All entries for January 2012

Wheels Around Warwickshire

In perhaps one of the strangest examples of impact ever, I have just had an article about cycling published in the Travel section of the Boar, the student newspaper here at Warwick. The article is all about encouraging students to take to their bicycles and explore the Warwickshire countryside. In it I recommend a few routes, and whilst discussing Meriden, I actually use some of my MA dissertation research.

Let me explain.

As I am sure I have mentioned, for my MA dissertation I did some research into cycling in interwar England as an example of the ways in which health, environment and leisure intersected at that time. In the sources I found a bunch of references to a Cyclist's Memorial in Meriden, and I thought, 'Hey, that's pretty near to Warwick', so I made like the people in this video, and set off on my bike. Turns out the once glorious memorial is now looking a little drab, and I can't say I much fancied Meriden, but the route there was superb (though the wonderfully-named Four Oaks, which, by my count, has at least nine trees). Furthermore, there are a bunch of lovely villages, mostly at the end of long bridle-paths, in the area between Meriden and Coventry: I was quite taken with Fillongley, for some reason. I certainly recommend giving the area a try.

Here's a photo of a cat I saw having a little wander. Not a few minutes later, I heard a young girl calling out the name 'Whiskers', and it is a great regret of mine that I didn't tell her that her cat was fine, and was just having some feline time.

Gotta love that open road.

On a more historical note, the inimitable Bike Blog on theguardian.co.uk recently hosted an article on very, very early cycling culture and a postcard which had been unearthed in the Westminster council archives. It's very short, and worth a look.

: 11 Jan 2012 18:25 |  Tags: Boar Cycling; Impact; University; Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Pre–PhD Me: BA

Before I get into the rich land that is my PhD research, I just wanted to hark back to the days before all of that, and discuss some of my research interests before social work. If you want to talk about any of these, do get in touch. Although I may no longer be explicitly working on them, they have greatly influenced where I am now, and I am still keeping my eyes open for any developments.

- for a module on the history of psychiatry (with Professor Hilary Marland), I did some brief research into the use of photography in mid-nineteenth century psychiatry. In this essay, I argued that historians have neglected to study photos of mentally ill patients as reflective of contemporary ideas about photography, and have assumed that dressing the subjects up like Shakespeare characters said something about how the mentally ill were seen. I, on the other hand, argued that at this time photography was keen to emulate painting, which meant using some of its subject matter. However, I acknowledged that many photos of patients, especially female patients, were altered in order to conform to contemporary ideas about madness.

- for an essay in the same module, I wrote about the gendering of space in English asylums, 1800-1860. In this essay, I argued that just because patients were segregated by gender did not mean that space in asylums could not be gendered. In fact, examples abound, whether it was objects (caged birds in female wings) or architecture (buildings which encouraged male attendents to spy on female patients). Moreover, the common areas were often a site of competing gazes, as can be seen in prints of 'lunatic balls' and in photos of dining areas. Furthermore, patients' attitudes towards the asylum space was analysed along gendered lines, so that a female patient's violence towards flowers in the garden was seen as evidence of her madness.

- I also did some research into East German film as part of my studies for German, which I may write about another time. Just remembering what I did two and a half years ago seems to be taxing enough for the moment...

This is BA me, in a field, not doing any research...

: 09 Jan 2012 18:17 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem