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April 2012

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Currently enjoying writing a conference paper on Pynchon, Adorno and Quasi-Idealism for @TransformConf.

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Pynchon in Public Day 2012: our meetup details

Following the success of last year's Pynchon in Public Day, this May 8th will play host to further celebrations of perhaps the world's greatest living author: Thomas Pynchon. I know that there are plans afoot in Munich and New York, but wanted to announce that a Brighton contingent will be meeting…

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Planning an exciting seminar on Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. This si going to be a v. good one!

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Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar now kicking off. Re-appraising Amis' "Money" after the crash.

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Blog comment abuse now getting beyond the level with which I am happy. Considering just disabling comments.

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Sounds like there was an interesting @GdnHigherEd livechat on soc media & HE. I'm too thesis-obsessed to be that meta today.

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For my #phdchat "photograph your workspace" entry, I'm afraid it's against the rules to take pictures in the British Library Reading Rooms!

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For those interested in late Foucault & ethics, I heartily recommend O’Leary, Timothy. Foucault: The Art of Ethics. London: Continuum, 2002.

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My friend has just arranged to submit her thesis on the same day as me. Submission, ok. Viva on same day, no way in case of diff outcomes!

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“@tomwaitsripoff “@amateuradam You see "Avengers Assemble" - I see a crossword clue for "engraves"””

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Go Metro! Congrats on finding only case of company "desperate for staff", alongside "news" that Kate Middleton wears a grey t-shirt.

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Ploughing through more Orbit typesetting with the new French electro of Mr. Oizo, Stade 3 EP, powering me.

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Somewhat perplexed by decision not to refer Bamber case. New evidence sounded highly credible.

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OK, if you were to do a film from a board game, this would have been *such* a better choice than Battleships.

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My undergrads are getting a timed essay today, then I'm having dinner w supervisor & fam to celebrate Ph.D. submission readiness. #goodday

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Interesting how unsustainable library budget is cited as reason for OA, but little critique of whether author-pays fixes this...

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I disagree with almost everything @LouiseMensch says and does, but very pleased she's handing over tweets abusing rape survivor to police

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“@HallyMk1 Couldn't care less about St George's Day. Couldn't care less about being English. #protectthehuman”

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Damn. As Sesame Street sez, looks like my teaching this week will be brought to you by the letters L.E.M.S.I. and P.

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Very excited to see Leftfield tonight! However, they're not on until 1am. This time is so late, in my world, that it doesn't even exist.

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Utterly fed-up with TweetDeck/TweakDeck crashing on my Android devices, I've switched to Plume. So far, v. impressed. #meta

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(Semi-) fiendish practice exam set for next week's teaching. I've forewarned them of this, so wonder what attendance will be like!

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By the way: roundtable on multi-author blogs in academia: @cemathieson, @jimmussell, @Dr_K_FenbyHulse & @martin_eve (me!) at @TransformConf

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Having a mega "get stuff done" day. Journal article submitted, loads of admin shifted, now on to teaching preparation!

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“@afrayn So, who's selling out and applying to convene the English degree at New College of the Humanities, then?” < my thoughts entirely

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The worst typos are those that are words in their own right. Scholar called "Monson" I'd mistyped as "Monsoon". #phdchat

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Checking through my Beckett references today. Remember: "Said is missaid. Whenever said said said missaid."

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Allow me to whine about how *utterly* unaffordable conferences are as postgrads. I'm speaking and it's still outrageous. #phdchat

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Experience @naomi_jacobs describes was also mine. Mendeley not so good for Hums/SS? Admittedly, I haven't tried a v recent version #phdchat

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Problem for Mendeley/Zotero/Endnote is, in big project, no interoperability. Can't easily switch. Should standardize. #phdchat

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I've used Zotero for whole thesis and it's been great. Use ZotFile extension for even more goodness! #phdchat

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Have just implemented over 200 pages of proofreading suggestions into thesis. Headache. #phdchat

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For some reason, she hasn't underlined my sneaky reference to the Linux kernel with such enthusiasm...

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My note on sources for Pynchon's fictional rabbits in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas earned proofer's comment: "best footnote *ever*" #phdchat

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Teachers are not childcare. Teachers are paid relatively badly. Teachers' salaries aren't boosted by anti-truancy fines.

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Most appreciated proofreading comment from a friend on my thesis: "apologies for aubergine fingers" next to a green smudge.

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Incensed by the Microsoft sponsored tent on our campus. We need a counter, open-source tent opposite.

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On my way down to lovely Sussex to give the first years a lecture on David Lynch and horror.

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Have now two truly stunning archival/textual history articles on Pynchon for Orbit 1.1! Getting excited for launch!

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Know I've been scathing about tablets before, but is good for reading PDFs, watching iPlayer, emails and Guardian crossword app.

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In other news, I succumbed. Bought a "bricked" Motorola Xoom on Ebay. Had it up and running in 5 mins.

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Drank no tea yesterday in an effort to suppress methotrexate sickness. Woke at 5am with massive headache!

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. @GdnHigherEd do we *have* to term it "academic spring"? Does seem to somewhat trivialise real world suffering. "Higher Ed holocaust" next

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Currently annotating, and enjoying, Frank O'Hara's "Lunch Poems" for teaching next week.

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Starting a Digital Humanities Project: epiLog

As part of a transparent development process, I wanted to announce that I'm starting, thanks to some funding and support from a colleague at Sussex, a Digital Humanities project that focuses upon object annotation and cross-medium comparison. The project is called epiLog and will be available…

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Yes! Booked to see Omid Djalili in Orton's What the Butler Saw - one of my favourite plays!

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Q for media: do we have to have a suffix for each event type? Scandal-gate and Revolutionary-spring.

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Fun Foucault fact: his college de France lectures were so popular that 2 halls were needed w/ voice relay. Capacity of 300 each, but had 500

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Unison 2.40 seems not to play nicely with symlink setups; have had to reconfigure replicas to point to absolute mountpoint.

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Thanks to @yorgos_maragos, @epiktistes, @DrDaveOBrien & @thoughtcat for transliterations/suggestions. Foucault's anakhoresis = ἀναχώρησις

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Dear classicists! Foucault uses the term "anakhoresis" for withdrawal. Can anybody tell me the non-transliterated Greek, please? @lizgloyn

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My Easter Sunday has combined many of my fave things. Chocolate, late Foucault, Jonathan Creek, Thomas Pynchon. Now for some exercise!

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Perhaps you don't agree with the interruption of the boat race, but a criminal charge? For swimming in front of some boats? Absurd.

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Remember writing to my MP Lynne Featherstone 4+ years ago re. #freegary. The man has had enough punishment in the waiting alone.

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Contemplating applying for a conference in the same week as my viva. Madness or a welcome distraction? #phdchat

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Just for the record: I've never pulled an "all nighter"; I just get up in good time and work all day! @lizith @yorgos_maragos

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Really impressed with Ubuntu 12.04. So much so that I was disappointed: I *expected* breakage on a beta upgrade. Experienced none.

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Those interested in digital humanities and disability studies: @briancroxall is live-tweeting some interesting stuff from #EmoryDISC

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Taking the plunge and updating to Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2. Easter Weekend is a good time for breakage.

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Academic conference asking for me to submit my card details by email. Sure that invalidates my bank's fraud protection. :/

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Does acceptance of surveillance stem from cultural memory of Nazism fading? Seem to be overly-confident that lib. democracy is permanent.

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New York Times writes about my Ph.D. thesis work!

On the train back from Glasgow last week, I finished writing a piece for 3:AM Magazine that sums up part of my Ph.D. thesis work, which I intend to submit in June this year. With apologies for a self-promotional post (although I think of it as "self-archiving"), I was thrilled to find this morning…

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UKSG Conference: photos and slides

Last week I attended, and presented a keynote in the opening plenary at, my first academic publishing conference: the UK Serials Group conference. As I'm usually confined to English Literature, this was a bizarre experience; they put me up in a hotel, the conference meal was included free with…

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Being trolled by someone from University of Edinburgh in blog comments. She seems not to realize that I don't have to approve them.

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I am joining the OAPEN-UK, Open Access Monograph, Steering Group

I'm delighted to announce that I am joining the OAPEN-UK Steering Group, a great JISC project that is gathering evidence for the viability of Open Access monograph publication in the Humanities and Social Sciences. From their website: OAPEN-UK is a collaborative research project gathering evidence…

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Think that universities having some say in A-Levels could be a good thing - many UGs poorly served - but wary of incursion on uni autonomy.

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Lib Dems threatening to revolt over snooping plans: nobody cares any more. Your party is finished by three words: tuition fees, NHS.

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Snatching a sneaky 15 min listen to new Orbital album while the dinner's on. More impressed, so far, by live version of "Satan" on disc 2

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My day as a Higher Ed researcher

A growing criticism mounted by students/parents of students is the trite argument that there are too few contact hours. Anybody who works as a researcher/lecturer/tutor can demolish this argument in two seconds flat, but the problem now seems to be extending to HR managers, who apparently think…

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Very nice of the university to email to let me know who my supervisors are. Two months before Ph.D. submission.

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I am planning to do my #dayofhighered thing in a blog tonight, by the way, rather than tweeting.

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Should I take seriously a book that has already got a character name, and the initial publication date of V., wrong?

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Spent much of today typesetting for Orbit 1.1. Now beginning work on the preface :)