A major challenge for younger academics is the increasing prevalence of both fixed-term contracts and institutional mobility. A year ago I wrote about moving from a university to a business environment, and now I’m back in a university again, with another shift in my research area. So I thought it might be helpful to share the story of these transitions Read more
Today I want to share a prayer that has become a regular part of my working life. At the Scriptorium here in Oxford, this is one of the prayers we say together at the beginning of every working day. It’s usually attributed to the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas; perhaps it will be Read more
In the next few weeks, I am hoping to submit my thesis. I’m not at the summit of my academic career (at least, I hope I’m not!) but I am approaching a significant waypoint that I’ve been working towards for three years. I don’t really know what I expected to Read more
Looking outside as I write this, I see that the nights are drawing in and there’s the beginnings of a chill in the air, which can mean only one thing: autumn term is nearly upon us. Inevitably, then, the minds of many academics will fast be turning away from ongoing Read more
I’m drawing closer to the end of my doctoral work, and that means a lot of my work at the moment is revising drafts. In the last couple of weeks I have been redrafting the introduction to my thesis. This is slow, bitty work: fixing various details, doing small pieces Read more
It’s vacation season once more and everyone seems to be posting pictures of themselves lounging by the river, sipping G&Ts. No better time, then, to consider the role of rest in our work. Academia seems to offer lots of ‘time off’: Easter breaks, Christmas breaks, and summer breaks can dwarf Read more
Christian thinkers have proposed a range of ideas about what science is, ranging from reading the book of God’s works and “thinking God’s thoughts after Him” to studying how the Universe runs itself if God doesn’t intervene. Views like these were expressed by early modern scientists (Galileo, Bacon, Newton and others) who were Read more
In this post I’d like to reflect on a tension that I consider to be quite widespread within academia. ‘Critical thinking’ is often extolled as one of the core virtues necessary for the intellectual life: much university-level teaching is geared towards developing this skill, and it is viewed as foundational Read more
Is gentleness something academics should aspire to? If a colleague or a peer described you as gentle, would you be pleased, or a little worried? I’ve just had a weekend away with my church, and the teaching focused on the character of Christ – specifically the way he perfectly embodies Read more
We believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the whole creation, and that our study and research, like the rest of our lives, can and should be practised for his glory. Many posts on the Faith-in-Scholarship blog explore how our work might actually be enhanced when we approach it from a Read more