What I'm up to at work

We're in week three of the Spring teaching semester: I've had a busy three weeks with quite a lot of teaching, but that's easing off for a couple of weeks now, and I've also had a few other things come through recently...

I've been asked whether I would be willing to take on the job of Chairing the University Appeals Committee. That's the committee that students go to if they think they got a raw deal somewhere that affected their degree result. I've been a member of the committee for a few years, and chairing it would be an interesting job. I said yes, but haven't had official confirmation yet.

I've been "longlisted" to go forward as one of the University's entrants for a National Teaching Fellowship. The put me on the list because I won an "Excellence in Teaching" award last year. I don't know yet if I'll get onto the shortlist or actually be put forward into the competition.

The publishing company Pearson has agreed to go ahead and commission me and some colleagues to edit a big new book on "Environmental Geography". It will be a big, big job, and will give me a lot to keep me busy over the next few years. I'll be heading up the editorial team. I've edited big books before, but never had to work with an editorial team, so this is new and exciting!

I'm still serving as external examiner for the Physical Geography courses at Bath Spa University, and I spent a lot of time this week going through their autumn semester modules, looking at the module resources and the students' work. It's very interesting seeing what students are like at another University, and comparing their work with the work I see here at Keele.

I'm enjoying working on a brand new module this semester: GEG-30014 "Inspirational Landscapes". It is an opportunity for students to push the boundaries of Geography right out to their own personal interests, and I've been able to lecture about how geographical landscapes are represented in film, poetry and music. Who'd have thought, back in 1976 when I was a 15-year old watching The Shootist over and over again at Canon Hill Film Theatre that I'd one day be showing clips from it in my own Geography lectures!