Gosh, it’s a long time since I posted. I’m keen to get back into blogging, but here are a couple of short announcements for now!

Back in March, Naomi Pullen and I co-hosted Research Brief Encounters on behalf of the Centre for Gender, Identity and Subjectivity. I think some people had been briefly a little sceptical about my idea of doing what amounted to research speed dating, but it turned out to be a great success. 28 people, at all stages of their academic careers, attended, and in ninety minutes demolished six bottles of wine, three platters of canapes, and made what I hope were lots of useful research connections. The success of the event was of course really down to the attendees, who threw themselves into it with enthusiasm. I hope to repeat it at some point in the not too distant future! I think it’s really important that universities host not only formal events with invited speakers, or even structured research groups, but also more informal activities where students at an early stage in their careers can mingle easily with senior academics without the pressure of feeling like they need to ask clever questions in front of an audience – or indeed give a paper. The feedback I got suggested people liked an event that was focused on discussing people’s research, but that allowed them to talk about it in a very casual way.

And now I kick off a busy season of paper-giving before I go on maternity leave by speaking at my alma mater, the University of York. My paper is titled “That it was to late for to crie”: Rape and Patriarchy in Middle English Texts, and if you happen to be in York on Tuesday 21 April, I’d love to see you there. (See the link for full details!)