A casi todos los viajeros que visitan Guatemala, suena familiar el nombre "Atitlán". El famoso Lago Atitlán es la joya en la corona de bellezas naturales de país, y ha sido conocido así por décadas. El escritor Aldous Huxley lo describió así: "(Lago de) Como, con el embellecimiento adicional de algunos volcanes inmensos. Seguramente es … Continue reading El otro mundo: Volcán Atitlán
As I grow up in the research world, making my research open becomes increasingly important. "Open research" is research conducted in a transparent and open way to make research methods and products as accessible as possible. Essentially, it's research with a spirit of generosity. Publishing in open-access journals, making research data and software freely available, … Continue reading Open Sesame!
Do you like to write? I do. Dusty bookshelves and corners of the internet are littered with my old blog posts and half-finished journals. I was a teenage bookworm who would happily spend hours wriggling through the twists of fiction, poetry, and travel memoirs. When I started my PhD, I made the acquaintance of academic … Continue reading Twists and turning points
Below is the “turning points” exercise I completed at a workshop I attended in April 2020, "Finding Your Voice As An Academic Writer". The point of the exercise is to rewrite an aspect of one's chosen subject through a series of "turning points", just like twists in a work of fiction. I study Volcán de … Continue reading Nine turning points: a writing exercise
For my first blog post while in Guatemala this spring, I thought I would write about scales of time and distance. It’s something I think a lot about, especially because my research is split between two distant countries, and because 2.5 years into my PhD, I have rather more time to reflect on than to … Continue reading A sense of scale
According to my front page, I last published a post six months ago. Yikes! Keeping up a regular blog was one of my resolutions for last year that fizzled out. That isn't to say that writing has completely slipped my mind. Quite the opposite: there have been many moments in 2017 that I really wanted … Continue reading Return to writing
This is my third blog post in 2017. I know, I know! I began the year with such good intentions: I wanted to publish once a month, and to write consistently from Guatemala. Now it is spring in Bristol, and the blossoms are already falling from the cherry trees. I returned from Guatemala over a … Continue reading A Snapshot of Guatemala
Reasoning With Volcanoes 