A week in the life of…

For the first in an occasional series documenting a week in the life of a member of the University community, Michael Scott - Affiliated Lecturer in Classics and Research Associate at Darwin College - was shadowed by our photo-diarist Sir Cam, providing an insight into the diversity of academic life at Cambridge in the 21st century.

From committee meetings and green screens, via research for his next book, to Classics-loving teenagers and major public lectures, Michael Scott had a busy – but relatively typical – week, although there was one exception: he was accompanied by legendary Cambridge photographer Sir Cam – the University’s photo-diarist.

Providing a visual record of the range of activities undertaken by Michael Scott in a single week, the photos reveal an academic world of outreach, research, academic debate and College life.

"I’m a Research Associate and affiliated lecturer – the place I have within the University is not a lectureship so it’s not full-time teaching – I’m at Post-Doc level: between a PhD and moving into a full time post," explains Scott. "This provides me with precious time to get research done and get engaged with the wider world."

"The commitment to these sorts of postdoc positions is one of the many things that are incredibly special about Cambridge – and not one that gets highlighted often enough. I do also undertake some university lecturing and supervising (small-group teaching) but this was not a teaching week for me - so the one thing missing from this photo diary, which people may expect to see, is teaching undergraduates."

Scott is an academic who is also a committed believer in outreach, both digital and physical, and a keen user of channels such as Twitter, as well as the more traditional methods of public engagement: "I see outreach - communicating your ideas, research and passion for your subject to as wide an audience as possible - as a fundamental part of what academics should be doing – part of the normal job."

Friday – 10 February
Darwin Lecture Series – Life in the Ancient World

"The first weekend began with a big public lecture for the Darwin Lecture series – one of the biggest lecture series at Cambridge. It was an honour to be asked to give one of these lectures. It’s also a fascinatingly difficult audience to pitch to: composed of everything from school children to accountants, professors of biology as well as experts in my own field, the challenge is to make sure there is something for everyone, and that no one gets lost along the way.”

“With an audience of 500+, it was a nerve racking experience, particularly as you only walk into the room at the last minute accompanied by the Master of Darwin so you have little time to get used to the surroundings. But I enjoyed it immensely once the initial nerves died down and hope the audience did too. One of the really important things about this lecture series is that the lectures are also made available as a podcast and video download from the University and iTunesU. The lecture series has consistently been one of the University’s most popular downloads in recent years, which means that they are really reaching out to a wide audience in the UK and around the world."

Monday - 13 February
College committee meeting – education & research

"I’m on the College committee that runs the lecture series, oversees the college weekly lunchtime seminar series in sciences and art and humanities, and liaises with the University Press about publications that come out of College. We meet once a term. I really enjoy being part of committees like this because it gives me a chance not only to help the college tick over, but to contribute to the wonderfully rich and encouraging atmosphere it provides for its students and researchers."

Tuesday - 14 February
Lunchtime seminar at Darwin College

"The lunchtime seminars are a great chance to leave your own specialised field for an hour and delve into something completely different – a real perk of College life. You grab some lunch and listen to a talk by a member of the college who is an expert in their field. Anyone can give a talk from M.Phil student to the Master and this week it happened to be the Master – William Brown – highlighting his recent research on arbitration in China."

Tuesday - 14 February
Event planning in Fitzbillies cake shop

"An informal meeting in Fitzbillies, a Cambridge institution, with two colleagues - we were finalising plans for a book discussion event that happened the next day, at which I was acting as chair and principal discussant. We were hosting an invited speaker who’d written a book about the life and times of an archaeologist in Italy in the early 20^th century. Over coffee and cake, we discussed the set-up for the event, how the evening was going to run, as well as the sorts of questions and themes we wanted to bring out in the discussion."

Wednesday - 15 February
Research for forthcoming book

"Here I am having assumed my usual position in amongst the book-stacks at the library in the Classics Faculty, where I spend a good percentage of every day. My research focuses on the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and particularly at the moment about religious sanctuaries in ancient Greece. I’m writing a book for Princeton University Press which looks at all the different activities going on at the sanctuary of Delphi in mainland Greece over its 1000+ year history, which follows on from my PhD work and also a documentary I wrote and presented about the sanctuary for BBC 4 in 2010. I love the atmosphere in this library and it’s made a great place to work by the friendly and helpful library staff and fellow researchers. Deadline for the book submission is 1^st July though, so I better get my head down..."