The first time: how to publish in academia

Last week I was asked by someone relatively new to the academic game how they could start publishing. This being 2021, I rapidly realised that I should ask Twitter before answering. I wasn't sure how far my own experience, back in the 1980s, was typical in Arts and Humanities subjects, let alone how it would…

Retirement/retiring, 18 months in… an update

day in a library no longer feels wicked, like it's been stolen from teaching activities. OK, it never should have felt like that, since research was allegedly part of the job, but ...

The Saturday job and the day job

So apparently all young people still at school should be taking on a Saturday job, according to the Works and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, who has reported a fall in the number of those taking such jobs. She said it's about learning timekeeping, putting down your phone and also "people understanding what a boss wants and…

Ten days of retirement

Naked Minotaur, ancient and modern science, and a MOOC - and no REF in sight!

Stages of withdrawal

It's an odd process, this retiring business. Last week, I filled in the form stating how I want the percentage allocation of the lump sum and the pension to be managed, and posted it: that felt like a very serious step. But there are all sorts of other, tiny, steps happening and it seemed like…

PhDs: what are we doing?

Today I acted as a PhD external examiner for the final time. If you've read discussions of what the responsibilities of a retired academic should be, you'll maybe have seen 'examining PhDs' in there, as part of our supposed duty to the next generation of scholarship. However, having examined more PhDs in the last three…

The cunning plan

So what are my 'plans for retirement'? At this stage, apparently I'm supposed to have some. I ran into a cousin at a family funeral last week and he assumed my plan would be 'to travel'. That's largely because this is what he has been doing, very intensively, since he retired several years ago. But…

My favourite classical place

I first went to Rome in my teens, and that wasn't deliberate: it was one of the venues visited when I won three weeks in mainland Europe as part of a competition run by Barclays Bank. But I didn't go to Athens until my forties. It wasn't fifth-century Athens, so why would I want to…