This warm summer has been focused on a load of bits and pieces: finishing things off, handing over some responsibilities, and thinking about new paths. One of the drivers for my new thinking has been participation in the Women's Leadership Development Programme from the University of Oxford. This is a 6-week intensive online programme to really help you think through the challenges of leadership through three ideas: self-acceptance, self-management and self-development. It might seem like all this is a bit insular, but actually it is about learning to lead better: to listen more, to make decisions, to have tricky conversations, to create encouraging communities. The course has been excellent and has forced me back into writing assignments again (I now remember what it is really like to be a student!). It is now time to consider all I have learnt and begin to put it into practice.
This feels like a transition period in many ways. Last year, my first year as a professor, was so full of 'things' that I didn't have chance to really think over what sort of professor I am going to be: what value can I truly bring? This summer and into next year provides a little more space to attend to this important question and set up some ambitious plans for the future. I have also been reading Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber's The Slow Professor which is encouraging me to resist speed for the sake of it. It is a very interesting book if you haven't investigated it. 

One of the strange things that happens when you (a bit unexpectedly) become a Professor is that you suddenly feel a bit at sea. What difference does this shift make to daily life, to one's role in the University and beyond, to one's plans for the future? What does it really mean to be a Professor in the twenty-first century, in uncertain times, in the face of unprecedented global challenges? I have yet to answer these questions but this Spring I am committing time to at least considering them. To prepare myself for this period of reflection I have been swiftly trying to tick things off. I've then taken a proper holiday in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside with family and my sweet golden retriever puppy Jackson (who is now, unbelievably, 8 months old). And now I am back, spending time finding new inspirations, planning new collaborations, and reimagining the next steps I want to take. It is all quite exciting really.

Most recently I have been inspired by such diverse things. Our November Wrestling Resurgence show (which you can find on our YouTube channel) took our most overtly theatrical approach yet. To see the wrestlers back in the ring, working together and creating such dynamic stories was so exciting. I've been reading some wonderful books about such different topics as US politics, therapy dogs and the importance of rest. I love watching Jackson get excited about such everyday things like meeting a friend or catching a feather. So the first step is finding joy in the small things, something that should not be lost as the focus shifts to the future, to strategic vision, to plans and schedules. 

So, the next few months are pretty exciting really. As the bulbs begin to emerge, the days get warmer, and Jackson finally learns not to dive on people by way of greeting (I am being a bit optimistic about this last one!) I am hoping to draft a clear plan for the Professor I am becoming.

I am delighted/overwhelmed to have been made Professor of Performance and Physical Culture at Loughborough University. The promotion process was so wonderfully positive and supportive. I felt entirely surrounded by people on my side, even through the rigours of the system. I could not be more grateful to my family, friends, colleagues and collaborators. I commit to being the sort of professor that I promised myself I would be when I got my first academic job; so if I can be of any help to you, especially if you are feeling in a precarious position/don't know the next step/feel excluded in any way from academia, then please don't hesitate to contact me.

Over the past few months, Sam and I have had some wonderful conversations with wrestlers, academics and creatives as part of the Grappling Arts podcast. We have discussed such a wide range of topics: wrestling and physical culture, how we can reimagine wrestling as a form of feminist resistance, local and global cultures of wrestling, and much, much more. Do check out the new episodes if this interests you. Coming soon will be a recording of our roundtable on Collaborative Touch (with Tom Dawkins, Claire Heafford, Dominic Malcolm, Gareth McNarry and me) which we presented as part of the LU Arts Interface Festival this month, and an episode with wonderful performance maker Heather Bandenburg.

Today we launched the Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling project website. We are delighted with the look of it and hope to be regularly updating this website to document our findings, next steps and making the outputs available to the general public. This project, funded by the British Academy, aims to conduct a supportive healthcheck of British professional wrestling. We have now completed the interview phase and are working through all the mounds of data we have gathered over the past four months. We are really excited to share the outcomes of this project. Do keep an eye on the website if you want to know more:  wrestling-research.lboro.ac.uk/

Wow, it has been a crazy busy semester so far. There are just so many areas demanding my attention (similar to everyone, I imagine!). But, in the off times, Sam and I have recorded a couple more editions of The Grappling Arts which you can find here. We are really delighted by this podcast and the way it has come together: we have had so many lovely comments about it. Do check it out if you haven't already.

With all the busyness of the start of term, I missed a significant announcement: episode 3 of The Grappling Arts podcast is now available! We had a tremendous time talking to Jetta and Erin Angel, two fantastic veterans of the British wrestling scene. Do check it out if you fancy learning more about women's wrestling, comedy and wrestling, or the difference between coming up via the camps and learning your craft at a wrestling school. These two amazing athlete-artists were so generous in their conversation. Sam and I are delighted to share it with you. Here is a link.

And, while I am here, if you want to know a little more about our new Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling project then Loughborough University put out a press release (thanks to our PR guru Pete for putting this together for us!).

Last November a group of twelve medics/academics/wrestlers met for lunch at the Elite Athlete Centre at Loughborough University. The aim was to have a day-long conversation about some of the main challenges and opportunities for wrestler health and wellbeing. We discussed a range of topics, from the strains placed on mental health to concussion protocol (or lack thereof). It was a fascinating conversation and we left feeling that a larger project that really dug into these issues would be not just interesting but vital. Since then we have committed to applying for external grants to fund this work. And, this week, I can make the happy announcement that the team (that is me, Prof Mark King, Dr Anthony Papathomas, Dr Dominic Malcolm and Sam West) has secured a British Academy Small Grant. We are, as you might imagine, delighted with this outcome, especially in such a competitive funding landscape. For the British Academy to be forward-thinking enough to see this project as worthy of its money is a big deal. So, watch this space (and, in the long run, hopefully, actual physical spaces) for more as 2020 moves into 2021.

A few weeks ago (actually before the revelations of the #SpeakingOut movement) I had the pleasure of chatting to Dr Andy Kesson, the host of the 'A Bit Lit' YouTube channel about all sorts of interesting things. I am still thinking about our conversation, particularly, the way that my work combines thinking and doing, and the way wrestling compels us to think in a different way about touch (a vital inquiry in our COVID-19 world when we literally cannot touch). I talk a bit about how we can move from snarky, standoffish wrestling research to something more holistic, engaged and risky. We touch on the relationship between the live and the mediated, and arguments about class, taste and violence. And we, of course, talk about Trump and the way we can read his rise to power through the excessive theatricality of wrestling.

It was joyful to speak to Andy. This film is part of a week of wrestling-related scholarship and practice on 'A Bit Lit'. These films (and indeed all the films this project has produced during lockdown) are really awesome and I would thoroughly recommend them.