Snag after snag

Past week has been a further series of technical difficulties - and not just with IT. That's my excuse anyway for lack of posts.

While something nasty has been growing under our stealthily leaking bathroom at home (actual mushroom-shaped mushrooms! urgh) I have also been:

• Writing a draft of a research paper on PCOS and healthcare experiences.
• Biting my nails in dread of getting a rejection letter relating to the last paper I submitted to a journal.
• Setting up a SharePoint group and blog for the interns working on the Disaster Management project.
• Checking for consistency the answers prospective interns gave to the online coding quality/consistency test they have to pass in order to move onto data coding in earnest.
• Updating my knowledge in motivational interviewing to make sure that I am prepared for a particular group of delegates attending our motivational interviewing course tomorrow - some are forensic psychologists and some health psychology researchers working with young children.
• Setting up a programme of work and online materials for a student who failed a module last year, who is entitled to retake it, even though the programme no longer exists.
• And sundry other bits of admin, marketing, etc.

The prospect of my sabbatical ending at the end of December and my having to be back on campus more is a little daunting, but I am looking forward to attending the research seminars we have on Wednesdays.  here are some of the forthcoming talks for the new year:

12th January
Simon Goodman
Coventry University
How race and racism are removed from anti-asylum arguments

26th January
Christine Grant
Coventry University
The development of actionable work life balance measures in the context of e-working an their relationship to well being and job effectiveness’

2nd February
Carol Percy and Stacey Harris
Coventry University
Learning and leisure aspiration of people with physical disabilities: A placement research project with Ryder Cheshire Volunteers

9th February
Leigh Harkins
University of Birmingham
The Impact of Denial in Sex Offenders

2nd March

Karen Littleton
Open University
Educational Dialogues: Understanding and promoting productive interaction

9th March
Sarah Butterworth
Coventry University
Male experience of breast cancer

16th March
Claire Taylor
ARC/HLI
Enhancing and assessing fidelity of delivery of health behaviour change interventions in Primary Care’

23rd March
Ben Roberts
Coventry University
Extra-Sensory Perception: Fact or Science Fiction? Experimental and Qualitative Studies of Psi Phenomena

30th March
Steph Waldron, Sophie Bowry, and Gemma Gray
Coventry University
Context dependent memory; Gum chewing and stress

Whoopsie: double entry

Forgot to write my blog yesterday: "quel dommage!"

But just to show that I wasn't actually just goofing off somewhere...

Met with Disaster Management colleague Fang yesterday to plan the first draft of our paper for the conference in Florida next year. 

Have spent a lot of today reading details on various funding sites, including The British Academy, to whom I may be requesting help with conference travel costs.

Also spent time discussing marks with my co-assessor of MSc Health Psychology dissertation projects.  Some great studies:

• The experience of male breast cancer
• Assessing shared decision making in healthcare consultations
• The experience of women alcoholics
• The psychological impact of eczema
• Health information-seeking via the internet

We hope that some of our students will eventually submit their work for publication.