CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Sunday 4 April 2021

Yes, it's a railway track

I've mentioned from time to time that I - like many academics - work as an external examiner for other universities. The two institutions I currently external (yes, it definitely is a verb) for are the Universities of York and Edinburgh. I started at Edinburgh only last year but I began at York back in 2017, so my term there, even though it's been extended by a year (the normal term is three years) will finish in August.

I was there at my first exam board to oversee the Centre for Lifelong Learning's social science provision, but a number of other courses were going through the same board, including one that intrigued me: a Postgraduate Diploma in Railway Studies. From the first, I toyed with the idea that I might like to do that course once I was no longer wotrking for them as an external, and over the years the idea has taken root. The PGDip has now been expanded to a full MA, taught part time over three years. Although the course is - and always has been - taught by distance learning, there is an annual weekend school at the Museum.

So ... I did actually follow though on my idle fascination, and applied - and have been offered a place for this September. Though as I've said, I find the whole field daunting in its scope, I'm excited at the thought of learning in a completely new area - and a new discipline, because the Railway Studies MA is largely history-based. As well as learning something about railways, I'm really looking forward to finding out about how history is studied and researched. 

I've also said - and I mentioned this to the Railway Studies external back in 2017 - that I would like to look at the broader context of transport infrastructure and transport policy, including of course inland waterways transport, so there's no way this is a shift in interest away from boats and waterways. But it's filling in a fascinating part of the bigger picture and hopefully will be highly complemenrary - and enable me to know and understand more about waterways history as well.  Anyway, only one way to find out. I guess I'd best get on and accept that offer.

1 comment:

  1. Does this mean that as you will be a student at York, rather than 'staff' at Sheffield, we can look forward to seeing you on the next series of 'University Challenge'?

    SAM
    NB 'Red Wharf

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