Author Archives: Sara MacKian

In ‘The Man With Two Brains’ brain surgeon Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) falls in love with a brain in a glass jar. Of course, what he’s actually fallen in love with is the spirit of the person once attached … Continue reading →

‘Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do’. (Benjamin Franklin) Fools rush in… Getting the SpELS Project (Spiritualism in the Everyday Life of Stoke-on-Trent) off the ground wasn’t easy. Academia tends to shy away from what … Continue reading →

@SpELS has been on the road in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, collecting information and materials for our forthcoming exhibition at Gladstone Pottery Museum… Longton has a rich history with the Spiritualist movement. Gordon Higginson, the longest serving President of the Spiritualists National … Continue reading →

What (if anything) do you associate with the city of Stoke-on-Trent? Robbie Williams? Sir Stanley Matthews? ‘The Potters’ and their Britannia Stadium? Josiah Wedgewood, ceramics and the industrial decline of the potbanks? Perhaps it’s the delicious Staffordshire oatcake and the … Continue reading →

I’ve always done a lot of yoga. But I’ve never been a huge fan of the growing number of glossy yoga magazines which are hitting the shelves – because quite simply they make my yoga practice feel a bit inadequate! … Continue reading →

This summer I held my first exhibition as an artist. Art is something which has always been bubbling away for me, ever since I had my first cartoon commissions for a Welsh learners’ magazine while I was studying for my … Continue reading →

Tomorrow I am presenting at the Encounters Conference at the Morgan Centre, University of Manchester. This conference seeks to open up interdisciplinary dialogue around the theme of ‘encounters’: Personal encounters, Sensory encounters, Intimate encounters, Material encounters, Imaginary encounters, Fleeting encounters, … Continue reading →

This is a special guest blog posting by Professor Charles Emmons of Gettysburg College, USA. Charles is a sociologist and has published widely from his research on the sociology of science and spirit, and appeared on numerous TV and radio … Continue reading →

Yesterday we did ‘research speed dating’ at work. It could have been history’s dullest and shortest lived affair, but actually it was fascinating. We each had 5 minutes, strictly timed, to talk about our research passions. What I am passionate … Continue reading →

Today hundreds of people around the world are blogging about a small kindness they have received and what it meant to them. I am joining in this Small Kindnesses Blogsplash! I thought long and hard about what small kindness I … Continue reading →