Sphinx

I’m in two minds about scribbling this, and may change my mind about publishing it by the time I’ve finished; something that has always, quite irrationally, infuriated me about academics on social media is the way that some of them just use it to celebrate their successes and forthcoming media appearances. Non-specific sighs and laments in search of sympathetic responses are entirely forgivable in comparison…

But I am really chuffed about this: I’ve been given an ‘Above and Beyond’ award by the university, in recognition of my efforts on impact activities and social media. Now, The moment I write that I feel the urge to qualify it; it’s just a Head of Department nomination, the impact stuff is very much a collaborative exercise with my colleague Lynette Mitchell, and the whole thing is somewhat invidious as we’re all working well beyond any reasonable measure of a normal workload. But it’s still nice that Exeter attempts to recognise such efforts, and, more importantly, this is the first time that anyone in a position of authority has said anything positive about my blogging.

So, next time I catch myself wondering whether it’s worth it – whether the efforts I put in here, for steadily diminishing readership levels, are the reason why I’m so far behind with ‘proper’ academic writing – I have an additional motive to keep plugging on, the guilt that I might be letting the department down if I stop… More seriously, I do this because it’s still fun; and, realistically, if I wasn’t devoting time to this, I would probably not be making any more progress with chapters and articles, but continuing my work on a soundtrack for the forthcoming Thucydides cartoon, having spent yesterday recording the narration in my best Oliver Postgate manner.