For the early academic, the rallying cry is ‘publish or die’! In an over-saturated job market, we are trained to focus on publication, believing—because we are more or less told—that we are only as good as our publishing record. I have long dreaded the publication process. The stakes seem so 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…
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…
It won’t be news to anyone reading this blog that life as a researcher – perhaps particularly life as a doctoral student – can be, and often is, very isolating. You’re working on a niche topic, which few other people may understand or seriously care about; your day-to-day research is Read more…
‘Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’ It’s a classic interview question – and one which I’m very glad I’ve not (yet) been asked. Have you ever been tempted to answer it with ‘If it is the Lord’s will, I will live and do this or that’ (James Read more…
I met with some academic colleagues recently over a meal. It was a lovely group of people but I came away depressed…everyone has done so much. Comparing my meager achievements with what everyone else had accomplished, I felt like my resume was as watertight as a chocolate teapot. My doctorate flashed Read more…
As academics, we don’t like looking foolish. We are trained to provide evidence for assertions, and refrain from making them if we can’t provide justification for what we think and believe. But as I have been working through 1 Corinthians over the past few months, I have been convicted and Read more…
At my church, we have been going through Isaiah in this month’s sermon series. When we got to chapter 42, I was struck by the call in verse 10 to ‘sing a new song’. This is a phrase I’ve come across again and again in the Bible (in fact, I’ve found and Read more…
It’s a rainy day outside and my mind has wandered to puddles. Puddles are commonplace (in England especially!) without much beauty or substance, but they can do one great thing: they can reflect what’s above them. I’ve been pondering distinctiveness in academia lately, asking: how does being a Christian affect Read more…
A few weeks ago, Biblical scholar and philosopher Richard Middleton visited FiSch as part of a UK tour. This got me very excited, as I’ve read some of his work and found it very helpful, and Anthony and I managed to go along to a talk in Durham and two in Leeds. Read more…