Felicity Aris
And such issues are still current problems in Italy today?
Yes, so it’s really interesting to put it in contrast. Because, did you know, until 1963, seamstresses were fired when they got married! That was the only reason.
I wanted to learn about these problems, because, as you may know, often history is written by men or by the literate groups, so I also wanted to make memory more democratic; rewriting history with different voices.
Did you always want to go into this field? Into academia?
I’ve never had a master plan - but going into academia, it’s great because you are able to find what you are interested in and share that with others who are interested. Although, you have to reconcile yourself to the fact that there are really only 10 other people who are interested in the same way.
Do you have supervisors for your project? How do they help with your research?
I have two supervisors, Dr. Ruth Glynn and Dr. Catherine O’Rawe. When you are doing a PhD, you want to be doing original research, so your supervisors provide you with frameworks to work with, and how to critically approach your sources. They direct you in your research. So you aren’t just throwing your work in - because it’s important when you are researching to contextualise everything within the academic world. You aren’t working in a vacuum.
The research is a large part of a PhD, but do you also teach?
Yes, teaching is an option, you are quite lucky to teach. I teach here and at the University of Gloucestershire. I also taught in Paris.
How do you juggle the teaching and the research? Do you work in the morning or are you una civetta di notte?
Neither - I am definitely not a morning person. I am sort of in between. But I found quickly, doing my PhD, and as I got older, the way to approach it is to make it a 9-5 work day. Especially if you are teaching as well, because preparation for a 2 hour lecture takes about 1 to 3 days to plan.
Have you got a self-guiding motto?
I don’t really have a motto in life, although having said that, I think the most important thing in life is to be kind. I try to tell that to people and do it myself. In academia, not everyone is very nice. You hear horror stories of people being strongly criticised, thankfully, I haven’t had that happen to me.