My year-long sabbatical is over — a wonderful opportunity to change up my working pace and dive into some projects, though not always the break some might think it is! Among the highlights: presenting and partnering with PodSummit; working with Ashley King, Inside Out and Chromatic Theatre to produce the (award-winning and chart-topping!) Static: A Party Girl’s Memoir; completing the draft of my PhD thesis; and achieving perfection on Stardew Valley.
At the top of the list was getting to spend a month in the U.K., working on my thesis in Glasgow and meeting with brilliant podcast and audio scholars in Sunderland. I was also able to take part in a civic engagement residency through the Bothy Project and the Thinking Culture programme at the University of Glasgow, spending a week on the Isle of Eigg off the west coast of Scotland. This is an area that most Scots haven’t travelled to, and I was so lucky to be able to explore the island and learn about its history and culture while staying in a gorgeous off-grid bothy with a view I still dream of! I also had a great time doing two podcasting workshops with some of Eigg’s residents. I wrote a reflection of my time on Eigg for the Thinking Culture blog — you can find it here.
Looking forward to being back in the classroom this year, and building a new research team with Kyle Napier to support a grant from Braiding Knowledges Canada.
Journalist, professor and podcaster