Contents
Work InformationMy Photograph AlbumContact Information Current Projects Publications Biographical Information Personal Interests Well, here's a little info about me, if you really want to know!
Contents |
| Work Information |
| My Photograph Album |
| Contact Information |
| Current Projects |
| Publications |
| Biographical Information |
| Personal Interests |
I read Russian Studies at the University of Essex, England, from 1996-2000 and graduated with a 2:1. After a year in a defence library in London, I studied at University College London 2001/02, for an MA in Library and Information Studies, which I passed in November 2002. I speak a number of different languages, including Russian and French, although I'm not really using my Russian at present.
My undergraduate course was interesting. As an area studies programme, it allowed me to learn more than just the language of the country. My first year was mainly an introductory one, as I took Russian ab initio. In my second year, in addition to my language courses, I took a course about the state of transition in various post-communist societies, which was enlightening about the actual nature of transition. I was taught by Professor George Kolankiewicz. The academic year 1998-99, I spent studying in Russia . I began the year at Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University for three months, and then studied at the Hertsen institute in St. Petersburg after the Christmas break until June. I really enjoyed my time in Russia , and I love to return when I have sufficient money. So far, I've not managed that much... My final year was really hard, as they all are. For my 'outside options' I took one course on the History of the Russian Revolution, under Prof. Steve A. Smith, and a second on the author and playwright Anton Chekhov, under Dr. Anat Vernitskii. My 'final year project', or dissertation, was entitled 'The Russian Fairytale', and was supervised by the head of the Literature department, Dr Leon Burnett.
After graduating I spent a year working in Whitehall, London, doing my 'pre-library school' year in a government library, and also studying Archaeology in the evenings at my local college. I found it fascinating to work in a government library, and very demanding. I then spent the academic year, 2001-02, studying at University College London and working part-time in the University of Surrey library, taking an MA in Library and Information Studies in order to qualify as a librarian. Ideally I would like to work as a librarian in an academic library dealing with Russian material, although such jobs are few and far between. I definitely would prefer to work in a non-corporate environment. I managed to get two weeks work experience in the British Library Slavonics section, which was great fun and very interesting, followed by a year-long contract at the Courtauld Institute of Art's book library as a Post-Graduate Trainee. It was fun and I really enjoyed working there. From the middle of July 2003 until April 2004, I worked as a 'Learning Resources Advisor' at Colchester Institute. I was basically a subject librarian, with responsibility for a rather disjointed hotch-potch mixture of subject. These were:
| Accounting and Economics; Administration; Leisure and Hospitality; Catering; Travel and Tourism + Geography; Business and Management; Marketing; Engineering; Auto Engineering; Science and Technology ; Law and some politics |
Since I started knowing next to nothing on any of them, it was a bit of a learning curve for me...! After I moved to Buckinghamshire I spent nine months temping at the Open University in Milton Keynes, providing extra support on their Science, Health and Social Welfare subject team. I then proceeded to spend over a year at the House of Lords doing parliamentary indexing of deposited papers, then six weeks doing cataloguing of (mostly) old exhibition catalogues at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
Following Chelsea I spent about 8 months working as an Information Officer at Norton Rose in the City of London, which was a big change for me. I enjoyed the work, as apart from enquiries and research, I was responsible for the Environment law department, and eResources. Unfortunately Norton Rose proved to have a less enlightened attitude to asperger syndrome in their staff and I left in April 2007. From June 2007 to June 2008 I took a maternity cover contract at the University of Nottingham, working as a Senior Library Assistant in the Cataloguing and Metadata section. This proved to be a good move, and I slowly regained some of the self-belief I lost whilst working in the City. Whilst there I was responsible for all materials in Romance languages, mainly Spanish and French, with a bit of Italian. Unfortunately for me, there was already have a native Russian speaker working in the department, so I didn't really get to play with Cyrillic materials. I was also back up for Law, having been taking part in a major project to reclassify the whole of the main law collection from an in-house variant of LCC to full Library of Congress classifications. Since working there, the stupid credit crunch has affected work in Manchester, and I've been mostly doing bits and pieces of temp work where possible. Two of the most fun contracts have been for Davyhulme library and at a contact centre in the town centre.
During both my second and final years I was secretary of the Russian Society at university. I was also heavily involved with the Rock Society, being a committee member before I went abroad, and Secretary during my last year. I represented my year group at departmental meetings in the second year. I was also a member of the executive committee of Essex Nightline from 1999-2000.
My main social activity whilst at university, was drama, appearing in four main productions during my time there. I was in (in chronological order) 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Lords & Ladies', 'Wyrd Sisters', and 'Jesus Christ Super Star'. I thoroughly enjoyed them all, and love being on stage, but it is exhausting!! In the winter of 2004 I did my first ever panto, 'Cinderella', with the Top Hats group from RAF Halton. It was so nice to be acting again!
Since becoming involved with re-enactment, I have held a number of positions on our Society Council, notably Armourer, Publicity and Secretary. I liked being on the executive committee as I felt like I was actually doing something to continue what I love, but from Manchester this isn't really feasible now.
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E-mail address: melanie @ garnet.me.uk
Personal
Academic
For the future, academically, everything is a little vague. I would love to be able to take a PhD soon, and have been setting things into motion in that way. If all goes to plan, I would like to start as soon as possible and do it part-time whilst working. My subject area was to be Russian folklore and the social history of women, but there are currently no academics in Britain who could supervise me. I have spent some time considering this, and have decided to focus my research on another area of interest... I am doing a fair amount of research privately now, on a wide variety of subjects to do with aspects of mediaeval and Russian history which interest me. This means I am keeping the folklore related research for after my PhD.
I am currently taking the Certificate in Medieval History at Birkbeck College, London, concentrating on one of my other passions. I hope to extend this to a Diploma by Research, as a preliminary to taking a PhD. In 2005-06 I concentrated on palaeography and Latin, and over 2006/07 I took Medieval History c.1215-1500, Medieval History c.900- 1215, 'Castle, Croft and Church: The Archaeology of Medieval Europe', and Reading Medieval Latin. Unfortunately the modules on Medieval Women and Medieval Outcasts: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages are not available this year, and some of the others I'd like to take are only on in the daytime. :( Over 2007/08 I was taking some courses at the University of Nottingham towards gaining an MA in Local and Regional history, but financial constraints since completing my contract there have stopped me completing it at present. I am still hoping to do so however when I can...
![[info]](http://www.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} emys_research | (My Research Journal) |
I am intending to focus my future work on the following areas, some of which are ongoing:
Well, I'm now the grand old age of thirty-one years old and the second of three sisters. I was born on November 1st 1977 at St. Luke's hospital in Guildford, Surrey. I grew up mad and have stayed that way. I am scatty and peculiar, but above all I am uniquely me!! I am also a depressive person at times, and insanely happy at others - good for confusing people who don't know you well!! I was never especially popular at school, but those friendships I did make were lasting ones. At university, life was much easier - people are far less judgmental and are more willing to accept you as you are.
After my MA exams, I moved back to Colchester where I went to university, and stayed there for about two years. In April 2004 moved to Aylesbury to live with my best friend Gavin. After two years sharing there I moved back home to my parents to start saving up to buy my own house but life intervened when I met my husband, Jon. I am now living in Salford, in the North West with him, and we got married on 5th January 2008.
My elder sister, Katy was a solicitor for Capsticks law firm in London until she became a full-time mum. In April 2002 she got married to her long-term boyfriend, Andy, who is also a lawyer. I was chief bridesmaid. I am really proud of her. Pictures of the wedding here... In October 2006 she had her first child, Edward, and I'm thrilled to be an aunty at last! My newest nephew, Alexander, was born in September 2008.
My younger sister, Claudia, is two years younger than me. She is originally from Romania, and was adopted in 1995 when she was 15. Amusingly, of the three of us, she is the one who most resembles our parents to look at! She has learning difficulties and also mobility problems caused by rheumatoid arthritis. After finishing full-time school, she started working on a special scheme combining a small amount of paid work with the adult education programme. Now she works full-time in the kitchens at the local grammar school, which she rather enjoys. She is bubbly and friendly, despite her past and present difficulties.
My mother is a special needs teacher for 5-11 year olds. In what little spare time she has, she works for the Amigos refugee project, and was Church Warden of our parish church in the past for six years or so. She is also a novice of the Franciscan Third Order.
My father used to work for British Rail and is a train fanatic. Now he runs his own communications business, technically, and works part-time for the Diocese of Guildford. He is also the town crier and beadle for Guildford Borough. They have been married over 35 years now!!
Well, my main interests in life are reading and music!! If fact it is very rare to find me without some book or other in my bag 'just in case'. I am also a music lover. I played viola in the university orchestra as an undergrad, and when I was younger I also played bass guitar in a band with a few friends. Since about June, I have been playing the recorder with the LR, mainly for the dance music in shows, which is still absolutely terrifying! I am know for my eclectic music tastes, being a Goth-metal fan who likes classical, ska, soul and early music...
What else? Well, I love learning languages and can speak, to varying degrees, Russian, French, Italian and Romanian, plus a couple of words of Greek, Spanish and Welsh! I've trying to learn a bit of Hungarian and Finnish in my spare time, just for the hell of it, (and cos they're supposed to be the hardest to learn...). I've accidentally ended up learning some basic German, Norwegian and Swedish, as I've been cataloguing books in those languages, and you kind of need to know what they're about! I guess I'm going to have to learn German properly at some point if I start working on folklore again, as there is a large amount of material in German, untranslated into any language I can read... aagh! Currently I'm brushing up my Latin at evening classes.
I also love ice-skating and ice hockey. I used to play ice hockey when I was younger, badly I admit, but it was fun. I enjoy swimming and horse-riding, so I am endeavouring to become more active and maybe jon a riding club and I intend to go to the pool more often… One other interest of mine is drama; I adore both acting front-stage and working backstage in the theatre. I have always been fascinated by history and archaeology, and I studied Archaeology at evening classes for a while after I graduated, and again this year.
Lastly, but certainly not least, I am a member of the Lion Rampant mediaeval display group. I really enjoy being part of the group, who are warm, welcoming and enthusiastic. I have chosen not to do fighting, as I feel my temper is nowhere near controlled enough, although I may be learning to wield weapons this winter as it would be appropriate to my character. I have done a little bit of archery, and I love joining in the singing, dancing and music. I joined in the autumn of 2003, and since the summer of 2004 I have taken part in shows in front of the public. It is terrifying, exhilarating and absolutely addictive. I would like to be able to join a local archery group again so I can get more practice, but unfortunately I'm moving around a lot at the moment, so it just isn't practical. Musically for LR I play the recorder, and I am would like to learn to play the rebec or lute.
Last Revised: Thursday, 06th November, 2008
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