// Quick thoughts on @guardian http://bit.ly/lUCVzQ

A friend, @jarede, shared a link to New university gathers top academics to teach £18,000-a-year degrees, which has a raison d’etre to:

educate a new British elite with compulsory teaching in science literacy, critical thinking, ethics and professional skills on top of degree subjects taught in one-to-one tutorials

I was at first dismissive of it but I think it might work. I don't however think its a step forwards particularly, very few of the (successful) applicants won't already be from the upper echelons of the elite so it will likely make little difference to the state of education across the UK as a whole. Also, I would be interested to see how much face time and how good a quality the star lecturers are providing, as elsewhere they tend to be headline names but with little time to spare for undergrads or else are deservedly valuable for research output but are worse than useless are educators.

I do however think that the bundling of a diploma with a degree from a recognised university to recognise the diversified curriculum is an innovative way of using our current system of academic classifications.

// St Fagans museum eschews parochialism and selects non-Welsh firms to develop site

The St Fagans site of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, a satellite village to Cardiff, is due for a facelift. Quite a large one in fact. This is because the National Museum is in the process of shifting its archaeological material to this site, expanding the natural history and artistic endeavours of the museum in the city’s civic centre. Personally I think that this is a dreadful idea, fuzzing the  raison d’etre of experimental archaeology at St Fagans while relegating the material human past to an extraurban setting, but that’s by-the-by. Current controversy is not over this reconfiguration of the cultural landscape, but over the fact that there were no Welsh firms selected to work on St Fagans museum.

Sure, favouring Welsh architectural firms would have helped to keep the cash in the local economy. But no doubt there will be an uplift for the local construction labour pool in any case once building starts, which will serve to up employment of workers in the area. I think rather that the backlash is motivated by a sort of wounded pride: “what’s wrong with our own boys, eh?” This is misguided and parochial. Of course, a local designer would have strengthened claims for the heritage and history of the site. But few of the heritage buildings currently in situ were originally built there. Excluding the manor house, most have been constructed or moved from other places in and around Wales, and as it stands St Fagans is a weird mix of conserved heritage and an immigration of place(s): it creates the sense of an authentic falseness. So there would be nothing incongruous about sourcing an outsider to design for the site, as it is already a predominantly modern layout and its heritages belong to other locales not its own.

It’s positive that Amgueddfa Cymru reached its tender out as far as it has. If the repositioning of St Fagans as the hub of Welsh archaeology and the human past is to be successful it is essential that they demonstrate national (i.e. UK) ambitions at the very least. For this they need to think beyond narrow-minded restrictions and seek the best tenders for their money on a national or international level, even if doing so incurs the ire of knee-jerk nationalists and isolationists. To do otherwise would be to harm Wales’ cultural development.

// A visit to Braiding Roman Villa

Braiding gets some things very right. The custom build that comprises the main section of the centre is gorgeous. It's sensuous wooden curves are a wonder of structural design, at once modern and old world, eye-catching and blending into the folds and contours of the landscape. It's layout also mirrors that of the main wing of the villa therein, helping to orient the interior with exterior layout. The distinctive rotunda bulwark marking the ancient portus certainly helped in this respect. Furthermore, the surrounds would have looked lovely in the sun (we visited in a downpour unfortunately): a well laid mock Roman hortus; a shack with the remains of a hypocaust; and the skeletal outline of remains of a further wing.

The exterior though brings me to one of the major problems with Braiding Villa: the lack of site specific literature. Most sites I have been to that have a shop also have a guide book (and quite a few without shops too come to think of it). In fact I actively wanted to buy such a thing but was informed the only had a complimentary guide leaflet, which though a nice touch could not compare in terms of depth to a true publication. It was an especially sad oversight in light of the shop being reasonably well stocked for archaeo-historical Roman literature. Without a book to pore over (perhaps to be done in their lovely and friendly cafe) it was difficult to get a sense of archaeological phases, nor for what the north and south wings have revealed. The continuing involvement of luminaries such as Prof. Cunliffe in ongoing digs could have made such a book highly interesting.

Generally the interior presentation of the remains of the villa and some of its associated artifacts, was to a very high standard, the skeleton on show (pictured) certainly showing a great deal of design nous, but unfortunately the informational presentation was much less so. This managed to be at once vague and shallow as well as subject to occasional conjectural assertions. In particular are an attempt to weave the villa into the narrative of revolt of Allectus using some very faulty logic and the assertion that the iconic mosaic cockheaded man is symbolic for the emperor Gallius, again presenting an extremely speculative point (one refuted by the definitive Roman Mosaics of Britain on display in the foyer) as established fact. They don’t show their working out!

This kind of underlying solipsism is belied by a small photograph accompanying some text on the last display board inside (pictured). It is captioned “Roman walled town”. It isn’t. I know it isn’t because it’s the rear of Cardiff Castle, taken from a North East angle. Cardiff Castle may have a claim to Roman foundations, but the current structure is most definitely modern in construction. Indeed, it would be a rare Roman wall that survived in the perfect condition shown. This shows that either the curators don’t know their Roman archaeology, don’t know the provenance of materials they are using to convey historical facts or are fine with manipulating such materials to meet narrative and presentational designs. Any combination of any or all of the above shows a kind of basic incompetence.

Still, a visit to Braiding Roman Villa is well worth it. It’s a brilliant example of museological design. Just don’t necessarily trust what the (mis)information panels tell you.

// Cuts? In my experience postgraduate funding is already in crisis.

So, as ever I have as my springboard a guardian article, this one covering the imminent prospect of imminent postgraduate funding cuts. I should probably not have used the term "prospect" as the current situation is already so dire that those completing them basically have none. Having been through the process I thought it'd jot down my thoughts in response.

I did a masters because I loved the subject. I didn't expect to go straight into a cushy graduate position when I left; especially when the economy went into recession not long into my studies. I did not, however, expect to still be working at the as an assistant in a supermarket (sorry, its m&s, so *ahem* _food hall_). At £6.62 an hour, 37 and a half hours a week, minus lunch breaks, I can just about manage to pay my immediate bills and put a little aside to go towards my student debts. These aren't my student loans co debts; like many students the ~£18k I owe them don't even figure in my mental account of my situation. No, my immediate concerns are repaying family members kind enough to lend me the money for my PG fees and my credit card and overdraft repayments. The latter two resulted from the living costs of a year. Both the upfront fees and the living costs were bereft of structural financial aid.

The fees could have been helped by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), but successive restructurings have squeezed out funding for masters applicants, giving scant chance out receiving help. They could alternatively have been paid for by the University. But the Cardiff HISAR department, as I imagine is the case across many departments nationally, had only one or two places, which I got beat to by the simple fact that I only had a 2:1 at undergraduate rather than a first.
With no funding available from the academy, none was realistically available from the banks. The government sponsor a development loan scheme, but you have to demonstrate that the course was vocational. By the way, vocational precludes continuing on to further study, and thus stepping on to a PhD, being the most well established route to a job in the field.
The entire experience is demoralising. I'm glad I did the course, but money was a constant worry, having health consequences during the December period where I was attempting to both work and study full-time. I'm still living with the consequences of my PG finances, and have effectively had to rule out the idea of doing a PhD in the near future.

I just can't afford it.

// Our attitudes to rape may be geographically and historically atypical

The Guardian reports  on the South African Medical Research Council publishing data relating to incidence of and attitudes related to rape. Pared down, the MRC claim that in response to their latest survey 37.4% of men stated that they had committed rape and 25.3% of women said that they had been a victim. This is consistent with a similar survey carried out by the same organisation in a different state in the country last year. The reporting on that survey also had some interesting responses indicating the prevalence of hegemonic male-male rape, which certainly could be seen as reflecting classical practice.

Noteworthy from the Guardian piece is the following:

Rachel Jewkes of the MRC said: "We see a situation where the use of violence is so widespread that not only is it seen as being legitimate but I think quite often women forget it. They just see it as a normal effect."

This last point seems that it might be particularly salient, and that our (by which I mean mainstream citizens of UK and similar societies) largely negative attitudes towards rape might obfuscate the extent to which it can be a normal part of the mechanics of a society.

South Africa is obviously a rather extreme case, having some of the highest incident rates of rape in the world. Undoubtedly there is are specific socio-historical causes behind that. Nonetheless, the extraordinary high incidency should urge caution over assuming our attitudes normal. This can be seen as part of the WIERD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) effect identified by Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan, which characterises the cultural biases from which we construct our sociological worldviews.

Just as rape is not atypical in SA, it was probably not atypical in ancient societies, including those of great complexity and sophistication. Rape, sadly, for many today and in the past is and was just a mundane fact of life.

// Schama’s curriculum ≠ a unified national myth

Gove’s appointment of Schama to develop a “return to coherent, gripping history” in schools is an act of nostalgia.¹ As with all nostalgia it is reductive, kitsch and twee.

You can see the desire in it: a singular narrative of how our country developed. You can certainly see the use in it: ensuring the inception of useful citizens. Productive and patriotic citizens. But such a narrative is unsupportable nowadays. The last time it was of true relevance was in the days of empire, the story of how the map came to be coloured red. In the postcolonial world, such a teleology is quite frankly embarrassing. It plays at imperialism, leads us into believing the fictions that we weave about ourselves: how clever we are and how much better we are. How Great we are.

That is a world that has gone. Globalisation, multiculturalism and the decline of our own imperial assets, influence and ambition has put paid to that. As has the experience of two global conflicts at the intersection of the national narratives the empires of Europe and the world told themselves. National identity has in many ways splintered. Fragmented, it—like a mirror—cannot be pieced back into a uniform whole. Affixing the shards together cannot produce a mirror again, rather a new creation more interesting and challenging. One that does not pretend at reflecting a true image of the subject.

The current politics of identity have many points of friction but also various strengths. They necessitate greater co-operation, as a result of which we have avoided, at least in our back garden, the outbreak of war since WWII.² And they can be more inclusive. Now we can talk of British history, or Welsh history, or Black history, or woman’s history.³ Such narratives are plural, and we should relish the polyvalence this affords to our understanding of the past.

History is dead. Histories are here to stay.

--

1. James Vernon. ‘School history gets the TV treatment’. The Guardian (Tuesday 16 November 2010).  http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/16/school-history-gove-schama-tv

2. Ok, so i couldn’t  get through the whole of this piece without invoking Godwin’s Law!
3. Or, *shudders*, “herstory” .

// Grooming the Animal Wall

The Grade I listed Animal Wall alongside Cardiff Castle is currently being restored. Probably a good time to do it, seeing as the Castle/Duke St junction is currently being restructured, so the scaffolding and tarps covering sections of the wall blend right it.

The Apes (above), one of the original Thomas Nicholls scupltures from 1891, show the before and after, the righthand side being markedly more dirty than the left.

All the scultures have had or are having a clean, holes patched up, glass eyes reinserted and, in the case of one unfortunate anteater, a long-missed nose replaced. Alongside the castle's clocktower, which is still sparkling from its conservation last year and the new junction the area should look a lot better than it has in years. If you can see it past the traffic.