*waves at new people*

[dolorosa_12]

I've added a bunch of new people as a result of the post-Yuletide friending meme, so I thought it was high time for another intro post. If you've been friends with me for a while, none of this will be new, so please feel free to skip if you'd like.


My name is Ronni, and I'm an Australian migrant living in the UK. I moved to Cambridge just over nine years ago to do an MPhil in medieval Irish literature, and I ended up staying to do a PhD and then never leaving. After the PhD I left academia, and began working in academic libraries; I currently work in one of the many faculty libraries of the University of Cambridge. Being a migrant in the UK is complicated and difficult, and I'm fortunate to have been able to stay.

Prior to coming to the UK I worked as a newspaper book-reviewer and subeditor.

My husband Matthias is also a migrant (in his case from Germany). Like me he came over to study - in his case he did all of his university education (BA, MPhil and PhD) here at Cambridge, in Old English philology - and like me he left academia for librarianship and now works in one of the university's faculty libraries. We got married last year, and plan to stay here in the UK. Most of our mutual 'real-life' friends are people we met through academia, either fellow students at Cambridge or people studying similar subjects at other universities.

I'm the oldest of five sisters. Other than some distant relatives, my entire family is back in Australia. I come from a very close, matriarchal family on my mother's side, and adjusting to not having them around me and seeing them all the time was one of the hardest aspects of being a migrant.

My first foray into online fandom was a forum for fans of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The people I met there (we called ourselves 'sraffies') became friends for life, and I consider that community to be the finest example of what online fandom can be, and the standard by which I judge all other fannish communities. Although most of us have long since ceased hanging out on that forum or even discussing Pullman, we still gather both online and off, like any friendship group.

These days I'm pretty multifannish. I'm both extremely faithful to my long-term fandoms (these tend to be books, particularly Australian YA novels of the 1990s), and liable to become completely overwhelmed by whatever new thing has caught my eye (at the moment this is The Last Jedi in terms of megafandoms, and Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series in terms of the smaller fandoms-of-one). I'm usually more fannish about books, and I love in particular discovering new books and discussing them with others. I've discovered a lot of new favourites through recommendations from friends on Dreamwidth and Twitter, and I always love reading others' thoughts about books.

I'm in fandom for discussion and conversation - what I love most about spaces like Dreamwidth are the ways they can be curated, with different access levels, a clear demarcation between public and private, and ways to indicate whether conversation and engagement is welcome or not. Pretty much all of my posts are public, and open to comments, so please feel free to link to any of them elsewhere, and to jump in and comment, even on very old posts.

I look forward to getting to know all the new people I added through the meme. Please feel free to ask me anything!

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Yeah, being a migrant in a Western country is ridiculously hard (if easier for me than others, being White and such).

Hi Ronni!

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I have it easier than many other migrants in the UK (being white, a native speaker of a prestige dialect of English, not disabled), and I definitely don't want to pretend that the experiences of all migrants are the same. The virulent anti-migrant attitudes here in the UK wear me down, and I feel it's important to stand up for all migrants (and I feel it's important that those of us who don't fit the xenophobes' mental image of what a migrant is continue to publicly identify as such and push back against attempts to divide us into categories of 'good' and 'bad' migrants).

I didn't realise you were also a migrant! Hello, and nice to meet you.

[karanguni]

/waves hello and is so jealous of Cambridge! I really wanted to head over to either Oxbridge as a kid, but somehow ended up on the other side of the pond after some ridiculous shenanigans. But the Commonwealth is strong in me and many friends went over there and... /drool

Tell me a little bit about the MPhil and the PhD if you don't mind! I'm thinking about maybe doing a masters over there one day - I have a very, very bizarre BA in classical Japanese but work experience in development and I'm always trying to find an excuse to justify some more study one day...

[dolorosa_12]

Aww, I'm sure you had interesting adventures on the other side of the Atlantic! It was never my plan to go to Cambridge (or do any further study after undergrad): I was going to be a journalist, but I sort of fell into it after realising that although I loved book reviewing, full-time journalism was not for me, and I didn't have the patience to try to eke out a freelance career.

In terms of the MPhil and the PhD, I really, really enjoyed the work I did -- learning about medieval Irish literature, working on texts that other people had tended to avoid because they were too big, or too difficult was really fascinating, and I made some great friends while I was a postgrad student (including my now husband). However, there are lots of things that aren't great about postgraduate research, things that aren't apparent until you've actually become a postgrad student.

I started the MPhil in 2008 and the PhD in 2009, so bear in mind that my advice is nine years old, but if anything these things have become worse. It can be quite an isolating life, especially in the humanities: you're almost always on your own, and you have to motivate yourself, because no one will be checking up on you. Mental health issues go unaddressed (there's this unspoken attitude that if you're not suffering, working long into the night and never having a holiday, you're not committed enough), and I know of many people whose depression and anxiety were exacerbated by doing their PhDs. There are few academic jobs to go around, and most senior academics have an unrealistic attitude about this: back in the 1970s, 80s or 90s when THEY were students, it was possible to walk straight from a PhD into a permanent, full-time lectureship, and they don't always realise that you have to be absolutely brilliant, with peer-reviewed publications, a book deal, and a network of contacts to be able to get even a temporary postdoc these days. The best thing I did during my PhD was to continue working in a non-academic field (I was a weekend library invigilator) and build up a non-academic CV, so that when academia didn't work out, I had work experience and references to be able to pick up another career. This is strongly discouraged in academia (it's viewed as not being very committed to the field), but it is the one main piece of advice I give anyone considering starting postgraduate research: keep a non-academic CV ticking away in the background.

There are also practical things to consider. I'm not sure of your nationality, but if you're not British and want to research in the UK, you need to fulfill visa requirements. These get more and more stingent by the year: as well as the offer letter from the university, you need proof of sufficient funding (either a scholarship, your own savings, parental support, or some combination of these things). I was able to get scholarships from Cambridge to fund my MPhil and PhD - without them I would have been paying more than £18,000 per year. If you're British or from the EU, that cost is a lot lower (although with Brexit on the horizon, EU students may not be able to pay local rates any more). The other thing that caused me a lot of stress was that I wanted to continue living in the UK after I finished my degree, and the government makes it very, very hard for people on student visas to transition to other visas - I was lucky that my husband was able to sponsor me as a spouse under EU law, but I've said goodbye to so many friends who had to go back to their home countries after their visa options ran out. It can be hard to live somewhere for three, four or five years of your adult life, making connections, building a home, and then have to constantly apply to remain there, or have to leave before you're ready.

I'm sorry for this wall of negativity. There are a lot of great things about postgraduate study: the freedom, the community (which is very similar to fandom in some ways -- all those people, geeikly obsessed with stuff ignored by the rest of the world, wanting to talk about it in great detail) and the friendships you make through being part of that community. You get amazing opportunities to work with really excellent researchers, and, if you're well funded, can go to conferences all over the world. However, a lot of people -- myself included -- go into academia all starry-eyed without being realistic about a lot of its flaws. I was told all this stuff going in by other PhD students, and just waved it away because I'd always been a good student, never had any trouble working to deadlines, and assumed that none of this stuff would happen to me because I'd 'do everything right'. I'm sure a lot of other PhD students begin with the same attitude. As long as you're realistic about what you want to get out of it (a piece of research, the chance to live in another country and be funded to do work you enjoy) and go in with no expectations beyond that, things will be easier. Doing a one-year MA would also be a low stakes way to work out if this is the life for you (although it's not always the best indication -- I loved the MPhil year and found it easy, but the PhD was a lot harder).

The other thing is that although I'm less starry-eyed about academia now, it did indirectly get me the job I have now, which I love. I work in a library, but it's in a teaching role, and it was my teaching experience (gained by delivering lectures and tutorials during my PhD) that got me the job.

I hope that answers your question. I'm happy to answer any more questions you may have about the practical aspects of applying, although as I say I now applied more than ten years ago, so my knowledge may be out of date.

[scripsi]

What you say about being an immigrant in UK echoes what i have heard other immigrants say. :(

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, the current government is actively hostile towards migrants, and has done nothing to calm the rampant xenophobia which has definitely increased in the years since I moved here.

[author_by_night]

Can you participate in the Yuletide friending meme if you didn't participate in Yuletide? I'd love to make more fandom-minded/writer friends.

[dolorosa_12]

You most definitely can! Activity has died down a bit, so I'm not sure if anyone's likely to respond to a new top-level comment posted, but if you reply to other people's comments you should get a response.

[iberiandoctor]

Immigration in the UK seems to have gotten even more complicated and difficult since the time when I was a student! Still, there are many, many wonderful things about the UK and Cambridge, and I'm glad you get to experience them. (I'm equally glad I don't have to deal with them any more -- though here in Asia we certainly have our own challenges...)

Heh, like you I am married to a former university mate (MA, Downing). Does your spouse do fandom?

[dolorosa_12]

Immigration has got a lot worse -- most of my friends here are immigrants, and we all have Home Office horror stories. The current government particularly dislikes people on student visas transferring to another visa after study and remaining in the UK, so they make it as hard as possible to do so, and I've had to say goodbye to a lot of friends after their visas ran out. I'm very fortunate to have been able to stay here -- both my husband and I have citizenship now, so thankfully our days of dealing with the UKVI are behind us!

That's so cool that you're married to someone from university (were they at Downing, or were you?). I'm assuming you moved back to your home country after your time in the UK? I was at St John's and my husband was at Robinson, and our wedding reception was in Robinson. Matthias, my husband, does not do fandom at all. He reads a lot of genre fiction, watches lots of TV and films, and does other fannish stuff like playing board games and old school video games, but he doesn't have that fannish impulse to talk about all those things when he's not reading/watching/playing them, or to think about what happens when the final page has closed or the credits are rolling. He knows about fandom, knows I'm in it and so on, and has met many of my fandom friends, but his brain just doesn't work that way.

[iberiandoctor]

I was at Newnham, which was great for rolling out of bed in the bollocks-freezing cold and across Sidgwick Ave into the warmth of the Squire. Post law degree, I got qualified in London and then hung around the Middle Temple for a bit pretending to barrister, which the Home Office at that time allowed for (it helped, then, that I was a Commonwealth country national-- though it may not do any more), but eventually the weather and the need to get a Real Job set in and I came back home to South East Asia, where I now practice in a very serious firm and fandom is my secret identity ;)

Like your spouse, Hub is also not fannish; he is a huge military history buff and likes genre TV and movies and we used to play video games together, but the ficwriting and community aspect of fandom bemuses him. My first real fandom was a music RPF one, and like a good spouse he went with me to the concerts and held my bag as I squeed with fandom friends and flung myself at the Object(s) of My Affections and to his credit did not die from secondhand embarrassment, but that's the extent of it for him. I'm always interested in fandom friends who have enthusiastically participating spouses ;)

Robinson is beautiful (as is John's)! What a wonderful place for your reception ♥

[dolorosa_12]

Oh yes, I envy you your closeness to the Sidgwick site! It sounds as if you had an interesting time in the UK, and I can certainly sympathise with wanting to leave the weather behind (although I now find Australia's 40 degree summers completely unbearable)! It sounds as if you were here in a time when immigration and visas were a lot easier - the current government is actively hostile towards migrants, and wants to make it as expensive and difficult as possible to stay here, which is pretty awful.

I love the story of your husband going along with you to concerts of your RPF fandom, that's kind of adorable! I know quite a few couples who met through fandom and do fannish stuff together, and it does sound like fun.

[merit]

I've only read about the UK's onslaught of requirements regarding migration a bit but yeesh. They certainly don't want to make it easy for anyone! Which is something I consider as I suffer through yet another Australian summer.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, the UK is actively hostile to migrants, and they make it particularly difficult for people to get to situation where they're allowed to stay permanently. The idea that you would move to another country and put down no roots, make no connections, not integrate at all nor feel any sense of home or desire to stay is really awful to me, but that seems to be the aim of the current UK government.

There are some ways to get to the UK as an Australian that don't require a student, work or spouse visa, but these are dependent on either your age or your ancestry. If you ever want to talk UK visas, I am very happy to help, though! One thing my own experiences have given me is a near encyclopedic knowledge of UK visa requirements and how to navigate the nightmare that is UKVI...

[merit]

I'd agree from what I've read and heard about. And you know Brexit. That's a pretty firm indication what a lot of people /feel/.

Haha I'm still young enough I suppose! Ancestry is out. My partner is lucky enough to a dual citizen with the UK (and probably could get Irish as well). Thanks for the offer :) I'll probably just go over for a visit in the end.

One thing my own experiences have given me is a near encyclopedic knowledge of UK visa requirements and how to navigate the nightmare that is UKVI... that just sounds awful :(

[dolorosa_12]

If your partner is a dual citizen, you are able to emigrate to the UK as their dependent spouse (as long as they fulfilled various income requirements). This would give you the right to live and work in the UK, as long as they were there with you. If they can get Irish citizenship, I strongly recommend that they do so, as this gives you the right to live and work anywhere in the EU, not just Ireland, with less stringent income requirements than under British law.

As I say, I'm always happy to help with this kind of thing!

[escritoireazul]

these tend to be books, particularly Australian YA novels of the 1990s

Do you have any recommendations? I run a couple 80s and 90s recapping sites, and I'd like us to branch out more.

[dolorosa_12]

The books I particularly adore and feel very fannish about are the following:

The Pagan Chronicles by Catherine Jinks: humorous historical fiction set in the late 12th/early 13th centuries (in Jerusalem for the first book, and Languedoc in the later books). Found family dynamics with strong hurt/comfort themes.

Space Demons trilogy by Gillian Rubinstein: a group of children get sucked into computer games, and have to work out their various issues (trauma, anger, general feelings of not fitting in) and work together in order to escape the games.

Tomorrow series by John Marsden: a group of teenagers go camping in the Australian bush, and return to find that the country has been invaded and their small country home town is the epicentre of the invasion. The teenagers end up becoming a resistance movement, and the story makes heroic the things that teenagers are normally scorned for (intense friendships, adaptability, strong emotions).

Galax Arena by Gillian Rubinstein: dystopian novel in which marginalised children are stolen and forced to form in an exploitative, dangerous circus show in outer space, where all is not what it seems. Don't bother with the sequel, which is not good.

Parkland, Earthsong and Fire Dancer by Victor Kelleher: loosely linked dystopian trilogy set in different versions of the future exploring themes of humanity, responsibility and freedom.

Obernewtyn series by Isobelle Carmody: post-apocalyptic novel about an X-men like group of teenagers/young adults with hidden mutant abilities. It gets a bit weird by the end, but the early books in the series are great.

I think most of these are still in print, but I'm not entirely sure.

[luzula]

particularly Australian YA novels of the 1990s

I don't know many Australian authors in general, but have you read Patricia Wrightson? I read and loved the Wirrun trilogy when I was younger--it's been translated to Swedish.

[dolorosa_12]

I think I read one of her books, but I'm not a hundred per cent sure. She was definitely a beloved author of that time, and having read a summary of the Wirrun trilogy I can see why you liked it - it sounds amazing.