Stuck in

Photo Dindy van Maanen /NIAS

So events major and minor have been coming thick and fast of late.  I will try to catch up in a series of posts over the next few days. 

 The first of these is to say I am now ensconced for the academic year at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar, as part of the theme group Inventing Europe working to develop a six-volume bok series and – my part of this – a virtual exhibit on the history of Europe as told by following the tangled paths of technology.

NIAS is a strange and lovely place, tucked away in the trees, not far from the beach, and is populated by folks from all over the humanities, including lawyers, novellists, historians, philosophers, literary studies, art historians etc.  We all introduced our work by way of a 5-minute talk – which turns out to be an extremely fruitful length of time for putting the core activities and question on the table for a general audience.  Lunch is still filled with conversations about all and sundry.

Main trouble is that it is like being in a candy shop – there’s so many interesting things happening, one can almost forget the main work one is there to do…

… but in a good way.