By Deanna McCarthy.
Congratulations! The big day you have been waiting for is finally upon you. All the deadlines, exams, all-nighters and evenings in the SU bar have finally paid off and you are ready to enter the big scary world armed with a shiny new degree. Whether this is your first or third Graduation, LiFTS has some tips for making the most of the day.
By Ashleigh Poole.
Last week, our own Dr Liam Jarvis visited Shoeburyness High School, working with their fantastic musical theatre students and conducting a workshop. The stage was filled with smiles as they took part in practical exercises used in the rehearsal sessions for the record-breaking West End show, War Horse.
GIFs sourced from Giphy.com
By Jordan Welsh.
I’ve wanted to write a blog entry for the LiFTs Department at Essex for some time but unfortunately reading, essays, research and life got in the way. Today I am pleased to actually have the chance to contribute something as I prepare to end my time at the University of Essex. *sobs uncontrollably*
I am amazed at how much the place has gotten under my skin. The truth is Essex feels like home. It is welcoming and accepting. They say that university is an opportunity to reinvent yourself, I say that university is the place where you can actually be yourself. Unlike school, when you come to university you’ll find that you will moan and complain but you never truly want to leave. More amazing still you actually can’t wait to return after the holidays!
Ashleigh Poole.
It took nineteen months of being a University of Essex graduate before the longing to come back stole my every second thought. Nineteen months of wishing I had stayed for the Wild Writing MA programme, nineteen months of missing the way the squares tend to vibrate with happiness as soon as the sun begins to shine, nineteen months of reminiscing over the senseless adventures taken during my three years at University of Essex and regretting the decision to stop them right there. After nineteen months, I couldn’t stay away.
By Sarah Lawrence.
I’m sorry, who will star in Strictly Come Dancing 2017?!
The lineup for the Saturday night show is always one to spark interest and to be the subject of speculation before the official unveiling. However, from a trustworthy source, a rumour concerning the participation of someone who is very close and dear to the University and most importantly, the LiFTS Department has just been confirmed. Does the name Seeger ring any bells? We can now safely assume that one of the fifteen celebrities competing for the Glitterball Trophy in 2017 is our very own Dr Sean Seeger.
Let’s hope that his fondness for James Joyce is second to his fondness for sparkles and fake tan!
The rumour started to occur when he announced a rather abrupt sabbatical from the University of Essex: why else would he leave? Now it seems that he is planning to impress tutors of a different kind (personally I hope he is partnered with Oti Mabuse). Hopefully Craig Revel Horwood will be as proud of him as we are.
Although we are not sure whom he will be competing against yet, we know he has our vote. More is set to be revealed in the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled and be vigilant!
…and don’t forget: “keep dancing!”
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By Deanna McCarthy
When I joined the LiFTS General Office in March 2016, I was eager to see things from “behind the scenes”. When I was a Language & Literature student here at Essex, I never really gave much thought to what those in the admin offices actually do. My experience with the admin team (in both the LiFTS and the Language & Linguistics department) was often extremely brief. I would hand in or collect coursework or enquire whether my marks were back (FASer was in its infancy when I studied here from 2009-2012 and I normally received my feedback handwritten – oh how times have changed!) and then leave for my lectures or to try and grab a study space in the library.
However, it turns out (as our previous Student Engagement Intern Sam said in his post earlier this year) that it takes an awful lot to run an academic department and the General Office have a bigger role than you may think. So in case you’re interested, here’s a brief rundown of what we do all year (no Easter or summer break for us!)…
By Lelia Ferro.
Recently I have been trying to do some of the things that I would never normally do. A couple of weeks ago I stood on a small stage before the mic and read my poem The Last House at Poetry Wivenhoe. I had wanted to attend for over 10 years but I was too terrified. Everyone clapped when I finished and people were lovely and encouraging afterwards. It was a fantastic boost.
Last week I launched a poetry and art project called Married to the Marshes which I hope will feed my dissertation and later perhaps a PhD. I would never usually dare to call myself an artist. To me that word seems far away and belongs to someone far more confident and eminent. But a local writer who has recently published something quite beautiful suggested to me that perhaps I should just do it, and so here I am going for it!
By Raphaela Behounek.
For anyone who missed the highlight of February: last month our own Theatre Arts Society staged the ancient Greek tragedy Antigone at the Lakeside Theatre, and if you didn’t come and watch it – gee, did you miss something! In case you were wondering why I am still so excited about it – I had the honour of being part of this amazing cast and crew. Do not fret, however, I will not spend the whole post praising everyone involved and I certainly don’t expect you to bow your head in shame if you haven’t seen it (but just for your information, even people who don’t like Antigone and/or Greek tragedy enjoyed it!). What I do want to talk about though is why we should all go out and see some more theatre and maybe even try to participate in it, even when we are not pursuing a degree in Drama.
First things first, why is it important that people go and see theatre shows and why should we even bother to stage and study theatre? If you have a passion for theatre, like most drama students have and I do too, you do it because of that love. But not everyone feels that way. If we think back to school days and our teacher telling us that we’re going to see a play, at least in my class, I seemed to be the only excited person. So how can we pass on this excitement and even more importantly, why do we even want to do that? Going through the how is definitely not my speciality, so I will not talk about that, but during my time as a tutor, I certainly had to answer a lot of these whys when I got all excited about Shakespeare and Sophocles.
By James Jefferies.
Part of my role as a Student Engagement Project Worker is to help run and organise events, so when I was asked to be involved with an event that LiFTS would be holding in conjunction with International Women’s Day, I took it on like any other project. I began by researching into the history of the event, learning what it was about and also what it aimed to achieve. I soon began sharing ideas with colleagues and the cogs of the project started rolling.
Guests were invited, activities planned, paperwork written up, meetings conducted and posters made and distributed. The roller coaster of organising the event was now moving fast along the rails of time and after growing a plethora of fresh grey hairs, and at times considering emigrating to the North Pole to live as a penguin, everything soon began to fit into place and the day was suddenly upon us.
The day started with sorting leaflets and placing posters up with directions to the room. The worry that nobody would turn up for the event kept tapping me coldly on the shoulder. People did turn up though. A good number of people in fact, who were giving me feedback about how wonderful the event was and soon I was feeling rather proud of what the Department had achieved.
