Out with the Old, In with the New, But Keeping What is Good

 It has been awhile since i have updated here, as life has taken a different turn this past year. I left my tenure-track position at Universiti Malaya (despite having three more years on the contract, although that had since reduced to 2 years and 4 months by the time I left) to pursue the broadening of horizons and also to make my own creative and intellectual dreams come true (and go through). This is done by giving myself this year, through the affordances of a fellowship, to reconfigure things I am doing so that they are more in line with the direction I am seeing myself increasingly converging on. It has been a challenging yet good year of new experiences, new insights, and self-reflections. I was losing the ability to try new things and take risks in what I do, and now, I see myself returning, taking a small step at a time, to what had made life worthwhile in the first place.

Before that, I had spent the months between June 2022 and September 2022, which was about 4 months, to plan, organize, start, and finish up a project on artscience and STEM education - I would have like to take more time with it, but because of my imminent departure and that I had received the national-level grant to run this project after knowing I would be leaving, I decided to use the opportunity given me to do the one project the way I see fit, even while working with constraints. In fact, the particular aspects of the project was connected to the reason I took up my previous post in the first place. But for the first year or so in which I was at the position, I found myself unable to pursue what I had intended due to situations at the workplace, and I did not see the opportunity to pursue that intention increasing even if my time there were to extend. As I was leaving, I am no longer bounded by obligations and responsibilities to do the things that did not fulfill me, but were required for my yearly performance assessment. That left me with much time to create an impact, even if small at that time, on my way out. You can see the result of that project at the website set up specifically to communicate and document its progress.

As I close up for a vacation starting tomorrow (I didn't quite take a Christmas vacation although I took some mini-breaks during the actual holidays, and even caught up on some interesting pieces of entertainment that had flown under my radar), I am taking a break from all work for an entire week, and will use that time to catch up on the personal. The week after, it would be back to part-time work, mixed in with the personal.

I look forward to posting here more regularly in 2023, as there are a number of activities I will be involved in. But before signing off, just wanted to post some updates, for those not in the know:

I am presently a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Aachen: Cultures of Research at the RWTH-Aachen University, so I am presently based in Aachen.

I have two works that came out within the past month. One is a sort of short monograph that connects fandom, fan-fiction, and worldbuilding with political-influencers, and the other is a book chapter in a science and design book. There is another article scheduled to appear in February, which I will post about here then.

I wish everyone a closure to 2022, and to be able to get closer to the life you want for yourselves.