The University of Essex Podcast

Our students came together to celebrate their success through our new Big Essex Award and we also presented awards to 10 students for their significant contribution to the University and surrounding community. Find out more about the awards here: http://bit.ly/big_essex. You can also see all the photos from the event here: http://bit.ly/big_e_photos

“A primary function of a university must be to engage in research. It can discharge its responsibility to train future researchers only if it is itself a place where research is done. And research is the guarantee of its academic standards ... One good scientist attracts another. They attract good students too.” Sir Albert Sloman, 1963 Reith Lectures

Three of the University’s most influential early academics talk about the impact of their work – in computer science, sociology and science.

- Tony Brooker was the founding Professor of Computer Science, and credited with creating the world’s first publicly available computer language. He talks of the days when there were no computer terminals, and students had to use punch cards which “invariably had mistakes” at first and would “produce garbage” as a result. Later, he says, Essex scored a coup in getting the PDP-10, the first time-sharing computer in the country.

- Dennis Marsden was an early sociologist, and co-author of Education and the Working Class, described by the Times Higher Education in its obituary of Marsden as “the single most influential book in its field in the 1960s and early 1970s” , as a key source for Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys). He went on to produce pioneering studies of fatherless families and the unemployed, and talks here of how he “got very good at talking my way off doorsteps, indoors”.

- Sir John Ashworth was founding Professor of Biological Sciences and went on to become the government’s Chief Scientific Officer. Baroness Blackstone apparently thought he was “absolutely nuts” when he told James Callaghan’s Cabinet that micro-chips would “revolutionise everything”. He speaks of how a conversation in a becalmed boat off Clacton led him to that Cabinet meeting, and how “it’s all come about, even more radically and more quickly than I had anticipated”.

For the past four years Derek Walcott has developed an ever closer relationship with the University of Essex culminating with the world premiere of his new play O Starry Starry Night. Here he discusses the support he has received from the University and in particular Professor Maria Cristina Fumagalli, Penny Woollard and the Lakeside Theatre production team.

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott unveiled his new play O Starry Starry Night at the Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex's Colchester Campus in May 2013. Here he explains why he chose to write about the relationship between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, the themes in the play, the Trinidadian theatrical tradition and the production process including the support he received from the University's academic and creative team.

What was it like to teach at an entirely new university, and to have greater freedom than at more established institutions? In this podcast – the eighth in our series – early academics say the atmosphere was “exhilarating”, “intellectually exciting” and “relaxed”. A job offer from Essex was “a huge opportunity – I just had to take it”.

Essex was established to be interdisciplinary, and early academics found the opportunity to talk to colleagues over lunch or coffee created enormous “intellectual traffic between departments”. There was an openness to new ideas that would not have been possible at a more conventional university. There was even, at the beginning, the opportunity to be offered a job with no formal interview.

Interviewees

- Dawn Ades, Professor or Art History

- Ted Benton, Professor of Sociology]

- Peter Frank, former Professor of Russian Politics in the Department of Government

- Peter Townsend, founding Professor of Sociology

- Gabriel Pearson, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies for over 30 years

- Paul Thompson, Research Professor in the Department of Sociology, first came to Essex in 1964

Lorna McGregor has been appointed the new Director of the Human Rights Centre at Essex, one of the most prestigious centres for the study of human rights in the world.

People who worked at the University at its inception have tales to tell about tea breaks, beer in the bar at lunchtime and even ping pong in the office. The University was, one says, “almost like a holiday camp” – although by the time he left, lunch was a sandwich in one hand and a pen in the other. When it came to dealing with students, some were “lovely”, while dealing with others required patience, tolerance or unbreakable glass.

For other staff, memorable incidents included the Vice-Chancellor’s wife bringing tea and biscuits on a silver platter – or Graduation, with the chance to encounter MPs and others one would never have the chance to meet. “It’s surprising,” we hear, “what people say to you when it’s just the two of you in a lift.”

Interviewees

- John Cox, formerly of Estate Management

- Robin Dixon, former Secretary to the School of Comparative Studies

- Mary Girling, former Secretary, Department of Sociology

- Margaret Lynch, formerly of Estate Management

- David Morgan, formerly of Estate Management

- Alex Selley, formerly of Estate Management

The budget's implications for the macroeconomy discussed by Professor Jerry Coakley from Essex Business School.

Professor Jerry Coakley was appearing at a special breakfast briefing organised by the Research and Enterprise Office at the University of Essex. For more information go to: www.essex.ac.uk/reo

The political implications and responses from Westminster are discussed by Professor Paul Whiteley from the Department of Government. at the University of Essex. Professor Whiteley was appearing at a special breakfast briefing organised by the Research and Enterprise Office at the University of Essex. For more information visit: www.essex.ac.uk/reo

Following the Chancellor's speech Professor Mike Brewer from the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) and Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies offers analysis and comments on the budget. Professor was appearing at a special breakfast briefing organised by the Research and Enterprise Office at the University of Essex. For more information about future events go to: www.essex.ac.uk