Guardian!

BH took pity on me and brought home a Guardian today, rather than the DT, which made a nice change. It might be a bit pompous, particularly if you read it too often, but at least there is content and the things that it rants about are generally more worthy than the things that the DT rants about.

The illustrated advertisement shows that the jobs pages are indeed on form. Whatever does a multicultural research fellow (Shakespeare) have to do to earn maybe half as much again as a front line EO in the Department of Work and Pensions leading a team which tries to place difficult to place people in Scotland?

Curiosity aroused, I trundle off to the Warwick recruitment place where I am told that in order to apply I have to register with their online application system - a wheeze which neatly transfers a lot of the administrative hassle of filling vacancies from the chap with the job to the chap who wants a job. If I am careful I will spot the opportunity to upload my CV and perhaps one other supporting document into my application. I had quite forgotten about all this dreadful stuff - which I got out in time to mostly avoid.

Onto the job description where I find that the project is all about studying the performance of Shakespeare by Black and Asian groups since the second world war. The lucky fellow looks to have to work to a Principal Investigator most of the time, but also keeping an eye on the Project Leader. Lots of outreach to all kinds of community groups. Knowledge of Shakespeare probably only peripheral to the requirement; one can pick up enough from York Notes or BBC back numbers as one goes along. This project is all about community and accessibility - no need to fuss about drama, poetry or anything like that.

Not clear whether the participation of people of colour in performances dominated by people without colour qualifies. For example, Lenny Henry as Othello. And then, what about the polyglot gang from India who did Midsummer Night's Dream at the Roundhouse? Or the couple of Zimbabwean mime artists who did Hamlet at the Ovalhouse. Presumably these last two are disqualified because although they are BME (see below) they don't live here. I dare say one could clarify these points at interview if one got that far.

One of the duties is the construction of a web site and a relational database, this being the bit that I could do. A database which will presumably record every appearance of every BME artist or artiste in any show with a vaguely Shakespearian flavour. Perhaps a gay Macbeth on stilts to explore the relationship of Macbeth's dream with the blood curdling vendattas of the stilt fishers of the lakes of western Kashmir? A mine of information for PhD candidates of the future, free to BMEs.

And at the end of it all there is an international symposium, with the published proceedings counting towards contributor publication scores. Very important these days: no publication in qualifying publications, no job.

And am I left with the sense that there is lots of outreach, workshop, seminar and publication. Lots of package but very little packet, rather as in the game of pass the parcel. Or lots of headings and very little content, rather as in a report from the late lamented CCTA. But I have very little sense of what it is all about. What it is all for. Maybe that is all part of the initiative test for candidates. But on the whole, I think the EOs mentioned above will be earning an honester crust.

PS: and in case you are wondering, BME stands for black minority ethnic. Poor English but there you are. See, for example, the rather splendid web site at http://www.bmenetwork.org.uk/. The research fellow will be expected to know all about it.