Dear blog,

So, I’m right in the midst of this Fellowship application and I’ve come to the bit where I have to say who the work will impact and how this impact will occur. I have lots of public engagement activities planned, eg. public talks, an exhibition, etc. But it’s really difficult to say exactly why it’s beneficial to know about Davy and his letters (and early C19th science) etc. It’s a difficult language for me, when I tend to think these things are self-explanatory, that of course they’re good for us, and haven’t really tried to put this into words. I guess it’s good to know more about Davy because he was an important figure in so many different ways (as a scientist, for the safe extraction of coal, as a chemist who wrote poetry). But how does it change you for the better to know about this? I suppose it means that we’re reflecting upon and preserving our national heritage, but we’re also thinking about what role the sciences play, and what the relationship of science might be with the arts. But why is this beneficial? I guess discussions of these kinds of topics encourages people to actively participate research and to shape the kinds of work that is done in this area in the future. Answers on a postcard please…

I’ve managed to get almost two whole days to work on this (today and yesterday), though I’ve also done a million other things in the early morning and late at night. It still won’t be finished before I go back into the office tomorrow though! We’ve got a conference in the department at Lancaster tomorrow, part of our jubilee celebrations (the university is 50!): https://anothersideof1964.wordpress.com/. And, on Thursday, for the same reason, there’s an event at the castle (which is now sold out) called ‘Beyond the Lancashire Witches’ which promises to be lots of fun (http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/steps/events/public-lecture-beyond-the-lancashire-witches–writing-and-freedom/).

All best,

Sharon

Dear blog,

It’s half way through term: it’s reading week this week. And what a term it’s been so far. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy except that probably that isn’t true. Maybe it’s always this busy… This week alone I attended the creative writing poetry reading by Zaffar Kunial (which was excellent) on Monday; on Tuesday, Prof Peter Hulme came to give a research seminar paper on the pan-American dinner attended by poets in New York in 1919 (which was brilliant); and on Thursday I interviewed Stella Rimington, the first female Director General of MI5 and now novelist of Liz Carlyle spy novels, at Manchester High School for Girls. The final event was obviously a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet someone who broke the glass ceiling so spectacularly and occupied such a critical position. Dame Stella was absolutely lovely; really modest and humble, very bright, and said all the right things about, say, how GCHQ shouldn’t be doing anything that breaks any laws. It was a very enjoyable event.

The Davy Letters project continues apace, not that I am getting any time to devote to it. The MHRA Research Associate, Andrew Lacey, is a wonder: he’s updated the website, copyedited Tim’s annotations of the first two tranches of letters, and has compiled a Calendar of Letters, which will be used in the edition. I’m still trying to write the AHRC Fellowship proposal which would enable me to spend some more time on the project. I started it in August and it’s taken ages for me to find any time to work on it this term. I’m hoping that I’ll get it in by December though. I’ve got lots of ideas…!

I’ve written a couple of new lectures this term so far, on Ovid and Dante; I really enjoyed doing them. Their for a new course for our first years called World Literature. It’s been hard but really fun to write these. But, right now, I’m just relieved to be back in Manchester for a couple of days and to work on this application. I’m going to Chawton House near Southampton on Thursday to give a talk about Wollstonecraft. I’ve never been there before so that’s exciting too.

Wish me luck with the proposal; I’m hoping to finally get it in this side of Christmas!

Sx