Blogging and Social Media: Impact and Reach

Today I will yet again be giving a training session to post-graduate research students and early career researchers about writing blogs. I have run this session (or a similar one) a number of times now – not only to those at Cardiff University, but also to students on an MA programme at the School of…

Troubling Anniversaries – An Excellent Online Conference

On 21 and 22 October I attended an online conference on the theme of ‘Troubling Anniversaries’. The conference was organised through a partnership between the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) within the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and Centre for Public History,(Opens in new window) The online conference explored the uses of…

Designs That Defined Modern Japan: The Emergency Exit Sign

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I attended an excellent webinar on the topic ‘Designs That Defined Modern Japan’ by Professor Hiroshi Kashiwagi, and the audience were set the challenge of coming with their own list of 8 Designs That Defined Modern Japan. I have already done six posts (these are not in any…

Remembering 9/11

Today (11 September 2021) is the twentieth anniversary of the ‘9/11’ attacks. As with another recent post (All Accidents are Human Error), I have been inspired to write this post thanks to listening to the Take To The Sky Podcast. They have done a couple of podcasts recently in relation to 9/11 (on top of…

All Accidents are Human Error

Over recent weeks I have been listening to a number of episodes by Take To The Sky Podcast and watching some episodes of Aircrash Investigation (as it’s known on Disney+ in the UK). Naturally, one of the things that both look to discuss is the probable cause of the crash, and often this can end…

Favourite Poems – “A Shropshire Lad” by A.E.Housman

Following my posts about Kubla Khan, Because of You, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, and The Lake, this is the last post about some of my favourite poems. And it is a bit of a cheat because A Shropshire Lad by A.E.Housman is a collection of 63 poems rather than a single…

“Truth” in Fiction – Pillars and Cantilevers

In a number of posts (Book Review: “The Retreat” by Mark Edwards, Book Review: “Follow You Home” by Mark Edwards, Conventions in Disaster Movies, “Greenland” – A Very Good Disaster Movie, “Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac” and Remembering Air Florida Flight 90, and “The Day After Tomorrow” – Climate Change Meets Disaster Movie) I…

Book Review: “The Hollows” by Mark Edwards – a Confliction Novel

I have just finished reading a review copy of The Hollows, the latest book from Mark Edwards. This is definitely one of my favourites of his – possibly even my favourite. I tend to say The Retreat is my favourite – largely because that it was the first one of his that I read and…

Reporting and Responding to Disasters

I have previously done some posts (such as Creating Disasters and Disasters by the Book – How Japanese may be Designing Disasters) relating to one of the most significant concepts to have impacted my research – the idea that disasters are ‘designed’ as put forward by Dennis Mileti. This concept has underpinned much of my…

Remembering the Hillsborough Disaster

Today, 15 April, is the anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster. For those unfamiliar with what happened, here are the key points taken from Wikipedia: The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final…