So… this happened! Yes, I managed to complete the course in time, despite having a week off in the middle, and despite becoming increasingly cross with having to use the online discussion forums in order to do it. In the end I just sat down, read the material, wrote my answers as mini essays, and then just copied and pasted them into the correct thread. Much less stressful than framing them as responses to other people, and I went back and contributed to some of the ongoing discussions after I’d submitted what I wanted to say.
I was going to share my essays here, but I’d have to go back and add some context for, well, everyone who hasn’t read the background course material and needs a bit more information. Would you like that? Shall I?
I mean, don’t say yes if you’re not the slightest bit interested in Ancient Greek herbal remedies or Renaissance anatomical textbooks… but I’m happy to pop the essays up here if you’d like to read them.
Also this week… we went to the Museum of English Rural Life for their FOLK: Late event. We didn’t just go for the silent disco (note the glowing headphones) and to practice our sparring techniques with balloon swords… although we clearly enjoyed doing that!
I wanted to take the opportunity to chat to Dr Hannah Newton about postgraduate study in the History department, and to see a version of her “Sickly Smells and Putrid Potions” talk. That was good fun, and I’m currently reading her book “From Misery to Mirth”, which is about the experience of recovery from illness in the seventeenth century. It’s available from Oxford University Press as a free Open Access eBook, which is very rare in academic publishing, so I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to download the entire book.
I also chatted with Dr Caroline Oates of the Folklore Society, and Dr Rhianned Smith, Director of the Heritage & Creativity Institute and Director of UMASCS Academic Learning and Engagement – and who I used to work with at MERL. I now have recommendations for lots of other folks to speak to at the University… but the difficulty there is that every person I speak to recommends a different way in and suggests a different approach to the subject. This is having the effect of making me so confused that I can barely remember what I wanted to research in the first place, let alone why!
So.
There are five-and-a-bit weeks until the end of the year. (argh!)
I have a couple of bits of sewing to do for eternal magpie, and the online shop sale to organise.
I think I’m going to spend the rest of the year (!!) just reading, and thinking, and trying to figure out what I’m actually going to try and do in terms of Looking Stuff Up and Writing Stuff Down. I thought I’d done that in the first place, but… well. You know me.