The Academic experience - Creating a University episode 8
What was it like to teach at an entirely new university, and to have greater freedom than at more established institutions? In this podcast – the eighth in our series – early academics say the atmosphere was “exhilarating”, “intellectually exciting” and “relaxed”. A job offer from Essex was “a huge opportunity – I just had to take it”. Essex was established to be interdisciplinary, and early academics found the opportunity to talk to colleagues over lunch or coffee created enormous “intellectual traffic between departments”. There was an openness to new ideas that would not have been possible at a more conventional university. There was even, at the beginning, the opportunity to be offered a job with no formal interview. Interviewees - Dawn Ades, Professor or Art History - Ted Benton, Professor of Sociology] - Peter Frank, former Professor of Russian Politics in the Department of Government - Peter Townsend, founding Professor of Sociology - Gabriel Pearson, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies for over 30 years - Paul Thompson, Research Professor in the Department of Sociology, first came to Essex in 1964