Sheffield – 1

Geog_DSC7814The start of my Leverhulme artist in residence in the Geography Department at Sheffield University.  Feeling like a new kid at school, not sure of where to go, knowing virtually nobody.  I introduce myself in offices and am greeted with beaming smiles.  Asked to come back to sort paperwork, I make my way to the Students’ Union and get a coffee, with an appropriate ‘Number 1’ table marker for my first day – there’s warm sun, a light breeze and a happy atmosphere.

I meet with ‘my’ Professor to discuss the plan for the year and talk about the proposed trip to Svalbard, and am given a desk and a computer in the Post Doc room, temporarily, until a studio/office can be found that I’m allowed to grubby with ‘art’ things, instead of all the clean stuff that people usually do here.

For the next ten months, I’m going to be looking at all things ice, carbon, coal and methane. I’ll be looking at the links between Sheffield and Svalbard, the writing of Robert Neal Rudmose Brown, the founder of Sheffield Geography department and an Arctic explorer who has written screeds about Svalbard, and looking at some of the consequences of the carbon cycle and climate change.

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