It’s been a year since I set up this blog and clearly I failed to keep alive at least the illusion of some regular publishing here. Life has been busy!
Unsurprisingly, the long silence coincided with the rhythm of the academic year. I have just finished exams and honours level turned out to be quite demanding. However, the reason why I did not get around to writing a lot can be easily blamed on my extra-curricula activities that have mushroomed over the past months. I was selected to work as an intern with the School of Education at the University of Glasgow; I was privileged to be chosen to take part in the Olive Tree Initiative and will be going to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan this summer; and I was lucky to secure participation in the ICPSR Summer program (funded by the University of Glasgow’s QStep Centre) to developed my quantitative methods skills further. On top, thanks to the incredible support of my lecturers, I developed my research focus further and have a clear vision of what I am going to do for my dissertation in the coming academic year. Outside academia, I continue to engage closely with my local church. Here too, I have been very privileged to be picked to serve in the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland and this week I am serving as a commissioner at the Church’s General Assembly. I have been very blessed in 2017/18.
All these blessings have kept me incredibly busy and they will very likely continue to do so. Nevertheless, I think I need to be careful not to just plough away but rather ensure that I truly experience and reflect. So here is my next attempt at making this blog regular by simply sharing the things I am involved in. For the coming week, this will be the General Assembly from which I hope to report daily. Fingers crossed this works!
Rebecca Gebauer 