My first (proper) academic lecture

After John's rather tongue in cheek suggestion that I give his Kepler lecture, today is the day when it happened. My first proper academic lecture, even though it was only to the small group of us who are taking History of Science this year. A day or two of preparation a week or so ago and I was all set. Overall, I have to say that I was very pleased with how it went. I worked off a series of chronological notes, with brief stops for Mysterium Cosmographicum, Astronomia Nova and Harmonice Mundi - lots of interesting biographical add-ins. Even a brief digression to explain Kepler's three laws in terms of Newtonian mechanics. Not many interruptions from John, so he must have thought it ok.

I have been thinking lots about academic life recently - off the back of reading Kenny's A Life in Oxford and the occasional dip into Rhythms of Academic Life, a collection of essays I bought last year. Though I still consider it very unlikely that I could find a way into academic life at my age, I do have a very rough plan that might succeed. If all goes well with Oxford, I am going to try and do some supervision teaching if possible. Then I have to try and publish a couple of things while I do my PhD. Then use the PhD to publish a book. Hopefully that could then get me a short-term teaching contract of some sort, somewhere. Not a great plan and not a high chance to success, but it is at least some sort of plan.

So a very exciting day for me and one that I was really pleased with the outcome of.