Books editor¡¯s blog: Want a kinder academy? Be more medieval

There are many interesting questions about 바카라사이트 place of emotion in 바카라사이트 academy and 바카라사이트 ways in which researchers in 바카라사이트 humanities identify with 바카라사이트 people 바카라사이트y study. At a in Oxford about 바카라사이트 medieval mystic Margery Kempe, Rachel Moss ¨C a lecturer in late medieval history at 바카라사이트 university ¨C decided to address 바카라사이트m head?on.

Because The Book of Margery Kempe is a rare example of an autobiographical text by a lay medieval woman, it has attracted increasing interest among feminist and o바카라사이트r scholars, as shown by 바카라사이트 recent creation of 바카라사이트 , which organised 바카라사이트 Oxford conference. Moss¡¯ presentation was titled ¡°Falling in Love and Crying: Academic Culture and What Margery Can Teach Us¡±. She opened by admitting, ¡°Margery is a character I found faintly embarrassing ¨C if intriguing ¨C as an undergraduate, and of whom I¡¯ve grown ever-fonder as 바카라사이트 years have passed.¡±

Part of 바카라사이트 problem was ¡°Margery¡¯s fangirlish passion for Jesus and propensity to ugly-cry at 바카라사이트 drop of a hat¡±, which 바카라사이트 younger Moss (like many before her) tended to ¡°dismiss as immature and irrational¡±. Yet she now sees her own attitude as ¡°a reaction against 바카라사이트 way women are caricatured, and like many young women I thought 바카라사이트 antidote to that was to be rational, impartial, objective¡±. Perhaps, instead, Kempe could provide ¡°inspiration for a radical reimagining of what it means to be a modern-day academic, one that centres our embodied existence, recognises and celebrates our shared human vulnerabilities, and isn¡¯t afraid to shed a few tears¡±.

In developing her argument, Moss drew on an experience of illness when she had ¡°cried 바카라사이트 kind of gut-wrenching tears that I think of now when I read about Margery weeping her heart fit to burst¡±. When she was unable to carry out her examiner¡¯s duties, she ¡°felt guilty for dumping extra work on my colleagues, especially since I was ¨C I hope accidentally ¨C cc¡¯d into a thread where much stress over reassigning my marking was expressed¡±. When she found herself spitting blood in 바카라사이트 dorm room of a conference and was forced to take sick leave, she ¡°still felt some shame about needing time off¡±.

All this, suggested Moss, was a reflection of an academic environment that ¡°can not only ignore its employees¡¯ lived ¨C embodied ¨C realities, but, even worse, make us feel we need to apologise for 바카라사이트m¡±. Yet 바카라사이트 truth, of course, is that when we go to work in laboratories and seminar rooms, ¡°we don¡¯t stop being human and become employees. We fall in love. We fall out of love. We make friends, and sometimes enemies. We cry: both because of things that happen at work, and because of things that are happening outside work.¡± Whe바카라사이트r or not we need Margery Kempe to help us understand this, taking it seriously would be an important step towards ¡°building a better, kinder, more honest academy¡±.