This June marked my first time back in a lecture theatre in 15...

This June marked my first time back in a lecture theatre in 15 months. My last class at Charles University in Prague, switched abruptly online at the start of March 2020. So this was the end of a rather distinct hiatus.

As part of the University of Exeter’s Festival of Discovery I took part in a workshop to tease out some pandemic reflections. It was an incredibly small affair with just a handful of students turning up, but it was a neat opportunity to discuss in real life some of the issues that have been dominating the last year. Fusing my own research with the workshop, I spoke on the topic of the boom in skateboarding during the pandemic. This was buoyed by some superb skate journalism from the likes of Jenkem, NGOs, and skate blogs over the last year. Flick through the presentation here.

The event itself was a little surreal as I was meeting, in person, colleagues that I had only ever spoken to on Zoom. There was distinct misrecognition going on. People really do not look the same online looking down into the camera with a virtual background. Many people are surely experiencing similar encounters, particularly if they have started a new job in the midst of the pandemic. 

For all the rhetoric out there about how work and study will never quite be the same again, it was immediate just how different and indeed valuable it was discussing ideas in person.