Category: Exeter
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Digitising the Exeter Book
Between start-of-year meetings with supervisors, the arrival of the freshers, and the rush to finalize conference paper proposals, it’s been a busy first few weeks back in Exeter. In the midst of all of this, though, I’ve also had one amazing opportunity that really deserves a blog post all to itself. I’ve mentioned before on this…
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Reflections from the Ruddigorchestra
My audition for Ruddigore got off to a rather inauspicious start. Having left my own trumpet in Reading, and borrowed one from the instrument store, I swiftly discovered that the valve-oil that came with the rather battered trumpet I was using had something of a predilection for spending more time on my face and hands than…
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Extra-curricular activities, or ‘doing things that aren’t the PhD’
During my first week as an undergraduate, we were all packed into a hall and spoken to by various people in various positions of authority. Most of what was discussed that day has long faded from my memory, whether through lack of necessity or as a consequence of my brain’s sieve-like tendencies, but one piece…
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Office space
Last year, while I was working in France, I had the privilege of having an office. This was the first time that I’d ever really had that kind of resource available to me, and I certainly didn’t hesitate to make full use of it. There’s something reassuring about having a space on campus that is…
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Real-life meetings and digital humanities
It’s been, as usual, a busy few weeks here in Exeter, as things start to settle down in PGR-land. I’m writing this just after my third supervisor’s meeting, which went rather well: having produced a 3,000-word ‘way in’ to my thesis, my focus is now on entering the longer ‘background-reading-and-ruminating’ stage. Of course, I’ll still…
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Responsible adult supervision
It’s been three weeks since the start of the PhD, and things are starting to come together. The disparate mental maps I have of different parts of town are starting to coalesce together into a coherent whole; I’ve found a pleasant spot in which to work (surely the subject of a future post!); and, perhaps…
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Inductions and introductions
At long last, the start of term has arrived, and with it has come the inevitable volley of meetings, talks and Q&A sessions that characterizes the start of any new academic enterprise. Thursday was ‘induction day’, when our ever-so-slightly-nervous cohort of new PGR (postgraduate research) students from all disciplines filed into the Alumni Auditorium to meet…
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Learning / teaching
The arrival of the Freshers over the weekend has certainly brought some life back to the Streatham campus here at Exeter. As I’ve said several times over the past few days, this year is technically my fifth ‘Fresher’s Week’, so I’m used to the noise and commotion as every single one of the university societies…
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An actual PhD update
Today’s post marks a new low for this blog: I’ve managed to craft something that’s (a) shorter than the usual fare, and (b) entirely unrelated to the topic that I promised to discuss last week, the term ‘Anglo-Norman’. This second topic is still forthcoming, but in the meantime I figured that it would be a…
Edward Mills 