The Fairfax Curator
Blog: Oct 2016 - Present
Somewhere along the way I became an irritable, menopausal, disabled woman with a stack of feminist books and a lot to say. This was as much a surprise to me as it was to anybody. After medical retirement and a couple of years lost to sleep and inertia, I started wondering…what now? Eventually, I started writing down some of my adventures as a full-time hobbyist and creative. Mainly because I can.
So…let’s take the gloves off, and chat about the creative process. A blog exploring everything from education and art, to literature and gaming, shaped by lived experience and disability.
A New Iron Age Cart Burial
Archaeological news has kind of been made this week with the release of findings of a new Iron Age Cart Burial made on a Persimmon housing development in Pocklington…
Reflecting on What You May Become: Research, What Have We Learned?
There is (of course) an online planner for reflecting on how you can round out your skills to become a better researcher overall. It is Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework, which is something that I, interestingly, once reflected on a great deal but then had a go at when I had lost all interest in it, for the simple reason that it was 2021, Covid arrived, my PhD course was suspended and my imminent medical retirement began to be openly discussed. I was basically, to all intents and purposes, past it.
Taking the Right Kind of Breaks
Sometimes, the best thing you can do when studying, is walk away from it.
Pinning Down Research Questions
The temptation to a new researcher (well apparently to me anyway) is to always believe that the research questions are not encompassing enough. This makes it very, very difficult to actually write a question.
Realising You Need to Revisit Past Work
How the first version of my gallery was actually created.
Using Audible as a Tool
My first association with audiobooks, which was actually for research purposes.
Replay Value in Research: Lake Ridden
Replay value is a choice for most players; the idea is that after their first play through, a player will want to come back, at some time in the future, and play the game again.
Gaming Research Issues: Rimworld
I'm feeling the frustrations related particularly to trying to test certain aspects of gameplay, namely bear taming.
Using Past Research
A reflection on past research, the process of producing that research, and eventually using and then reusing the completed pieces.
Going Postgraduate, Postgraduate
The difficulties of collating research information as a mature student in a newly technological age.
You Can Write A Postgraduate Dissertation
The second academic year dawned and I was back to positivity! I was back at work, I had submitted everything required of me, and there was just a dissertation preparation document to submit, how hard could it be?
Dragging Yourself to the Finish Line of Postgraduate Research
By the latter part of the 2019 academic year, I was too ill to climb the stairs in my house, was on extended sick leave from work, had reached the realisation that I could not handle the course, and probably needed to begin the steps necessary to quit. Secretly, I was still convincing myself that I was probably okay.
Postgraduate Research When You Think You Can’t
Finding something you really want to study.
Research For Teaching Others! - Part Two
This post opens early in 2009, halfway through a new teaching course and the start of a new job role working with family and in education.
Research For Teaching Others! - Part One
One area of PGCert study within the PhD is based around the examination of assumptions, and really how almost everything in terms of your research question is arguably an assumption.
Research is not conducted on the moon…
Was there a problem in Education, or was I just an anger monkey?
Where does an interest in research even come from??
For the first time ever, the simple fact that I was a bit clever did not magically do the trick, and I did not saunter through with the grades required for my UCAS-submitted chosen degree course at the University of Sheffield.
An Academically Minded Rambling
The thoughts of someone with a bone to pick in Education, following some of my major experiences of research after a life in the sector from 1996 to 2021.
Learning Digital Learning
I decided a couple of weeks ago to try my hand at crochet. So, while on holiday last week, I figured hey, just bite the bullet. Let’s learn digitally!
Digital Hauntings by Digital Humans
This blog post, just a link, was my first foray into Digital Literacy, which led me to my MA, and then to my short postgraduate book on gamification.