We are changing gear, as Summer turns to Autumn. Academic writing seems to have seasons, but we’re not sure. All academics say they will work through the Summer holiday, but September is the month of regrets. ‘Holidays are time for blocks of writing’, we say. But they are not. Other things spill over – loose ends at the start of the Summer, preparation at the end, if we’re lucky enough to have no Summer-time teaching. Universities refer to ‘research leave’ (when you research) but don’t refer to ‘teaching leave’ as the time we do teaching. So research is intentionally described as ‘leave’, as a ‘holiday’. This is not good. Let’s forget about seasons, and think instead about seasoning. The writer May Sarton said that ‘solitude is the salt of personhood’ as ‘it brings out the authentic flavour of every experience’. We think research is the salt of academic life: it brings out the flavour of all our work. It keeps us curious, nosey (perhaps knowsy). Sheine and Julian may just be the seasoning we need, the Salt-N-Pepa of academic writing.
","author_name":"Julian Stern"}