Category: seminars
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Summer goals update
I thought I’d give you a quick update on my progress towards my summer goals: • Definition of ‘ballad’ for introduction. I’m part way through this, although it needs a LOT more work. I’m discussing it with friends that I met at the Psalm Culture conference in London in July and I’ve given it a…
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Psalm Culture and the Politics of Translation
This week I finally have something a bit different to say. I am aware, you see, that writing a blog about writing a PhD is a bit repetitive: “read some ballads, thought about the music, wrote about some ballads, went to a supervision meeting, did some more research, wrote a bit more, read some secondary…
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Multitasking
The panel date has been set for July 10, so I have been frantically trying to write a chapter this week. Well, not the entire chapter in a week, but I have managed to get a first draft finished in the last ten days, which is good. It still needs a lot of work, because…
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Histfest!
I was very pleased to attend Lancaster University‘s postgraduate history conference yesterday, where I spoke about my work on knowingness in Tudor ballads and the links between sacred and secular music. I think they had a bit of a shock when I started singing ‘Down in Yon Forest‘ to demonstrate the simplicity of melody and…
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Home from my holiday
I think it’s fair to say that we had the best of the weather. On several days last week I got messages from friends in Manchester saying that it was raining, while I was sitting on the beach watching the children playing. Where was I? The Med? The States? No. Ireland. Donegal to be specific… …
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Quick update
A short post, because I probably won’t have time to write one later. This week I have worked mainly on one particular ballad, writing a short article about it that I hope to submit for publication fairly soon. It turned out to be something of a double-edged sword, as there is more to it than…
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Moralising ballads
This week seems to have seen me concentrating on moralising ballads. On Wednesday I had a long meeting with my supervisor, discussing them and the reformation of manners. He suggested I read an article by Peter Lake on Puritanism, Arminianism and a Shropshire Axe-Murder! I read it this morning. Fascinating, it was. So many layers…
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Historical Association lecture
Yesterday it was my great pleasure to give my first talk to a branch of the Historical Association in Manchester. Called ‘No Lion Wilde, a Lion Tame – Popular Depictions of Mary I’, it was based the research I did for my first chapter on the ballads of the reign of Mary Tudor. The…
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