You know the feeling when you know you’re running behind schedule with so many things and you’re trying really hard but you still can’t seem to catch up? That’s exactly how I felt with updating this section. So, in order to really complete the catch-up in one go, here’s a really quick summary of my last couple of months. I’ll start chronologically from now and will go back to April. Fasten your seatbelts. 

July-August

You will be happy to read that I have managed to take time off – and to work on my PhD. That’s it really, two things I’ve been up to lately. Also, a book arrived in the post for me: David Gerlach's edited volume Wissen, Können und Handeln von Fremdsprachenlehrpersonen to which I was honoured to contribute with an article was officially published! Now, I am slowly but surely thinking about the next term as it’s the time again where the excitement about meeting old students and welcoming new ones into the life of academica and UCC is growing steadily. It’s been too long now since I had my last class – bring it on!

June

After the conference (see below) is before the conference! Preparations are running high in UCC where the next annual conference of the Irish Association of Applied Linguistics will take place. We were able to secure Prof. Lorraine Leeson and Prof. Li Wei as keynote speakers and looking forward to welcoming all delegates in Cork. Identity and diversity promises to be an intriguing theme, too.

May

After over a year of preparation, finally, the 3rd International Scenario Forum Conference took place from 9-11 May at Trinity College Dublin. Around 140-150 delegates from over 30 countries engaged in four keynotes, 52 papers, 26 workshops, and one performance – all revolving around the theme of presence in performative approaches to teaching, learning and research. I don’t think I can come up with a better summary in one sentence. It was a big get-together of like-minded people, working in education and attempting to make it as much of an inspring place as possible.

Also, at the end of May, the whole Scenario Project Team, was awarded the UCC Research Award 2023 for Open Science. I was delighted to receive the award on behalf of the project team, together with UCC colleagues Manfred Schewe and Fionn Woodhouse. While we of course don’t do this to receive awards but because we are convinced that the Scenario Project is an important educational initiative, it was nevertheless nice to celebrate all the work that we have done over the last years and to see it recognized.

And also in May, I participated in the UCC Good Practice Symposium where I shared my experience of using Instagram as an educational tool. Yes, Instagram. Yes, it's a lot of work. And yes, I really enjoy doing it. I think it's one of the important things when considering if you want to use something in the classroom: Do you like it yourself? Can you see yourself doing this for 10, 20, 30 and more times over the next while? If you're in doubt, my suggestion would be to think again whether it's really "worth" it. Sounds perhaps a bit drastic but if I think of a very non-digital thing, e.g. choosing a text for teaching, I also don't use anything I don't really like. Why would I, for example, "torture" myself with a reading comprehension and with a text that I can't deal with at all? Would you?

April 

It’s been a really busy month with term ending and the Scenario conference appraoching in early May. But one of the coolest things I did in April was travelling to Valencia and the Universitat de València. Ana R. Calero Valera invited my to give a plenary workshop/paper and to participate in a roundtable discussion at the IV Jornada Innova-tea. And what a great venue, organization and conference. One of the things I really enjoyed – disregarding the great atmosphere and fantastic welcome and tour I got! – was the trial-and-error of my attempts to understanding Spanish, Catalan and Valenciano. While I was able to draw on my French and other language skills to make sense of some things, which was a really rewarding experience, there were moments where I hadn’t a clue what was going on. Interestingly, it still kind of made sense and I never felt completely lost. No words are needed to describe Valencia itself – just a beautiful and colourful place to enjoy. 

That's it. That's the quickest update ever. Here's a picture of Luna as a little reward for you going all the way to the end. Bye for now. 👋