I often talk about blogging, but this post is different. This is a thank you to two writers whom I have been following for a long while, and whose work continues to inspire me. Julia Harrison First up, is Julia Harrison, a North Carolina-based artist, anthropologist, and educator, whom I met when I was studying Anthropology at UCL. Julia’s work is all round awesome, and I am a regular reader of her blog, and a…
Maren Deepwell Posts
This year, sadly, is the first time in a long time that I’ll be missing out on the OER Conference. I have blogged (a lot) about this very special event before, including a literal love letter to the conference in 2023, and a postcard from OER24 in Cork last year. The line up for OER25 looks fabulous, headed up by two wonderful Co-Chairs, Louise Drumm and Sheila MacNeill, and tantalising keynotes Helen Beetham and Joe…
Keynote invitations don’t come much more fun that the one I was excited to accept for this week: the Open University’s annual conference for its community of associate lecturers and other staff. When I first got the email, I knew I made to make it happen because these are the people I love to work with most! This conference, which attracts close to 500 participants and covers two days (in May and June respectively), is…
After a week away I have returned to my desk to write (freshly inspired thanks to the museums of Amsterdam). Progress on the book this month has been better, and I have found a new rhythm: read, run, write. Repeat. It helps me to read more to feed my creativity and find inspiration, and I am lucky that my recent haul of books from the library has been plentiful in both. The running gives me…
Inspired by Kin Lane’s post Having a Career I recently posted my own career story, and this blog post exchange inspired me so much that I reached out to Kin to record a conversation for the podcast. And so, two humans and two dogs assembled online to do just that. We chatted for an hour, and the conversation was so thought provoking! In addition, meeting the one and only Poppy R Lane (follow her on…
On a recent podcast episode I shared an update on my next book, which I have been working on for the past year or so, mainly conducting interviews and research. Now that writing has begun in earnest however, I am thinking more about why I am writing the book. Especially since it’s never been easier to simply provide a lot of data and have your book generated for you by AI. Cue this “mission statement”…
At the start of this year, alongside planning for work and life, I set out some small changes for myself, intentions to do things a little differently in 2025. I wanted to try to make more ethical choices and also to support local businesses more, as well as finding more joy in small things. It was a bit of an experiment of how much I could change things for myself, and also how to build…
Listen to OEG Voices 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things”
Listen to OEG Voices 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things”
I was super excited to be part of this podcast conversation during Open Education Week and this post is an invitation for you to tune in and explore this rich dialogue. Thanks to Alan Levine and the wonderful team at OE Global, the page where the podcast is available features a thoughtful mix of commentary and context alongside resources and ways to get involved. So make sure to check out the complete podcast post with…
This blog post is a professional fan letter, a heartfelt hat tip to Bryan Mathers of Visual Thinkery fame. Over the past ten years his creative genius has provided me with so much inspiration that when I started looking for projects I could refer back to by searching my blog and my archive for work we have done together, there were too many examples to count. From playful remixes and conference campaigns to organisational strategies…
This year I got back into running, and regular readers will know that this comeback has been years in the making. I started blogging about it in 2022.. and in 2023. So I am pleased to report that I have finally managed to get there! From a personal perspective starting the day with a morning run is a joy for me, and the photo at the start of this post is a snap shot from…