Home

Blog Posts

  • 2015: Happy New Year

    New Year’s Day, and I am back at my desk for the first time in several months, mainly in a late attempt to put together a panel for the Reading Early Modern Studies conference in July, for which the call for papers closes very soon.  It’s galvanised me into thinking properly about ballads again for…

  • Early Career Life in 2014 – Cath Feely

    Cath is lovely; I was privileged to know her during her time at Manchester and to hear her speak, brilliantly, for the Historical Assocation in Bolton. Here she shares her experience of beginning a permanent job at the University of Derby in 2014.

  • Wall of Chocolate

    I am slightly afraid that I might be buried alive by a chocolate avalanche in the night. In an homage to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Fags, Mags and Bags’, I have built a Wall of Chocolate instead of a Wall of Crisps. What this Christmas lacked in books (not a single one, for the first time…

  • Merry Christmas

    At the beginning of the year I commented that 2014 was a year of scary life changes, including my husband’s retirement, my need to get a job and that, all being well, I would be a doctor by the end of the year. Well, one out of three isn’t bad. Is it? The retirement happened,…

  • Is academia really worth it?

    As someone who is searching for any form of fulfilling paid employment and is struggling to find it, in academia or beyond, this really strikes a chord. Still awaiting my viva, by the way – it’s due at the end of January. The Thesis Whisperer This post was written Dr Kathy McKay,a Postdoctoral Research Fellow…