About ten days ago I found myself in an excellent short research meeting in Roehampton University (UR). There were four of us in the room and we’d agreed to meet because we had overlapping interests in researching the positive and the negative perceptions and experiences many bereaved people have of the deceased person being still present: “Experiences of Continuing Presence” (ECP) and “Continuing Bonds” (CB).
The four of us were a lecturer in UR who is German by birth but has lived in the UK for many years and I’m sure her children have British nationality, or a right to it. The next was a student from the University of Aarhus in Denmark near the end of her PhD. The third was a PhD student doing his PhD in Roehampton but from Galicia in Spain originally (from just south of my beloved Santiago de Compostella) but who did a Masters degree at Leiden University after his Masters training in Clinical Psychology in Spain (and a short but important spell working in Bolivia). I was the fourth there: the only native Brit and heading off to the Alps because Brexit threatens such a precious and wonderful mixing of minds, of cultural, spiritual/religious and linguistic experience and expertise.
Our second meeting a week later was augmented by a Brit who isn’t semigrating but who, like every Brit in the academic world I’ve talked to about my semigration, is hugely supportive of what I’m doing and, like every colleague and collaborator I have, is completely committed to working with me by Email, Zoom, Skype if it’ll ever work reliably, and whatever other tools we need to do distance collaboration.
It’s a rum world at the moment and Brexit just gets to look more and more crazy with every news update we get on the process.
Just to amuse you, here are some recent ‘photos of Roehampton. I think technically these are of Southlands College. The bit we were in, Whitelands, is separate from this but equally grand.
Students …
Approaching the wisteria tunnel.
Catching the tunnel at the right time of year.
This is Whitelands where we met, and recent. I’ll come back to both the cat and the maypole in other posts!
I like the students, particularly the last one!
Yes. Goes by “Badger”. Probably the most disdainful and lofty cat I’ve ever met … and you know cats so you can appreciate what an achievement that is.