Sarah Annes Brown

Sarah Annes Brown is Professor of English Literature in the Department of English and Media at Anglia Ruskin University and co-director of the Anglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy. She blogs at the attack site Harry's Place.

Brown 'was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1966. She studied at Bristol University'.

She 'has a particular interest in the intersection between science fiction and ‘canonical’ literature. She has written several pieces on the influence of classical literature on the genre, and is currently working on Shakespeare’s relationship with science fiction, looking in particular at representations of how Shakespeare’s plays are performed in the future.'

Views

Higher Education

I nearly always find Frank Furedi congenial on issues to do with Higher Education.

Who should be Prime Minister?

If you could choose anyone, from any walk of life, to be Prime Minister, who would you choose? >

I was half inclined to put down Tony Blair but a post on Butterflies and Wheels has just reminded me how annoying he can be (about God). Kenan Malik always seems soothingly sensible when I hear him on Radio 4 – although please note that I haven't made a systematic audit of his political views.

Academic boycott of Israel

I was firmly opposed to an academic boycott of Israel when I first became aware of such a move back in 2005. This wasn’t because I had strong views about Israel – it was simply because it seemed wrong to single out one country in this way and because I wasn’t at all convinced it would achieve anything positive. I wasn’t a member of a union at this point, though I had been in the AUT in the past. When I moved to Anglia Ruskin I was asked by a colleague to join the union. I agreed but explained at the time that I would probably resign if there was another boycott move.

When the UCU leadership elections took place I registered my support for Sally Hunt and subsequently voted for her. Even though she had seemed to be the candidate who was most opposed to the boycott that did not of course prevent Motion 25 being passed. I waited a while after the Motion was passed in the hope it would be overturned but eventually gave up and resigned. Before resigning I emailed Sally Hunt expressing my concern but had no reply (despite being one of her registered supporters). If, at that stage, I had had some kind of response, even if only to point out that I could perhaps do more to change the Union from the inside, I might not have resigned. I also had no response whatsoever to my subsequent resignation email.

...I was minded to rejoin the UCU after its position on Israel seemed to have softened last December and my inclination to do so was strengthened by David Hirsh’s really eloquent response to a comment I posted on Engage. So, to conclude, the only people who have actively encouraged me to rethink my decision to leave the UCU have been David and Mira. (And the only reason it’s taken me so long to do so is because it took absolutely ages to get an answer from the UCU to a very simple technical question I had about the process of rejoining!)

Affiliations

• Harry's Place | UCU member of the NEC 2014-2018 | Ariachne's Broken Woof former blog site from 2006-12 |

Links

• When is UCU going to act to stop resignations? Sarah Annes Brown's resignation letter Engage. Added by David Hirsh on July 08, 2008 07:58:08 PM. Retrieved from the Internet Archive of 1 August 2008 on 13 March 2018.

Resources

Twitter Sarah Brown