Dr Rachael Durkin

The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial The government should not stand aloof as a crisis unfolds in our universities. A new settlement is needed In one of David Lodge’s famous campus novels, a young English literature lecturer pictures her university as “the ideal human community, where ……

The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial

International Fellowships 2025 The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for three years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce.

Please spread the word as we have opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social International Fellowships which enable researchers to work for two years at a UK institution. If you fancy being away from your country right now this could be an option!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/inte...

Banging the drum for music education: the UK school run with an orchestra Shireland CBSO academy in West Bromwich has put music at centre of its teaching in effort to revive interest

A really fantastic partnership, placing quality music education at the heart of a school. Music is for EVERYONE, not just the privileged few:

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Sharing again for those who may have missed this first time round!

Research Fellow in Humanities at Northumbria University Apply now for the Research Fellow in Humanities role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

I’m now inviting applications for 2 postdoc roles to work with me on on my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship project ‘Global Music Technologies: Collaboration and Cultural Exchange’. Closing date 26th Jan. Please share!!

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLD914/r...

The academics who helped breathe new life into Notre-Dame Five years after a devastating fire, the Paris cathedral has finally reopened, with the help of a vast team of researchers

'When Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December, it was thanks, in part, to the efforts of 175 researchers with expertise across a range of disciplines: acoustics, art, data, history, archaeology, anthropology.' Example of why blue-skies research matters for 'real-life' problems we've not yet imagined. 1/2

I keep trying to write something eloquent and just being tired.
History matters. Philosophy matters. Languages and literature matter. Indigenous studies matter. Arts and humanities and social sciences matter. All of them.

Signed,
a physicist

Fascinating opportunity here for a funded PhD position for UK/home student with interests in organology, music pedagogy, musical collection, global musicology... #musicology

Global Music Technologies: Collaboration and Cultural Exchange (FAC25/ADSS/HUM/DURKIN) at Northumbria University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Global Music Technologies: Collaboration and Cultural Exchange (FAC25/ADSS/HUM/DURKIN) at Northumbria University, listed on FindAPhD.com

The position is open to UK/Home students only. Closing date is 25th January 2025. Please share!

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

A knowledge of music, with skills in music performance suitable for classroom music-making, is therefore essential. In addition, knowledge and/or experience in any of the following areas is desirable: ethnomusicology, pedagogy/music teaching, organology, museum studies /3

The student will be required to work across the fields of organology (musical instrument studies), musicology, and pedagogy, and engage with schools, education professionals, and museums and collections /2

Applications are now open for a fully funded PhD position at Northumbria University as part of my research project ‘Global Music Technologies: Collaboration and Cultural Exchange’. The studentship will focus on global musical instruments as tools for education in the primary classroom /1

Was great to be at the first half of the North East Heritage Forum this afternoon in the stunning Great Hall of the Discovery Museum, Newcastle. Good to hear more about the new North East Combined Authority - lots of work to do, but clear opportunities to leverage heritage for positive impact.

Oh I think my friend restored that! Nice piece of history!

Call for Proposals: Royal Musical Association 61st Annual Conference, Department of Music, University of Southampton (10–12 September 2025)
www.rma.ac.uk/2024/11/20/c...

Journal of Musicological Research Organology Special Issue. Volume 43, Issue 2-3 of Journal of Musicological Research

I’m so pleased to see the first half of our double special issue on organology (musical instrument studies) published in the Journal of Musicological Research! Huge amount of hard work by some utterly brilliant colleagues - very proud of this! Check it out here:

www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmur20/4...

HISTORY JOB ALERT 🚨🗃️

Assistant Professor in Modern History (post 1800), of Britain (including Ireland) or Europe and/or their empires.

Come work with us @WarwickHistory!
Please share and circulate.

Details below 👇 Deadline: 14 January 2024
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/candidate...

I popped the playlist on for my commute today, so I’ll need to go back through it to see which ones are keepers. But Maggot Heart and Healthyliving def jumped out. For postpunk goodness check out Squid’s ‘O Monolith’ album- Swing (In a Dream) and Undergrowth are earworms.

The hours this will save me finding new stuff to listen to! Lots of great stuff here - love Big Brave’s album, and Grave Pleasures is just good fun.

Fantastic to receive my copy of The Routledge Companion to Applied Musicology yesterday with our chapter on organology (co-authored with Darryl Martin). Such a fascinating range of topics covered, assembled and expertly edited by Chris Dromey. Very much looking forward to reading this!

I now have multiple invite codes to share - dm me if you have a friend looking for one!

I have a spare code for here should you have a friend looking for one - just shout if you’d like it!

This piano has real start of semester energy…

A great couple of days at the RMA2023 conference at the University of Nottingham for a panel on the future of organology. Now have major campus envy. Shame the weather hasn’t followed me back north 🙄

Such a joy to be at the Lit&Phil library in Newcastle this evening to present a short paper as part of the John Buddle 250 celebrations. Stunning building too - worth a visit if you are in town!

Museum roles have the best job titles 🐟

Loved my time in the Netherlands last week at the CIMCIM2023 conference - top highlights include an after hours lock-in at the Rijksmuseum, a visit to high security underground collections storage, and catching up with wonderful colleagues I haven’t seen in a very long time.