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The Good Stuff

17 Jan, 2016

Be More Maya

There are lots of things I could say about Maya and the role she plays in my life, and I’m sure you’ll hear much more about her as this year progresses because she’s a big inspiration for me when it comes to positive thoughts. But for today, let me tell you that Maya is neurotic, obsessive, and very anxious. No points for guessing that, yes, she’s a Collie X, and some of these traits are part of her breed, though not in the way in which they manifest in Maya. Maya hates not being able to control where people are...

5

The Good Stuff

16 Jan, 2016

The Art of Not Giving a Shit

  It’s taken me a long, long time to master the art of not giving a shit. I used to get furious, desperately frustrated, sad, and anxious over things people said or did, or stuff that happened, when really that stuff and those people had very little real impact on me, my work, or my life. I think it’s the most valuable skill we can learn: to not be affected by things that don’t matter. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it. But it really is a challenge if you struggle with issues such as anxiety, and a lack...

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The Good Stuff

15 Jan, 2016

Embracing Mediocrity

  Today’s thought is dedicated to those days we all know very well, and tend to file away under the labels “unsuccessful”, “unproductive”, or “unsatisfactory”. Teaching goes ok, but won’t win you any prizes. Writing … well, you did some. A tiny bit. Nothing paradigm shifting in either quantity or quality. Maybe you even did some domestic chores. Not to show home standards, but you have matching socks at the ready for the next day or two. I had one of those days today. I did far less than the examples I’ve just listed. Actually, the only thing...

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The Good Stuff

14 Jan, 2016

Be More Henry

Henry is a French Bulldog. He’s my dogs’ best friend, and together they like nothing better than chasing each other in circles. They’re an odd group of friends: Maya and Jaggers are Collie x Kelpies; long-legged dogs who can run and work all day. Henry, with his short legs and muscular, stocky body can keep up for short bursts and sprints, but he can’t keep up for prolonged periods of time … and he knows he doesn’t have to. He runs with them for as long as he can. Then he rests and waits for his opportunity. Henry...

2

The Good Stuff

13 Jan, 2016

Face Your Fears

I’ve been trying to make this thought sound less dramatic, but somehow “Get Comfortable with Discomfort” didn’t quite sound right, and also vaguely reminded me of adverts for constipation remedies. The reason I was looking for a better phrase is that this note isn’t really about what I’d call “fears”. It’s about the things that make you uncomfortable, to a greater or lesser degree, on a daily basis. I’ve had to face a lot of those things over the past year or so, especially when my ten-year relationship ended. All the issues with which I have always struggled all...

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The Good Stuff

11 Jan, 2016

You’ll Stumble in My Footsteps

  “Try walking in my shoes. You’ll stumble in my footsteps.” (Depeche Mode, “Walking in My Shoes”, 1993) Every day, you do things and deal with things others couldn’t. Recognise this, and be proud of yourself. The idea behind today’s thought is that, like me, you probably spend a lot of time admiring other people and their skills, their ways of dealing with certain things, and so on.Believe it or not, other people probably feel the same when they look at you. I’m sure my dogs are pretty chuffed that I make food and toys appear from a cupboard every...

1

The Good Stuff

12 Jan, 2016

Be Grateful for the Good Things

I had a pretty rotten start to the day. Nothing particularly horrible: for various reasons, I worked late, then was up relatively early to do a day of teaching. Up until last Wednesday, I was under the impression I’d be on leave this semester, so there was an added sense of disbelief when I started my commute to Liverpool for the first time this year. I was tired. I wasn’t sure how the large-group afternoon workshop/ lecture/ seminar would work out, given that I’d been thinking it over and over until 2AM. One of my dogs had a...

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The Good Stuff

10 Jan, 2016

Be More Jaggers

This thought neither asks you to be more like the shady lawyer from Dickens’s Great Expectations, nor does it suggest that you should adopt some of the more comical behaviours that my pony-sized puppy, Jaggers, so eagerly displays the majority of the time. Something that I have learned from little Jaggers, though, is to be optimistic about people, unless they do something that really gives you reason to do otherwise. Even then, remember yesterday’s note: don’t judge people by their mistakes. Jaggers is your classic happy-go-lucky dog. He’s not scared of anyone until they give him a reason to be. He approaches...

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The Good Stuff

9 Jan, 2016

Making Mistakes

Today’s positive thought is evidence of the fact that the positive thoughts you’ll be reading here this year are not (and were never meant to be) revolutionary, original, or particularly clever. They’re quite the opposite: they’re little things. Things that are common sense for many people. Things of which most of us only have to remind ourselves occasionally. They’re things that apply to me that very day. Today’s note is one of those, but it’s something I have struggled with my entire life, and as I wrote this first note of the year, I realised it’s also something that is...

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The Good Stuff

9 Jan, 2016

The Good Stuff: A Year In Positive Thoughts

I have never made New Year’s resolutions, but yesterday I decided that there was one to which it was worth committing. As of today, I am keeping a diary of positive thoughts. Every day, I’ll handwrite one positive note. About myself, about something I’ve realised, or about something for which I’m grateful. It may be a very general thought, or it may be very specific and personal. It may be about something I’ve long felt is one of my strengths, or it could be a positive take on something with which I have struggled in the past and continue...

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Widget

16 Aug, 2017

I’m Senior Lecturer in English Literature & Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and a BBC New Generation Thinker. I specialise in literary and cultural histories of women, gender, and feminism in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present day, women’s writing, and widowhood. I also provide support, training, and development for postgraduate and early-career researchers.

  • I’m Senior Lecturer in English Literature & Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and a BBC New Generation Thinker. I specialise in literary and cultural histories of women, gender, and feminism in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present day, women’s writing, and widowhood. I also provide support, training, and development for postgraduate and early-career researchers.

Guides to Academia

  • 3 Things You Should Do Before Your Academic Job Interview

    Researching your prospective employer is key to any good job application and interview. I’ve collated three key tips that will give you the edge over those who simply stick to departmental websites.

  • Someone’s Doing My PhD!

    This post is a brief reflection on how to deal with the fact that you might not be the only one working on “your” topic.

  • Academic Juggling: PhD vs CV

    Some of the most common questions with which PhD researchers are concerned focus on how they should set their priorities during their doctoral studies. What else, and how much of it, should you do next to researching and writing your thesis? As so often, I can’t answer this for all PhD students in all disciplines, but I wanted to try and give you an overview of some useful starting points if you’re hoping to prepare yourself for the academic job market during your doctoral studies rather than after, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. So some of...

  • We Regret to Inform You: On Interview Feedback

    Interview feedback is difficult to approach, both giving and receiving. As someone who has more often been on the receiving end, I’ve found directly helpful feedback to be the exception rather than the rule. So, this post is about how to interpret feedback which might not tell you as much as you want. For me, there are three phases to thinking about the interview after the event.   1.  Be honest with yourself When you come out of the interview, after you’ve taken a few deep breaths / had a shower / got home and had a stiff...

  • The Twilight Zone: After the PhD, Before the Academic Job

    You’re close to submitting your PhD, to passing your viva voce examination with flying colours, and to be awarded your doctorate. At various stages in these final months of your existence as a PhD student certain scary thoughts – of the practical kind – enter your mind repeatedly and persistently. When will my university email account be closed? Should I be emailing academic colleagues from my embarrassingly named non-institutional email account? How will I keep researching and writing without physical or online access to my university library and its resources? How will I stand a chance on the...

Musings

  • I Went On Woman’s Hour, But Where Did My She-Hulk Go?!

    On 11 November 2016, Mary Moreland and I launched the Heritage Lottery Funded project War Widows’ Stories live on Woman’s Hour. We were given eight star-struck minutes with BBC Radio 4’s Jenni Murray, and you can listen to the result on BBC iPlayer. It’s needless to say I was so excited about being able to do this. It meant our project was given national coverage on Armistice Day, a time when the nation is focused on remembrance of the dead, but often forgets about our duty to take care of those who survive conflict, including veterans and families. From...

  • [Commentary] Thoughts, Fears, & Brexit

    I was invited to write this piece for the Times Higher Education blog, where it was originally published on 26 June 2016 under the title “‘I’m scared’: German academic in the UK on the Brexit vote”. You can read the original post here, and it is reproduced word for word, without alterations, below.  I am an immigrant. Moving to the UK was a dream of mine ever since I can remember. England was, after all, home to bands like The Clash and The Vibrators, and this was as good a reason as any for a teenager to determine that her...

  • How Do I Look? When Fear Interferes

    This week I got to be in my first ever film: a four-minute epic about Victorian widows, made for BBC Arts as part of the AHRC/ BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers scheme …

  • AHRC/ BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers

    I had been meaning to apply for the AHRC/ BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers initiative for a couple of years now, and last December I finally decided to take the time and fill in the application form. I proposed a programme on the history of widows in Britain, and explained the wider relevance of my research on this topic. The final section required applicants to write a review of a recent play, film, or book unrelated to their research that could be read on air. I offered a discussion of Maxine Peake’s play “Beryl” (2014), something which relates to...

  • Keep Calm & Take Time Off: Being Ill at Work

    When you’re ill, do you keep calm and carry on, or do you keep calm and take time off? I’ve just come to the end of two weeks sick leave. Shingles seriously knocked me out, even though I noticed it and got anti-viral medication on the very first day the rash appeared. It was the first time in my life that I’ve had to take sick leave for more than a day, and this, alongside my line manager’s kind encouragement to not come back until I was definitely better and pain-free, got me thinking. How many days had I spent...

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