Brave art: Scottish identity and stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy remains a prevalent form of entertainment in Scotland, with comedians drawing sell-out crowds, and comedy making up the biggest section of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival programme. Moreover, stand-up comedy is recognised by many academics as a form of social commentary that can affirm or subvert cultural norms, or at the very least, provide a social thermometer that tells us what is going on in society. Research on Scottish stand-up comedy can therefore shed a light on how contemporary Scottish identity is constructed and understood. Yet, despite its popularity and potential social significance, few studies have focused on Scottish comedy to date, and none have chosen to analyse Scottish stand-up comedy specifically. The present research addresses this gap and uses discourse analysis to understand how Scottish stand-up comedy articulates representations of contemporary Scottish and British identities. The data for this study includes live comedy performances at the Edinburgh Fringe as well as interviews with stand-up comedians to gain a deeper insight. The findings show that Scotland is largely framed as a postcolonial nation with distinct values (inclusive, left-wing, egalitarian), particularly in comparison to ‘Brexit’ England. Despite this emphasis on civic nationalism, there are intersectional differences in how people experience Scottish identity, particularly for Scots positioned outside traditional white, heterosexual masculinity, who have to work harder to belong. The Edinburgh Fringe brings to the fore questions of belonging and exclusion as Scots make up a relatively small proportion of the comedy offering. Yet, the Fringe is also identified as a carnivalesque space with subversive potential. By disrupting the taken for granted, and highlighting possibilities for change, Scottish stand-up comedians at the Fringe engage in the political work of (de-)constructing the boundaries of identity and belonging

Doctors in the making: Overcoming the challenges of transition

The PhD journey is, for many students, formative training into the world of academia. It is here that scholars gain a deeper understanding of the technical as well as the social aspects of their discipline, and where they gain the knowledge required to conduct sound research (Golde, 1998; Golde and Dore, 2001; Meschitti and Carassa, 2014). This pivotal educational phase is quite distinct from other stages in higher education. One of the main challenges at this level is the individualistic narrative of the PhD (McAlpine et al., 2012). Doctoral candidates often feel isolated as they navigate their new role as doctoral student and academic professional (Golde, 1998; Meschitti and Carassa, 2014). In order to promote successful socialisation, we advocate here for student-led transition support that is facilitated by the Higher Education Institution (HEI). Such an initiative should function not as formal induction, but as a peer-learning social space that fosters the development of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1999, 2010)

Thermal treatment of superconductor thin film of the BSCCO system using domestic microwave oven

In this work, we report the preparation of a superconductor thin film of the BSCCO system using a good quality powder with nominal composition Bi_{1.8}Pb_{0.4}Sr_2CaCu_2O_x which was thermally treated using a domestic microwave oven (2.45 GHz, 800 W). This film was grew on a single crystal of LaAlO_3(100) substrate and exhibited a crystalline structure with the c-axis perpendicular to the plane of the substrate. An onset superconducting transition temperature was measured at 80 K.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Zinc abundances in Galactic bulge field red giants: implications for DLA systems

Zinc in stars is an important reference element because it is a proxy to Fe in studies of damped Lyman-alpha systems, permitting a comparison of chemical evolution histories of bulge stellar populations and DLAs. In terms of nucleosynthesis, it behaves as an alpha element because it is enhanced in metal-poor stars. The aim of this work is to derive the iron-peak element Zn abundances in 56 bulge giants from high resolution spectra. These results are compared with data from other bulge samples, as well as from disk and halo stars, and damped Lyman-alpha systems, in order to better understand the chemical evolution in these environments. High-resolution spectra were obtained using FLAMES+UVES on the Very Large Telescope. We find [Zn/Fe]=+0.24+-0.02 in the range -1.3 < [Fe/H] < -0.5 and [Zn/Fe]=+0.06+-0.02 in the range -0.5 < [Fe/H] -0.1, it shows a spread of -0.60 < [Zn/Fe] < +0.15, with most of these stars having low [Zn/Fe]<0.0. These low zinc abundances at the high metallicity end of the bulge define a decreasing trend in [Zn/Fe] with increasing metallicities. A comparison with Zn abundances in DLA systems is presented, where a dust-depletion correction was applied for both Zn and Fe. Finally, we present a chemical evolution model of Zn enrichment in massive spheroids, representing a typical classical bulge.Comment: Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press Date of acceptance: 13/05/2015. 19 pages, 14 Figs in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 201