Record Card Why Did We All Have the Same Childhood? by Julie Beck: an article in The Atlantic focussing on the folklore of childhood, and the development of “rituals, traditions, games, and legends.” Notes Some interesting observations, reminiscent of the writing of Alan Dundes. One of the things I most appreciated was that the author …
Stromness Hometown
Record Card Stromness Hometown: an audio journey through the streets of Stromness, recorded as a Stromness Museum community project in 2012 for walking tours of the town, and made available more widely digitally ten years later. The brief core episodes are: Introduction, South Pier, Pierhead, Pier Arts Centre, Commercial Hotel, Graham Place, Hellihole Road, Stromness …
Mapping Points of Interest Underneath the Harlem Moon
Record Card Mapping “Points of Interest Underneath the Harlem Moon” by Carissa Pastuch: detailing a pictorial night-club map of Harlem by Elmer Simms Campbell, printed in Manhattan: A Weekly for Wakeful New Yorkers in 1933. Notes I absolutely love this map – the content, the design, everything. I’ve always appreciated this style of map in …
Learning from the Folklore of Higher Education
My original presentation upon which this and the previous four posts have been based began with an introduction to my own academic, personal, and professional background, and ended by drawing together some of the key themes discussed with reference to these introductory facts. Much of that wouldn’t have translated well to a blog post format …
The Need for Cohesive Educational Communities
The concept of a ‘cohesive educational community’ couldn’t sound more of a painful soundbite if it tried, but when I started to think about what I wanted to discuss in terms of an all-staff-all-student community, it was one of the better phrases I came up with (believe it or not). It’s more than a little …
Challenges for Professional Services Staff: Resilience
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” (Terry Pratchett) Working in a Professional Services role can be, amongst many other things, incredibly rewarding. The Higher Education sector is filled with many challenges, but that does not (always) detract from the positive aspects of a job well done and overcoming the latest challenges …