First post - beginning of the project
This marks the start of my blogging project, funded by a research leave grant from the AHRC (bless them). I have been awarded an eight-month research leave to continue my work on bloggers' motivations, so I thought that an official blog to accompany the work would be a good way to mark this exciting day.
Actually, officially, the research leave starts tomorrow, but I am 'working at home' today and couldn't wait!
Just wrote an enormously long paragraph about how I have already been doing research on blogging and so am not a complete newcomer to the field but it looked wrong and pretentious. What I am trying to say is that I've been researching blogs for two years, particularly looking at motivations and habits of bloggers, and that I have had stuff published and given conference papers, and presumably this is why the AHRC (bless them) has given me the award. So I deserve it. So there.
Actually this is the first time that anyone at my university has received an research leave award from this granting body so the implications have caused a bit of a stir - are still causing a bit of a stir. It was all very well everyone committing to the idea of my having the whole of two semesters off teaching and administration back in the winter when I applied, but now that the reality is hitting them, it's all become a bit more complex, convincing people to take on my teaching and administration load. But hopefully we have sorted it all out. I will probably spend most of next week handing over to various people and then will have the next eight months to get on with the research.
Which will be interesting and a bit scary, to be frank. I've not really had any time to concentrate on research alone before. I did my PhD part time while lecturing full time, and although I was given a three-month sabbatical to write up at the end of the three years I also had a baby in the first month (it was a better financial deal for me at the time to take a sabbatical rather than the minimal maternity package on offer, although to be fair a far better maternity package was introduced six days after DS2's birth, which I wasn't eligible for). So I have never had such a long time to concentrate on pure research. One of the reasons for starting the blog is therefore to attempt to focus the research, although I can see that I am already going off track somewhat.
Which I am fine about - that is the beauty of blogs after all - but I need to be aware that it is possible that colleagues, and even more worryingly, students might read this.
So this is probably enough for a first post and I am now going to go and do the other thing that I have committed to during this research leave - take a walk every day. I will take a parcel to the post office and then have a walk through the village. It will probably start to rain - I see the clouds rolling in from the sea already.
Actually, officially, the research leave starts tomorrow, but I am 'working at home' today and couldn't wait!
Just wrote an enormously long paragraph about how I have already been doing research on blogging and so am not a complete newcomer to the field but it looked wrong and pretentious. What I am trying to say is that I've been researching blogs for two years, particularly looking at motivations and habits of bloggers, and that I have had stuff published and given conference papers, and presumably this is why the AHRC (bless them) has given me the award. So I deserve it. So there.
Actually this is the first time that anyone at my university has received an research leave award from this granting body so the implications have caused a bit of a stir - are still causing a bit of a stir. It was all very well everyone committing to the idea of my having the whole of two semesters off teaching and administration back in the winter when I applied, but now that the reality is hitting them, it's all become a bit more complex, convincing people to take on my teaching and administration load. But hopefully we have sorted it all out. I will probably spend most of next week handing over to various people and then will have the next eight months to get on with the research.
Which will be interesting and a bit scary, to be frank. I've not really had any time to concentrate on research alone before. I did my PhD part time while lecturing full time, and although I was given a three-month sabbatical to write up at the end of the three years I also had a baby in the first month (it was a better financial deal for me at the time to take a sabbatical rather than the minimal maternity package on offer, although to be fair a far better maternity package was introduced six days after DS2's birth, which I wasn't eligible for). So I have never had such a long time to concentrate on pure research. One of the reasons for starting the blog is therefore to attempt to focus the research, although I can see that I am already going off track somewhat.
Which I am fine about - that is the beauty of blogs after all - but I need to be aware that it is possible that colleagues, and even more worryingly, students might read this.
So this is probably enough for a first post and I am now going to go and do the other thing that I have committed to during this research leave - take a walk every day. I will take a parcel to the post office and then have a walk through the village. It will probably start to rain - I see the clouds rolling in from the sea already.
posted by Sarah at 10:02 AM
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