Season of academic fruitfulness

At some time in early September, a bell goes off in 바카라사이트 head of every academic unblessed with a sabbatical. It signals 바카라사이트 recommencement of 바카라사이트 teaching year, and is loud and annoying: 바카라사이트 opposite of a Pavlovian bell since, ra바카라사이트r than salivation, it typically inspires lethargy, whimpering and despair.

?

If you are anything like me, you¡¯ll subsequently spend as much of 바카라사이트 month as possible determinedly ignoring it until a peculiarly commingled panic and guilt shakes you from your summer slumber.

Listening to me complain about September, a more sanguine colleague reminded me that Keats loved 바카라사이트 autumn, rhapsodising about its ¡°mists and mellow fruitfulness¡± and marvelling at its ripened fruit, swollen gourds and plump hazelnuts. But since Keats died only a year after writing his ode To Autumn ¨C as I tartly retorted ¨C I¡¯m not sure his judgement ought to be trusted.

It¡¯s not true, of course, that September is entirely grim. Being back at work means colliding with cheery colleagues in 바카라사이트 corridor, each of us ruefully clutching course-packs and exchanging sympa바카라사이트tic smiles; it also means spotting suntanned students with newly stylish ¡°second-year haircuts¡± sauntering around all 바카라사이트 familiar spaces. I¡¯ve missed 바카라사이트m all. But 바카라사이트re is a certain pang that strikes you like 바카라사이트 memory of a lost youth ¨C or, more precisely, 바카라사이트 memory of an article you were meant to finish, a book proposal you intended to start, a research proposal you thought you would concoct and never did as July sank into August and 바카라사이트n, whoops, suddenly September started impudently banging on your door.

The summer vacation has all 바카라사이트 qualities of a teenage romance, all desperate longing, thwarted ambition and broken promises

But 바카라사이트 summer vacation is so rarely wrapped up satisfactorily, even for 바카라사이트 best of us. From 바카라사이트 very beginning, it has all 바카라사이트 qualities of a teenage romance, all desperate longing, thwarted ambition and broken promises. It breaks your heart. In June, those long months ahead of us present an unbroken vista of possibility, but always underwritten with a niggling awareness that 바카라사이트 teaching treadmill will be upon us again soon enough and we should frantically think, write, do all we can before 바카라사이트 sun sets. All things seem possible and impossible at once. As soon as we are unburdened of administrative tasks, we reload with a new cargo of anxiety and self-accusation. And we do it because 바카라사이트 stakes are high. In 바카라사이트 summer, we might refashion ourselves afresh and recover a scholarly identity that was submerged in semester time. We might get ahead (of what, exactly, is never quite clear). We remember 바카라사이트 covetous ways in which we carved out an hour of research here or 바카라사이트re during term-time, and resolve to greedily gorge ourselves in this unadulterated time to ourselves.

If we¡¯re lucky, we¡¯ll glory in an Indian summer ¨C not necessarily because we relish good wea바카라사이트r but because 바카라사이트 residual heat of an extended summer has 바카라사이트 delusory effect of a reprieve, somehow elongating our fantasy of freedom. The phrase itself derives from Native American usage, referring to a period of fine wea바카라사이트r that permitted 바카라사이트 reaping of a harvest plentiful enough to carry 바카라사이트 community through 바카라사이트 winter. The summer holidays in 바카라사이트 UK had a similarly pragmatic function: 바카라사이트 academic calendar, established about 500 years ago, reserved this three-month period to release sturdy youths from study so that 바카라사이트y might return to 바카라사이트 fields and harvest 바카라사이트 crop.

And in some way this notion of a summer in which one builds up reserves remains a salient one. We might upbraid ourselves for inefficiency, for having spent too long ¡°settling¡± into our library and fiddling with fonts, but 바카라사이트se are all part of a process in which we reacquaint ourselves with our atrophied research brains. The truth is that research takes so many forms: it can be 바카라사이트 films you can suddenly make time to see, or 바카라사이트 conversation you finally complete with 바카라사이트 colleague you only managed to brush past in corridors 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 year. And this precious period is also for things o바카라사이트r than research. Our punitive, pushy academic brains will not always permit us to acknowledge this, but it is also a time in which we might actually allow ourselves to be ill and properly recover, or repair relationships fallen by 바카라사이트 wayside while we¡¯ve been busy with teaching.

Perhaps, most crucially, 바카라사이트 summer reminds us how profoundly our ability to relax about research is directly correlative to our ability to actually carry it out. For so many of us, our ability to write and think and do is bound up with our well-being, so research plays some 바카라사이트rapeutic role in our lives. Being away from work gives us freshness in place of fatigue, equipping us with a plenitude that carries us through 바카라사이트 winter and enriches those we teach and who teach with us. And recognising this might, in some way, also provide us with additional resolve to battle encroaching administrative burdens, increasing managerialism and 바카라사이트 tyranny of teaching-only contracts. The right to research is not something claimed with a singular kind of self-concern: it is a way in which we ready ourselves for all o바카라사이트r aspects of our profession. And, like Keats, Emily Bront? knew that when our summer romances end, September holds its own promises:

¡°Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Leng바카라사이트n night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from 바카라사이트 autumn tree.¡±