Hello there! It seems like time to have some announcement of a new session. I hope things have been going well during the time since the last "real" session wound up (and thanks to Susan for doing the intersession posts). The end of my term seemed like a mad scramble, and I dropped some small balls like sending congratulatory e-mails to students who won awards, but all the big stuff got done (so far as I can tell . . .) and I've just attended graduation.
JaneB and I both offered to host for the summer, but we've had no further discussion of whether we're sharing or what. That's one reason to have a Week Zero. Another is that you may just be finishing up a term, or not yet done, or have done so a few weeks ago and be on holiday; one way or another, you might want some time to think about goals for the next session, rather than starting right in.
I'm thinking of a cooking/recipe theme for this session, both literal and metaphorical. On the metaphorical level, at Week Zero we don't even have a meal plan, just a mass of ingredients: staples in the cupboards, stuff in the fridge that needs to be used up, some bags of groceries that someone else shopped for, through which we're searching for what we need and finding various things we didn't put on the list ourselves.
So, stop by in the comments to introduce yourselves and give us some idea of the ingredients you're working with this time. Next week we can think about the actual meals we need to produce/goals for the next few months! Right now, it's just "What's on your plate?" or "Oh dear, here's this Jerusalem artichoke I'm going to have to do something with." Feel free also to make suggestions about how long this session should run, though I'm thinking of winding up around mid-August.
Newbies or returners very welcome! Come hang around the kitchen and have a drink while we take inventory of the ingredients.
Very happy to start a session next week. I could do with getting back to regular goal setting. Love the idea of a cooking and recipes theme, hoping for some inspiration for literal as well as metaphorical recipes. I enjoy cooking, but every week I feel I run out of ideas for meals. I also love it when I find a recipe that uses up random ingredients I happen to have in the fridge. Reading this post is timely, as I just came upstairs from planning meals and writing my shopping list for the week!
ReplyDeleteMetaphorically, this also works for me as I'm a bit in limbo waiting to hear about the grant (not until July), and also have various smaller projects I said yes to over the last months, so I need to figure out what to tackle and when. A combination of recipes I really want to try and others where I'm not sure where to start!
In the meantime, although we're not formally setting goals, this week will involve marking for me, as we voted on Thursday not to have a marking and assessment boycott after all. It was an acrimonious meeting and, while I didn't hold out much hope of success, it seems a tactical error to announce one and then row back on it. There may be more strike action instead, but it will be two weeks before that can happen.
Aside from the marking, I have gardening projects and daughter's birthday to sort out this week. It is beautiful weather here at the moment - hope it's good where everyone else is.
Hi! That's a fun idea for a theme. Happy to co-lead or to lead the final session, whatever works. We're done teaching now but still in heavy marking/administration season (not that it ever really stops around here, sigh). I've booked most of my annual leave for the summer - because of all the meetings (we merge with another department at the start of August) and because of graduate students writing up and because I'm creaky and not planning on going anywhere "exciting", I'm using a chunk of leave to take a lot of long weekends rather than just blocks of time off - hoping that will help me refind some energy and enthusiasm by the Autumn, when we need to be ready to do our best for students with fewer people and more challenges.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice and sunny at the moment - cherry blossom is done, and this week seems to have been the peak of the May around here (great outpourings of foamy white blossom all over the hedges all the way to work) - but it's been a terribly dry spring and little sign of it improving, which is bad for crops and wildlife and my climate anxiety (that the more pessimistic forecasts are the accurate ones). At least it's still cool at night!
This week is marking, catching up on commenting on other people's drafts, and preparing for some meetings the following week.
I'm happy to take the summer on my own and leave the next one to you---but it would be great if you could step in for the last 2 weeks of June (the 22nd and 29th, if posts usually go up on Sunday), which bookend a conference and travel for me.
DeleteAnother thing that can happen with both food and work projects is that we have a glut of something and have to put it in the freezer, or sneak it into neighbors' cars, or something! I'm thinking about all my set-aside research projects and dying to work on all of them at once, but I fear several of them are going to have to remain in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteI have work to plan for a summer TA, fall classes to plan, a couple of courses to propose to the committee that approves such things (one taught as a Topics course, one not taught at all but it will make a couple of people's lives easier if I can get a number for it), notes from a class last fall that I still want to type up so I'll have them when I teach the course again.
Then there is all the Life Stuff, some of it fun stuff or solvable by throwing money at it, some of it tedious and annoying.
During the coming week I'll make some lists and figure out what I most need to spend time on until August.
Introduction: I'm, let's say, a well-established scholar, meaning I'm old enough to retire but don't want to; I'm both full and, recently, Distinguished, so there's not much to strive for in the way of external markers. But I love my research and enjoy teaching, so I want to keep going while I'm having a good time. I have a husband, 3 cats, a house and large yard (as we say in the US: I wish it were a garden but it's not really fancy enough to deserve the term); I live in the midwest, a long way from the coast where I grew up, and I think I've finally made my peace with that. But I still think about "place" a lot.
DeleteI like the "putting things in the freezer" metaphor. I rediscovered a few of those while updating the "in progress" part of my c.v. for my annual report. Since I doubt anyone will read the c.v., I left them alone for the present, but at some point I need to clean out the freezer, or at least transfer some things to the one in the basement/garage that guests (aka cv readers) don't see.
DeleteOh, food and recipes! I have three more weeks at My Favorite Library before heading home, and then two weeks there before heading to the UK for research and some holiday... In both work and life terms, I'm currently at the phase of trying to finish up stuff I have in my cupboards. That will mean finishing revisions to Famous Author, (I hope) writing a response to a book, and various other things. But I'm eager to start planning some new meals with research over the summer.
ReplyDeleteLater this week I will drive up to my home institution for graduation, where I will hood my last Ph.D. and say goodbye to a colleague who is moving to a new university.
Oh, and as for introductions: I am a senior professor in the humanities at a US institution. I've been on leave at a beautiful library this past year, and will return home for my last year of teaching before retirement. I am at the end point of two projects that have loomed over me for the last 4-5 years. One I call Big Collaboration, an edited collection with 30 contributors that is part of a 5 volume project. I think it's about to go into production, but the general editor is in charge of that. The second is what I call Famous Author, which will be published as a trade book next spring. I'm hoping this round of revisions is the last substantial one. But there is the Rest of My Life project, with lots of sub-projects. I don't yet have a clever name for the current sub-project, but hope to figure out where it might go over the summer.
The last hooding sounds like an important, and perhaps bittersweet, milestone. Hope all goes well.
DeleteYes, introductions for anyone new. I'm an associate professor in history at a university in the north of England. As TLQ regulars will know, I have spent far too much time working on a grant application designed to hopefully restart my research and career after a long hiatus due to widowhood. That was submitted in March and I have until July to find out the outcome. If I get it, the next three years are taken care of. If I don't, I need a new plan. Outside of academia, I have two teenage children, the elder of whom will be off to university in just over a year.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed on the big grant proposal!
DeleteBest wishes, indeed, for success on the grant. That kind of suspense is hard, and makes it hard to plan.
DeleteI'm Cassandra, a late-career, full-time, non-tenure-track mostly-composition professor at a purple-state R1. Since it's now summer, I guess I'm no longer officially on study leave, but I was lucky enough to be on leave during the spring semester, pursuing a project that is more closely allied to my original research specialty (American lit/studies) than to my current teaching load. I'll be continuing that project during the summer, while also juggling a few other things: keeping up with self-care, including exercise and some recreation, trying to catch up with maintenance/organization in my home (apartment), and dealing with treatment for thyroid cancer (which is, thankfully, manageable, but is currently claiming more time, attention, and energy than I'd prefer). I've also got a trip to a conference (which probably falls more in the professional than the personal realm, but those are beginning to overlap a bit, which seems fine at this stage in my career) in July.
ReplyDeleteI'll probably be a bit late in returning to set formal goals, since I'm going on vacation for about a week starting tomorrow (and then have a big event to prepare for the following Saturday, which is why the vacation is mid-week to mid-week). So the goal for the next 10 days or so is to tie up a few loose ends (detailed in last week's post) and then enjoy the vacation (which will include a good deal of walking, some other maintenance/recovery exercise, and also a lot of reading, eating, and sleeping).
Sorry to hear about the cancer: even when manageable, it takes time and emotional energy at the very least.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about the cancer, too, but very glad that it's treatable. I'm glad that self-care is on your list.
DeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting us going again, and to Susan for keeping us out of trouble the last few weeks!
Love the food/cooking theme, that sounds so fun!
I'm at my giant annual conference this week and I'm utterly exhausted and there is still a day to go, then back to work for convocation and all those lovely things.
I am a mid-career physical scientist in my slightly under-resourced dream place so a great place to be. Kid in HS and cats and partner working a few timezones away but mostly from home.
Summer is going to be all about field work and students for sure! Might as well start getting ready for all that...
I hope the conference was fun as well as exhausting, that convocation goes smoothly, and that you have some R&R coming up!
DeleteHi hi! As always, I'm heu mihi, a professor of medieval literature at a northeastern US university. I have a husband (The Minister) and an almost-thirteen-year-old (Bonaventure), as well as two cats named after kings (James and Clovis; those are their real names).
ReplyDeleteI'm still wrapping up this semester, though it's nearly over, and this evening I leave for a week in Norway for a workshop (and some relaxation, I hope). I was also just hit with two deadlines: On Wednesday, I got back an article with a two-week turnaround for final revisions, AND I got the copy-edited files for my book, with a four-week turnaround. Plus I have a highly conjectural abstract due for a collection in just under two weeks. So I'm still in something of a mad scramble....
After these deadlines, though, all I really have this summer is a book review to write (after I read the book) and a new course to prep. Plus I may have to attend to my book's proofs and index at some point. I have a handful of home/life projects that I want to do, too, but these should mostly be fun!
Reeeally looking forward to this session, because this session is going to be summer...!! Thanks, DEH and JaneB, for hosting!
Have a great trip! And wow, the stuff falling on your desk is like "Hey, the cook just walked out, here are the orders from the seated tables, go!"
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