A week of bits and pieces

A week of bits and pieces

It has been a week of bits and pieces, but not odds and ends because there are distinct patterns rather than random items. First, all the re-reading and re-thinking about nationalism mentioned in some previous blogs has culminated in a lecture to a large group of Scottish Higher History students taking a specialism on South African history. They were an impressive bunch, who actually listened rather than scrawled notes, and asked interesting questions at the end; I was very admiring of them, and of the people who taught them. Second, Emilia and I have returned to and read through (by Skype) yet one more time our joint paper to be presented at the Elias conference in Brussels next week; we are delivering it as a double act, each of us doing short sections in turn. We rendezvous in Brussels early next Wednesday morning. Third, we are in process of turning a spoken version of this into a written article that can be submitted to a Journal. We ‘banked’ an earlier and quite well structured version before producing the shorter ‘to be spoken’ one, and agreed that this would be used to construct an article about the relationship between theory and method and how Elias’s theoretical injunction about pronouns set us off on a methodological journey. This is now well underway and is being passed back and forwards between us. Emilia’s turn again tomorrow. Fourth, reading about the ‘shadow state’ in South Africa continues. This has been the topic of an earlier blog and also an extended version was published on the website yesterday as an Elias essay. And fifth, a new issue of Lives & Letters has just been sent out; this has mainly been done by Emilia, but I have tweaked a few aspects. Oh yes, and sixth, I have been finishing some notes for lectures to be given on the new course I’m delivering next semester. Quite a quiet week then!

 

Last updated:  30 November 2018


ESRC_50th-ANNIVERSARY-LOGO-RGB-blue-white-gold

Recent Posts