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tutoring I am offering tutoring in the following areas: German language and literature Telc exam preparation for German one-off training for German citizenship test English literature Cambridge University application training German Language * individual and small group classes (maximum 4) * from beginner to advanced * special focus on speaking or grammar boosters * 45 […]
Desirable Difficulty
If you can’t read this (easily), that’s exactly what should happen. This typeface has been named Sans Forgetica by some Jacques aficionado genius, because it’s supposed to help you not forget what you’ve read. It’s got gaps and is back-slanted so that it becomes difficult (though not impossible) to read. It’s been developed by researchers of psychology, […]
What’s aught but as ’tis valued?
This, the title, is of course from everyone’s favourite play, good old Troilus and Cressida. We had that as our set play in the Cambridge tripos back in the days, so I feel nostalgic about it. I actually quite like it, less in the ‘oh, beautiful’ way, but rather ‘oh, interesting!’. Questions of honour, loyalty, the […]
‘This wooden O‘ – The Berlin Globe
Home. I’m home, Berlin, but still going to the Globe. The Berlin Globe. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve had our very own Elizabethan theatre, staging open-air shows in a quiet neighbourhood in the north of the city, and in English, too. Well, it’s not really Elizabethan yet. The investor has bought the construction material […]
‘Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of Greensleeves!’
Publishing takes a long, long, very long time. A chapter on rhetoric and dance in Shakespeare for the Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance was my first publishing deal, as it were. I pitched an abstract in July 2014 if memory serves right, just going into my second PhD year. The thing was written exactly 2 years […]
Family Resemblances
I’m working on a little biographical entry for the Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy (published by Springer, and available online) on Sir Charles Cavendish, the younger brother of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle and husband to the amazing Margaret Cavendish. The Cavendishes were one of the richest and most eminent families of the time and contributed to […]
Thinking about multiple identities boosts children’s flexible thinking.
Diversity, diversity, diversity. Diversity in societies, workplaces, families, you name it – diversity enables problem-solving. That’s why the world is in such a sorry state, because we keep recruiting the same kinds of people, people like us, because of whom we know how they tick, we know we’ll work well with them, we identify, probably […]
Speedy Reading. Or not.
Do you know those heads-up at the head of an online article, telling you how long it’s likely to take you to read it? I do appreciate those, although they smack of the capitalist obsession with effectiveness and brevity. I want it ALL, and I want it NOW, without actually making any kind of (shiver) effort… If […]
‘Adorned with Sculptures’ – Book Illustration Through the Centuries
I have several files on several devices entitled ‘pretty pictures’. That is, early modern pictures. Lots of these are paintings, some manuscript illuminations, and some from printed books. I have to admit: I’ve never really thought about what the differences between them are, how they were made, how to tell the one kind from another. […]
Making Use of a Conference
Conferences are great: they give you motivation for your research (i.e. making you forget you chose an under-paid, over-working precarious job), offer you the latest scholarly activity on a plate, help you build a network of friends and cooperators, and give you a chance to show what you have, get insight early on, get grilled […]