Poppies at the Tower of London, Commemoration of World War I November 2014

ACADEMIA This part of the website explores my academic interests, which are mainly Anthropology, Psychology and Linguistics. Anthropology is the study of being human; Psychology is the study of being a human; and Linguistics is the study of humans communicating. The Social Sciences are considered by some not to be real sciences because their subjects, humans, are highly variable; but they follow the same scientific practices and methodologies as other sciences. The big difference is that they do not usually reduce their subjects to emotionless, predictable ciphers in order to study them. The study of humanity has particularly absorbed me during my Autumn years; although, when I look back, it is a continuing theme throughout my life. The creation of Dododecanese at school was an early attempt to understand language; the fascination with computers was generated by an interest in the mechanisms of cultural change; the wargames were an attempt to comprehend – and manipulate – the mechanisms of human cultural engagement and interaction; the study of insects was an attempt to understand more about the mechanisms of social competition and cooperation. Even economics, the focus of my first degree, was an attempt to impose some numerical order on the human world around me. As I finally began to understand the links between them, my interests coalesced into an academic hobby/career of teaching, research, and publication. Covid19 brought the teaching aspect to an unexpected halt, but research and publication will probably form a personal theme through the rest of my life.