Camerata strings, and sang in the vocal group, taking a two-line solo. Plenty in the

Marvellous Florence

2010-07-22T03:03:00.000+10:00

After the Chaucer congress I'm taking another two days' holiday, and have just returned to Rome from Florence. The first night, Jeffrey and I arrived around 5, checked in, then regrouped at 7.00. Our hotel was gorgeous; and I lucked out with an enormous and serene room on the third floor and my own little balcony looking down into the courtyard and its terracotta rooftiles. Armed with a map,

Pick the odd one out

2010-07-17T16:17:00.000+10:00

At dinner last night my dear friend Anne had phoned the restaurant early, and had ordered a beautiful bottle of champagne on ice to be waiting for us when we arrived. So while I'm away, I've certainly been able to celebrate. Here's a list of the centres of excellence that were funded in the recent round: this will give you some of idea of the exceptional triumph the UWA centre represents for the

Success!

2010-07-17T02:21:00.001+10:00

An extraordinary day. Logged onto email this morning and found a flood of congratulatory notes. The Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion, 1100-1800, based at the University of Western Australia, has been funded! The Australian Research Council has awarded us 93% of what we asked for; and together with the contributions of our partner institutions (Unis of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney

Last night in Rome

2010-07-13T06:18:00.000+10:00

What an amazing city! I love it here. Everywhere you turn there's something else to look at: Roman ruins at the end of the shopping street; a farmer's market (oddly-shaped sausages, perfectly round cheeses, jams, eggs, flowers, vegetables) on a back street on the wrong side of the forum — the side where the entrance isn't. The people? wonderful. Billions of tourists like me; but an interesting

Melbourne-Canberra-Melbourne-Singapore-London-Rome-Siena

2010-07-09T15:20:00.002+10:00

School of Culture and Communication Seminar Wednesday 26, Lecture Theatre C, Old Arts, 4.30-6pm David McInnis (University of Melbourne, English) “Lost Plays, 1580-1642” Our picture of the English Renaissance theatre (c.1580-1642) has been shaped

Two good stories

2010-05-21T17:46:00.000+10:00

Home on Tuesday morning after fabulous conference in Berlin. The whole trip was rushed, but went smoothly enough, even down to the last minute escape from Heathrow on Sunday night before the airport was closed for six hours due to the volcanic ash cloud — they practically frogmarched us on to the plane to ensure an early push-back. I'll blog the conference (and the surprise arrival of three

The Day Before Leaving

2010-05-07T18:11:00.000+10:00

... is always pretty bad. I realise I haven't written the essay questions for my students; my paper is too long and has no conclusion; I can't decide what combination of shoes and coats to pack for London and Berlin; suddenly there's an enormous pile of laundry to do; and there's no bread or milk in the house. I'm doing it all on my own, too, as P and J have gone off to Sri Lanka for a

In which I play a little jazz

2010-04-28T22:53:00.000+10:00

When I play the piano, which is not all that often these days, I need a score, a good light, and the right glasses. I dig out The Children's Bach, or more ambitiously, the English Suites and plod through material that's much too difficult for me, but loving the abstract form of a fugue, or Bach's Glass- and Nyman-like progressions through chords, patterns, keys and harmonies I can barely name.

Speaking faces

2010-04-27T15:24:00.000+10:00

To Troilus right wonder wel with alle Gan for to like hire meuynge and hire chere, Which somdel deignous was, for she let falle Hire look a lite a-side in swich manere Ascaunces, "what, may I nat stonden here?" And after that hir lokynge gan she lighte, That neuere thoughte hym seen so good a syghte. I am currently writing a paper for a very cool-sounding conference in Berlin in a couple of

In which I make myself cry

2010-04-21T22:23:00.000+10:00

Through the course of the various re-structures of our syllabus and curriculum reforms we've undergone over the last few years, I struggled to find the right balance of medieval literature and medievalism in the one subject I offer in second and third year. I'm glad to say I think I might have got the balance just about right. The subject is called Romancing the Medieval, and we have 75 students

To break one wrist is unfortunate; to break two...

2010-04-19T16:56:00.000+10:00

No, not J (though I have been hearing many stories about people breaking both wrists in bike accidents). J's going ok; and able to make surprisingly rich sounds on the piano with one hand. But the band was booked into a recording studio next Saturday to make an audition recording for a week-long jazz intensive — run by the Juilliard jazz school — at Trinity college in July. Unfortunately, the

Comment moderation begins.

2010-04-15T18:59:00.000+10:00

It's not that I get a huge number of spam comments. But one of them today was of an obscene nature. And I don't have to take that, or have it sitting on my blog until I can get to it and delete it. So from now on I'm moderating comments. I don't think there'll be much of a delay between your posting and my releasing it. And a little delay is better than your reading filth in this place. That

The slowness of waiting, and writing

2010-04-08T15:58:00.000+10:00

The week without teaching is disappearing. We arrived at the hospital this morning for a 9.30 appointment. We waited several hours, then when we finally got in to see a doctor, they removed J's cast to check the wound. Whereupon, seeing the pins sticking out of his wrist, he promptly blacked out, so we had to help him onto a gurney so he could lie down to have the new cast put on. By 3.00 he was

The "pointy bits" at the gym

2010-04-07T08:49:00.000+10:00

If Sophie, my lovely trainer at the gym, is sick, I get to work with one of the other trainers. It's always a bit scary, and I'm never sure if that's because Sophie and I have such fun laughing and gossipping that I don't realise how hard I'm working, or if her method is gentler, or if the others make a special effort to work me hard. Yesterday was one such day, starting off with some aerobic