November 2008
November 2008, and we're getting well stuck into another academic year. Another set of students, with their collective, and individual, issues to be addressed; another set of academic and administrative tasks; another set of challenges and opportunities. Except, in many of those cases, they are actually the same issues, tasks, challenges and opportunities. Perhaps it's nice to have another chance to try again with some of them. Perhaps, with some of the others, it's time I finished up with them and moved on.
I see that several of my previous posts were going on about the various book projects with which I am engaged. That situation has crystallized a little and I can at least see where I am, even if not exactly where I am going. My big edited volume "Glacier Science and Environmental Change" is moving towards a paperback re-edition with Wiley/Blackwell. I am meeting with the publisher next month. My proposed new book "Environmental Geography" is now re-initiated with a new editorial team with Pearson Education. The other proposed new book "Practical techniques in Physical Geography" has reached the stage where Debbie and I signed contracts with Routledge last week, so it looks like we will be co-authoring our first book together. So, on the books front, there is a lot that I am supposed to be doing. I suppose I should do something about that sometime soon.
Meanwhile, other academic adventures keep coming along. I was approached by an artist this summer who wanted to produce art based on the science of glaciers, or climate change. We have started discussing ways of doing this, and have applied for a little bit of start-up funding to allow us to explore possibilities. I think this could be very exciting... watch this space.
I continue to wait for the £10,000 that I was awarded with the National Teaching Fellowship this summer. There have been delays in transferring the funding, so I have not been able to spend anything yet.
A number of encyclopedia articles that I wrote several years ago have finally been published. They were commissioned for the "Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments", but that book has been an age in the making and I was starting to give up hope of seeing it in print. However it is on the way now, and I have received my free copy. This is even more of a reward than you might imagine, as the book costs about £300!. It's a very big fat book (well, it's an encyclopedia!) but strangely there are only two entries beginning with "K" (Kames and Kettles). Even more strangely they were both written by me (also beginning with a K)! Pouring yet further strangeness into the mix it turns out that I wrote a larger number of individual entries in this encyclopedia than any other contributor apart from the chief editor, even though I don't really think of myself as an expert in the field of paleoclimatology and ancient environments. "Perhaps the book was written entirely by amateurs?" you ask. Well, no, there are a lot of very well known genuine experts in there: bona fide, card carrying paleoclimatologists. I think there must have been some mistake when they asked me to contribute, but I'm very pleased to have a copy of the book, anyway, and I think my entries turned out OK as far as I can tell... but what do I know?! If there are any other encyclopedias out there being built, just let me know if you need some input. Something on koala bears, perhaps... or early Kamchatkan ceramics. Anything beginning with K.
I see that several of my previous posts were going on about the various book projects with which I am engaged. That situation has crystallized a little and I can at least see where I am, even if not exactly where I am going. My big edited volume "Glacier Science and Environmental Change" is moving towards a paperback re-edition with Wiley/Blackwell. I am meeting with the publisher next month. My proposed new book "Environmental Geography" is now re-initiated with a new editorial team with Pearson Education. The other proposed new book "Practical techniques in Physical Geography" has reached the stage where Debbie and I signed contracts with Routledge last week, so it looks like we will be co-authoring our first book together. So, on the books front, there is a lot that I am supposed to be doing. I suppose I should do something about that sometime soon.
Meanwhile, other academic adventures keep coming along. I was approached by an artist this summer who wanted to produce art based on the science of glaciers, or climate change. We have started discussing ways of doing this, and have applied for a little bit of start-up funding to allow us to explore possibilities. I think this could be very exciting... watch this space.
I continue to wait for the £10,000 that I was awarded with the National Teaching Fellowship this summer. There have been delays in transferring the funding, so I have not been able to spend anything yet.
A number of encyclopedia articles that I wrote several years ago have finally been published. They were commissioned for the "Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments", but that book has been an age in the making and I was starting to give up hope of seeing it in print. However it is on the way now, and I have received my free copy. This is even more of a reward than you might imagine, as the book costs about £300!. It's a very big fat book (well, it's an encyclopedia!) but strangely there are only two entries beginning with "K" (Kames and Kettles). Even more strangely they were both written by me (also beginning with a K)! Pouring yet further strangeness into the mix it turns out that I wrote a larger number of individual entries in this encyclopedia than any other contributor apart from the chief editor, even though I don't really think of myself as an expert in the field of paleoclimatology and ancient environments. "Perhaps the book was written entirely by amateurs?" you ask. Well, no, there are a lot of very well known genuine experts in there: bona fide, card carrying paleoclimatologists. I think there must have been some mistake when they asked me to contribute, but I'm very pleased to have a copy of the book, anyway, and I think my entries turned out OK as far as I can tell... but what do I know?! If there are any other encyclopedias out there being built, just let me know if you need some input. Something on koala bears, perhaps... or early Kamchatkan ceramics. Anything beginning with K.
posted by petergknight at
14:58
0 Comments
Links to this post
