Friday, February 20, 2009

How Green is this Valley!

The view from my office...

In September 2008 I moved to Wales from Melbourne to take up a lecturing position in History at the University of Glamorgan. Nestled in ‘the valleys’ of the Vale of Glamorgan, twenty minutes from the centre of Cardiff, the University typifies the cramped, economic architecture common to former polytechnics: an abundance of concrete. Its with only concessions to landscaping are those necessary to accommodate the extraordinary rainfall (how a university half way up the side of a fairly steep hill can flood, as it did in my first week here, still boggles my mind). And yet, there is an aptness, a banal poetry to the place, for this utilitarian grey and white complex fixed to the side of a very green valley is the former School of Mines.

It's a nice job. Compared to the lecturing, supervision and administration loads, publishing pressure, and competitive environment of other universities, Glamorgan’s academic environment is as pastoral as the grazing sheep I can see from my office window. Classes are small, averaging about fifteen, and a full time load is three, twenty-four week classes. The students are mostly from the South Wales valleys and are polite and relatively enthusiastic. My colleagues have been similarly welcoming and enthusiastic.

This blog will chart my rambling progress/regress/stasis as I work, write and teach in my first tenured job.