Updated August 2021
Well, we made it through the Spring semester and now we are looking towards the next academic year.
I've completed two book chapters this year so far: one on Ernst Toller, a fascinating German playwright for our forthcoming Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre (we - Adrian Curtin, Nicholas Johnson, Naomi Paxton and I - recently signed the contract with Edinburgh UP for this massive volume), and one on circus, wrestling and the avant-garde (for a fabulous new Routledge book entitled Circus and the Avant-Gardes edited by Anne-Sophie Jurgens and Mirjam Hildbrand). Conor Heffernan and I recently submitted our paper on bodybuilding and performativity. We watched a lot of of terrible/amazing World Bodybuilding Federation shows and promos in preparation for this. In all these projects I have been particularly enjoying collaborative writing. It is super to work with such generous and inspiring colleagues.
We (me, Dominic Malcolm, Anthony Papathomas, and Sam West) are excitedly working on our British Academy-funded project 'Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling'. We have come to the end of the interview phase and now look forward to working our way through the mounds of data as we create a website and write three journal articles. We'll be extending the conversation with a Wrestling Resurgence event in November (back at Attenborough Arts Centre, all being well). Sam and I are writing an article on risk. This will also form the basis for my keynote at the British Society for Sports History conference in London in August - my first in person conference in as long as I can remember. Even more ambitiously, my colleagues and I are planning a roundtable on Modernism and Mass Spectacle for the Modernist Studies Conference in Chicago in November. What a joyous thought to imagine sharing research and (hopefully) pizzas with my modernist friends!
Mostly this summer I am working on three things: a new project on strongmen and strongwomen with some amazing collaborators, a fellowship application to the British Academy, and a small golden retriever puppy (nearly three months old) called Jackson who (once fully trained in archival work...and other things) will be my new research assistant. Having recently become Professor of Performance and Physical Culture at Loughborough University (much to my shock and excitement), I am also taking a bit of time out to really think about the sort of professor I want to be.
As I continue to work with our students, fulfil a number of leadership roles within our School, and just try to be a supportive colleague, I am inspired by Maya Angelou's advice: "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud". May we be rainbows in people's clouds this year...
Well, we made it through the Spring semester and now we are looking towards the next academic year.
I've completed two book chapters this year so far: one on Ernst Toller, a fascinating German playwright for our forthcoming Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre (we - Adrian Curtin, Nicholas Johnson, Naomi Paxton and I - recently signed the contract with Edinburgh UP for this massive volume), and one on circus, wrestling and the avant-garde (for a fabulous new Routledge book entitled Circus and the Avant-Gardes edited by Anne-Sophie Jurgens and Mirjam Hildbrand). Conor Heffernan and I recently submitted our paper on bodybuilding and performativity. We watched a lot of of terrible/amazing World Bodybuilding Federation shows and promos in preparation for this. In all these projects I have been particularly enjoying collaborative writing. It is super to work with such generous and inspiring colleagues.
We (me, Dominic Malcolm, Anthony Papathomas, and Sam West) are excitedly working on our British Academy-funded project 'Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling'. We have come to the end of the interview phase and now look forward to working our way through the mounds of data as we create a website and write three journal articles. We'll be extending the conversation with a Wrestling Resurgence event in November (back at Attenborough Arts Centre, all being well). Sam and I are writing an article on risk. This will also form the basis for my keynote at the British Society for Sports History conference in London in August - my first in person conference in as long as I can remember. Even more ambitiously, my colleagues and I are planning a roundtable on Modernism and Mass Spectacle for the Modernist Studies Conference in Chicago in November. What a joyous thought to imagine sharing research and (hopefully) pizzas with my modernist friends!
Mostly this summer I am working on three things: a new project on strongmen and strongwomen with some amazing collaborators, a fellowship application to the British Academy, and a small golden retriever puppy (nearly three months old) called Jackson who (once fully trained in archival work...and other things) will be my new research assistant. Having recently become Professor of Performance and Physical Culture at Loughborough University (much to my shock and excitement), I am also taking a bit of time out to really think about the sort of professor I want to be.
As I continue to work with our students, fulfil a number of leadership roles within our School, and just try to be a supportive colleague, I am inspired by Maya Angelou's advice: "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud". May we be rainbows in people's clouds this year...
