A brief return
After being back in the UK for one week it's already time to leave again - this is a summer of nearly maximal travel, and from May through to the end of August my time at home will be a tiny fraction of the time away from home. In fact, the 8-day span that's just ending now will be my longest span at home of those four months!
But a break of this sort was needed, and there some things at work I needed to be back for as while. On Thursday I had the resit final examination for my statistics module, which provides a second chance for students who don't pass the first time around to pass the second time. (They also submit their referral coursework.) This is never an entirely encouraging point in the academic calendar, since my (supposedly) teaching-free summer is rudely interrupted by exams to attend and grade, and the students participating by definition are the worst in the class. This time around the results were particularly frustrating: most students did pretty well on the coursework, which I would ordinarily be happy with, but most of those same students performed absolutely catastrophically on the exam, making it clear that they were using AI to complete their coursework (which was allowed) and retaining absolutely no understanding when required to answer questions without that crutch. (Well, except for one student who did remarkably well, but probably cheated...)
On Friday the department "research committee" had a meeting to select candidates whose applications wished to apply for major fellowships with us. This is - in practice - our new-faculty hiring mechanism, since (for now) the university is willing to offer to convert anyone who gets one of these fellowships over to a permanent academic position after a few years. In spite of that, over the past year and a half I've been on this committee it's been pretty low stakes for me, as there were only a couple of really strong candidates for the fellowships each time anyway. But this time there were credibly four, and in effect we had to choose two to support. And two of them worked in my field, and both were people I'd be really excited to work with, so I went in ready to fight on their behalf. And I was successfully able to persuade the rest of the committee over to my side that they were in fact the best candidates, so I felt pretty good about that!
Saturday was a fun day in Manchester - a friend there (Doveux) organized an short-notice games afternoon and evening, and I spent most of the game at his place with a relatively small but agreeable crowd, including a couple of non-furries but who didn't seem to mind my extremely furry sense of humor. Since things began at 2pm I figured that would only go on until dinner, but I ended up spending the whole night and catching the last train back home at 11:30pm.
Sunday was mostly spent grading, but mid-afternoon I headed over to a local pub because a big game was on: the first knockout game of the Euro 2024 football tournament, which featured England versus Slovakia. I had staked out a pub in large part because a longtime major collaborator was coming for an academic visit of a few days and wanted to see the game herself - so I staked out a spot, and was joined by half a dozen work colleagues and (after her train from the airport arrived) by my collaborator as well. The game started off as somewhat of a downer, with Slovakia scoring early and England performing poorly in the first half. Things picked up in the second half and England played better but still could not manage as much as a shot on goal, and as the game approached its end the others in the pub had all but given up on the game (and thus the tournament) in frustration (a phenomenon most are familiar with - English underperformance in international tournaments is something of a cultural touchstone and running joke). Then, when with less than two minutes left, a player managed an incredible bicycle kick to send the ball over his head and into the net, tying the game, and then the team scored again in the extra time to pull out a win.
On Monday and Tuesday my collaborator was visiting the department properly, and I was able to use my now-ample experience organizing seminars to arrange for the full experience, including nice lunch and dinner and a presentation - which I think she really appreciated, and it was a very productive visit in general.
So, all in all a good week, and to an extent I'm a bit regretful that I'm leaving already (particularly now that the high-stakes quarter/semi/finals rounds of the Euro tournament are coming up.) But, I'll be having plenty of fun on my next trip as well!
But a break of this sort was needed, and there some things at work I needed to be back for as while. On Thursday I had the resit final examination for my statistics module, which provides a second chance for students who don't pass the first time around to pass the second time. (They also submit their referral coursework.) This is never an entirely encouraging point in the academic calendar, since my (supposedly) teaching-free summer is rudely interrupted by exams to attend and grade, and the students participating by definition are the worst in the class. This time around the results were particularly frustrating: most students did pretty well on the coursework, which I would ordinarily be happy with, but most of those same students performed absolutely catastrophically on the exam, making it clear that they were using AI to complete their coursework (which was allowed) and retaining absolutely no understanding when required to answer questions without that crutch. (Well, except for one student who did remarkably well, but probably cheated...)
On Friday the department "research committee" had a meeting to select candidates whose applications wished to apply for major fellowships with us. This is - in practice - our new-faculty hiring mechanism, since (for now) the university is willing to offer to convert anyone who gets one of these fellowships over to a permanent academic position after a few years. In spite of that, over the past year and a half I've been on this committee it's been pretty low stakes for me, as there were only a couple of really strong candidates for the fellowships each time anyway. But this time there were credibly four, and in effect we had to choose two to support. And two of them worked in my field, and both were people I'd be really excited to work with, so I went in ready to fight on their behalf. And I was successfully able to persuade the rest of the committee over to my side that they were in fact the best candidates, so I felt pretty good about that!
Saturday was a fun day in Manchester - a friend there (Doveux) organized an short-notice games afternoon and evening, and I spent most of the game at his place with a relatively small but agreeable crowd, including a couple of non-furries but who didn't seem to mind my extremely furry sense of humor. Since things began at 2pm I figured that would only go on until dinner, but I ended up spending the whole night and catching the last train back home at 11:30pm.
Sunday was mostly spent grading, but mid-afternoon I headed over to a local pub because a big game was on: the first knockout game of the Euro 2024 football tournament, which featured England versus Slovakia. I had staked out a pub in large part because a longtime major collaborator was coming for an academic visit of a few days and wanted to see the game herself - so I staked out a spot, and was joined by half a dozen work colleagues and (after her train from the airport arrived) by my collaborator as well. The game started off as somewhat of a downer, with Slovakia scoring early and England performing poorly in the first half. Things picked up in the second half and England played better but still could not manage as much as a shot on goal, and as the game approached its end the others in the pub had all but given up on the game (and thus the tournament) in frustration (a phenomenon most are familiar with - English underperformance in international tournaments is something of a cultural touchstone and running joke). Then, when with less than two minutes left, a player managed an incredible bicycle kick to send the ball over his head and into the net, tying the game, and then the team scored again in the extra time to pull out a win.
On Monday and Tuesday my collaborator was visiting the department properly, and I was able to use my now-ample experience organizing seminars to arrange for the full experience, including nice lunch and dinner and a presentation - which I think she really appreciated, and it was a very productive visit in general.
So, all in all a good week, and to an extent I'm a bit regretful that I'm leaving already (particularly now that the high-stakes quarter/semi/finals rounds of the Euro tournament are coming up.) But, I'll be having plenty of fun on my next trip as well!