Monthly Archives: September 2010

New First Years and Horror Films

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Dear blog,

It’s Welcome Week this week so on Wednesday I met my fresh-faced first-year personal tutees. They were all very enthusiastic and raring to go. Next week teaching starts properly and I have a semester of the third-year module ‘Green Writing’ and second year core module ‘The Romantic Period’ lined up.

There’s lots more going on though. I’ve offered a public lecture and workshop as part of the Manchester Science Festival (http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/) on ‘The Science of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’. If enough people are interested, it’ll take place at Manchester Science Library on the 27th October, from 6-8pm (http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/whatson/frankenstein). Then, a few days later, I’ve agreed to take part in a panel organised by Grimm Up North, a horror and sci-fi festival that is happening at the same time in Manchester (http://www.grimmfest.com/) to debate humanity’s attempts through time to ‘Make a Monster’ (http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/whatson/makeamonster). The panel will be followed by a film screening though I’m not sure yet what it will be. All good stuff, and very exciting; I just hope that the theme of my lecture captures people’s attention enough to sign up. I guess it’s a test to see how interested folk are in such things as Shelley’s novel and the history of early nineteenth-century science.

Other than that I’m going to the opening of the new exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery tomorrow, The Land Between Us (http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/thelandbetweenus/), which looks great.

Plans are coming along well for event 4 of the LitSciMed training programme. We’ve decided upon a hotel to book for all participants in Manchester (the Ibis again I’m afraid!), and a provisional programme is coming together nicely.

All best,

Sharon

Coleridge in the countryside

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Dear Blog,

I had a lovely weekend last weekend in Kilve, Somerset at the Coleridge Study Weekend. The the theme for the weekend was ‘Coleridge, Science and Poetry’ and the speakers gathered together were a kin of fantasy football team for me – David Fairer from Leeds, Tim Fulford from NTU, Neil Vickers from King’s, and Richard Holmes, author of the hugely influential book Age of Wonder. 

Some of delegates of Kilve had been attending the study weekends since they began, over 20 years ago. It was lovely to meet people from different walks of life who had a real, passionate interest in the Romantic poets and who weren’t part of the academy. 

The ‘study’ part of the weekend was interspersed with walks in the quantock hills and we visited the Wordsworths’ Alfoxden House and Coleridge’s house in Nether Stowey. We saw a read-through of ‘A Box of Frogs’, a play that recreates the pneumatic institute in Bristol and features Davy, Beddoes, Coleridge and Roger. The latter is imagined to be a spy for the Home Office reporting on the radical politics and gases that are being discussed. 

I’m now off for one final week of holiday – and am turning my email off this time! – before the madness of the new academic year begins. 

Best,

Sharon