Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The academic grind

My key note presentation at the Normalcy conference last week, went down a storm, the material I quoted from fellow blogger Chaotic Idealism was particularly well received. It was certainly the best presentation I have done so far and I don't think, for a variety of reasons, that it will be forgotten in a hurry.

But that is not the end of it. I have just about completed my poster on Ethics for the Birmingham Post Grad Poster conference and I have a couple of 'gigs' after that, starting with my appearance alongside Laurent Mottron and Dinah Murray at the UCL followed in July by a presentation for the Education School conference .  The theme of my next three outings is ethical research again.

That's enough to keep me busy into the summer anyway. I know my enemies will be hating this, but what the heck, this is what I do these days, I wouldn't be doing it if I had nothing to say that people were not willing to listen to. The University's motto is Per Ardua ad Alta, which means in English by hard work (or adversity) to the heights, and it is hard work as well, I didn't get here by accident.

My detractors ought to take notice, that it is not my "super shiny" aspieness that is getting me attention, it is the quality of what I say and my attention to detail in it all.

7 comments:

Club 166 said...

Good to hear that things are going so well for you. Keep spreading the word!

Joe

Unknown said...

Impressive grind, your academic activities.

A grind that brews a potent cup.

And here I thought, when I saw this blog post's title on the Autism Hub, that it was going to be a complaint about the drudgery that can plague the academic life.

To which my favorite response is the following filk-upon-Sinatra composed by Bob Shepard-Blue, a teacher and songwriter from these parts now departed and sorely missed:

http://www.bobblue.org/pages/Song_Lyrics/Their_Way.html

Casdok said...

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say at the UCL.

jonathan said...

Oh, you're not going to go to IMFAR and try to stir the pot again, like you did in 2008?

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Don't need to Jonathan, the pot is coming to me these days.

FWIW the impetus for my forthcoming paper and poster comes from what I saw at IMFAR.

It might come as a shock to discover who is paying for the shindig at UCL as well :)

Build the field and they will come.

Unknown said...

Good picture. Did you take it?

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

That is very generous of you Harold.

Yes I did take it, it is a picture of the Joseph Chamberlain Tower commonly known as "old Joe" the tallest free standing clock tower in the world, and a tower Tolkein was familiar with. It is still the joint third tallest building in Birmingham after the Telecomm tower and the Beetham tower, tying with the Alpha tower at 100 metres.

BTW I have had yet another paper accepted, this gets busy, for the biennial Disability Studies conference at Lancaster where I have previously presented, guess I am popular on the disability circuit :)