On the Horizon

I found out yesterday what tutoring work I'll be doing next year: it turns out I've been assigned to two first-year 'Ethics & Values' groups and one second-year 'Moral Theory' group despite having been told earlier I'd almost certainly be given only first-year ethics to do, which makes me wonder whether projected student numbers for the E.&V. module are lower than previously expected. The ratio of preparation time to teaching time will be less favourable than I'd expected, then, but it's largely stuff I ought to brush up on by now anyway.

We're presently fighting to keep costs for the Durham-Bergen event within our meagre budget: there's a nice room atop the Calman Learning Centre it's reportedly possible to book for free if you go through the right channels (albeit a room with a view of Science Site rooftops which is mainly notable for its array of pipework; it helps to imagine it as a level from Super Mario Bros.), but it seems we may still have to make some hard appeals to departmental desire to look respectable. A least we've had a decent range of abstracts submitted, so the actual philosophical substance should be good.

Apparently enough of the 'lost' papers from the past two years have been tracked down for a single bumper issue, but not enough for the full two volumes. I doubt anyone actually keeps a sequential shelf of Proceedings anyway.