Academic Archers

Crowd-sourcing material culture: A History of Ambridge in 100 ObjectsFelicity Macdonald-SmithThe term ‘material culture' was probably first used by Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers in 1875, when he defined it as ‘the outward signs and symbols of particular ideas of the mind'. Pitt-Rivers donated his collection of ethnographic and archaeological objects to found the Pitt-Rivers' Museum in Oxford. The museum now holds over 500,000 items, organised by functional categories. Since the mid-1970s, there has been a growing interest in material culture across many disciplines: history, archaeology, social anthropology, history of art, human geography, design, and the decorative arts. Following the authors paper at Academic Archers conference on this topic in 2019, the Academic Archers Facebook group was invited to add to the limited list first presented: 143 different objects were suggested, leading to considerable online conversation as to the context in which items had featured. After some sifting and classifying, the proposed a list of 100 objects reflecting the material culture of Ambridge was formed, divided into different categories, including agricultural machinery/ vehicles/ implements/ buildings; food and drink; clothing and jewellery; character. Felicity Macdonald-Smith originally studied French Language and Literature at University College London; she also holds an MSc in Teaching English from Aston University; and an MA in European Language and Intercultural Studies from Anglia Ruskin University. Her professional experience includes teaching English as a foreign language both in the UK and abroad, and international youth work (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and Council of Europe). After 16 years in university administration, first at UCL and then at Newnham College Cambridge, she is now happily retired. She is a volunteer house guide at the David Parr House, Cambridge and her interest in material culture was inspired by helping to catalogue the 5000+ objects in the house. She started listening to The Archers in the 1970s and after a few breaks while living abroad has been a regular listener for over 25 years.

It's Saturday, it must be the Archers!Saturday Academic Archers Group aka The Saturday GroupThis chapter is by fans, about fans, for fans. This chapter explores the creation, development and meaning of a Saturday morning fan group which met online through and beyond the initial COVID-19 lockdown. The chapter describes the initial phase of Saturday morning online sessions over a three-month period which comprised ‘formal' presentations of papers from past conferences. These sessions were convened by Drs Nicola Headlam and Cara Courage. Secondly, the chapter sets out the ‘development' phase of the Saturday Academic Archers Group or more fondly, the ‘Saturday Group', which continued to meet informally after the conclusion of the formal series of presentations. Through autoethnographic qualitative, narrative methods, we explore what the sessions and the group connection mean to the members of the Saturday Group. The experiences of the Saturday Academic Archers Group are then related to the concept of Community of, in relation to social groups and associations. The relevance of fandom as a Community of Practice is highlighted with suggestions for the way in which such communities can offer support through difficult national and in the case of the Saturday Group, international, experiences.The Saturday Academic Archers Group meets on Saturday mornings to discuss The Archers and other topics of interest. It is a sub-set of the Academic Archers and began meeting online in 2020. Collectively the members of the group have been listening to The Archers for well in excess of 1000 years, including one member who heard the first episode and one member who has just come of age having listened for a mere 18 years. The Saturday Academic Archers Group authoring this chapter are George Askwith, Claire Astbury, Allison Ball, Janet Beck, Stephen Bowden, Pat Brown, Helen Burrows, Meg Burton, Sally Cadle, Pam Davies, Christine Freeman, Louise Gillies, Dale Godfrey, Victoria Grattidge, Vanessa Hall-Smith, Ruth Heilbronn, Katharine Hoskyn, Rosalind Janssen, Helen Jubb, Susie Lloyd, Lilian Goldberg, Nic Maxfield, Felicity Macdonald-Smith, Jill Manasseh, Sarah Kate Merry, Deborah Miller, Christine Narramore, Sarah Parish, Sarah Playfair, Karen Pollock, Sarah Spilsbury, Roberta Wedge, and Vanessa Wilde. 

Teaching The Archers – creating new fans or turning them off?Caroline BirksIn September 2016, Media Magazine published an article that I had written about The Archers and fandom.  In 2017, The Archers became a set text and my article became the go-to resource. I wondered how the students responded to The Archers. I asked the media teaching community on Facebook for classroom anecdotes. Common themes from the results were: students struggled with focused listening; teachers had been asked to ‘show' the episodes; teachers used lollipops and ‘mindful colouring' to help students focus; little or no knowledge of the soap opera genre, limited understanding and enjoyment; enjoyment of The Archers varied according to gender and class including whether their parents were already Radio 4 listeners; practical activities engaged students; bringing in an Archers fan to talk to students helped them create an audience profile; and students thought that dramatic episodes were exciting but that average episodes were boring. In summary, very few GCSE Media students actually go on to listen to more episodes of The Archers. Very few students hated the programme but plenty of them were indifferent. However, The Archers may have gained listeners through teachers (and their children).Caroline Birks has been teaching Media and Film for around 20 years. After graduating from Bath Spa with a 2:1 in Sociology and English, Caroline went on to study for a PGCE in Secondary English and later an MA in Media, Culture and Communication. As an Archers fan and educator Caroline has written two published articles on The Archers and recorded a YouTube analysis, 5 Things you should know about The Archers, which has had over 300 views. Caroline has worked as an examiner for Media Studies GCSE and A-level and is one half of Like Maria, an online resources company for teachers and students. Caroline writes a personal blog called mrsbirksblogs.blogspot.com and lives in Norfolk with her two children and naughty dog, Robin.

A Year in Ambridge: Introducing American Students to English Village Culture through The ArchersTimothy VercellottiGlobal cultures courses are a staple of general education requirements at American universities. Teaching a cultures course poses challenges, however, including appealing to students from all academic disciplines and building a cohesive learning experience around a somewhat amorphous topic. English village culture appeals to American students, some of whom have been exposed to the subject through literature or history courses, or through films or television. The challenge of structuring a course on village culture becomes more manageable with help from The Archers and the intellectual fan community known as Academic Archers. This chapter provides a case study of a university course that explores scholarly treatments of English village culture, enriched with examples from episodes of The Archers and the Academic Archers canon of research. The course follows a framework of a ‘constructed year' in Ambridge, beginning with Burns Night in January and finishing with the Christmas pantomime, and including reflections on Shrove Tuesday pancake races, village cricket season, the summer fête, the Flower and Produce Show, and Remembrance Sunday. The course not only introduces students to village culture; it also immerses them in radio drama, a genre of storytelling that, while well-established in the UK, is unfamiliar to many Americans.Dr Timothy Vercellotti is a professor of political science at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, and director of the university's London summer program. He teaches courses on political behaviour, media and politics, and public opinion polling. Dr Vercellotti holds a PhD. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has completed extensive post-doctoral work in all things Ambridge.  

Gauging guerrilla engagement: the unexpected benefits of the Academic Archers conferenceCarenza LewisIs Academic Archers the best-ever Zoom conference? Attendees in 2021 seemed to think so. Marking the half-decade anniversary of Academic Archers, this chapter explores the benefits of the attending Academic Archers conference, using data from conference feedback in 2017 and 2021 and methods from current research into wellbeing in heritage contexts. The analysis shows this unique conference to attract more than 75% of its attendees from outside academia, who adore learning about new research ranging from forensics to musicology - even more than… talking about The Archers. But it is the written-in comments on feedback forms which have proven particularly valuable in revealing why this is the case, showing the unexpected ways in which taking part in the conference is associated with mental wellbeing. Carenza Lewis MA ScD FSA FHEA FRSA is an archaeologist and Professor of Public Understanding of Research at the University of Lincoln. Her research includes historic rural settlements, childhood, community heritage and wellbeing. She has directed archaeological fieldwork on scores of sites, mostly medieval, presented a number of TV programmes including 12 series of Channel 4's iconic Time Team and taught medieval archaeology. Since moving to Lincoln in 2015, she has led Middlefield's Utopias (2016-17), Heritage at Risk and Wellbeing (2020-21) and Community Archaeology in Rural Environments (2019-23), the latter extending her publicly engaged approach to archaeological research into the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Poland. She is currently President of the Medieval Settlement Research Group and Vice Chair of Trustees for the Council for British Archaeology and mother to three almost grown-up children who do not want to go into archaeology.

Cult and Culture: Transformative Fandom-de dum de dum de dumHelen BurrowsThe Archers fits a definition of ‘cult media' in that it draws a niche audience, has nostalgia appeal and represents a subculture. Like other cult media, it has multiple active communities of people who identify as fans. However, it is also part of wider British culture, recognisable to and even referenced by many who would not count themselves as fans. In other fan groups, a myriad of artefacts, fanfiction and cosplay (character costumes) can be seen online and at conventions (think Harry Potter or Dr Who). With an audio-drama such as The Archers, everyone's mental images are different so while physical fan artefacts exist, they are relatively few, and though there is much fan-writing, limited actual fanfiction appears to exist. Yet the creativity that can be seen around The Archers is huge. This chapter looks at Archers-related behaviour and creativity, through the lens of ‘transformative fandom', which effectively works with source material to reflect the fans' desires and interests. The second part of the chapter explores some broader effects of transformative fandom, considering informal education as a transformative processExperienced as a senior lecturer in social work, Helen M Burrows worked in the East Midlands both as an independent practice educator and as an Outreach domestic abuse support worker until retirement in 2018. Her professional practice background is in Child Protection and working with adults with complex needs. Helen's research interests have included social work education, gender and sexuality in social care, digital engagement, and more recently the role of popular and social media in informal and public education. This has led her to look at fandom, and how fan forums can support learning in a variety of disciplines. She is also a keen knitter, and her Ambridge cardigan was chosen by the BBC to be part of the 70 items for 70 years of The Archers collection in 2021. Helen has been listening to The Archers since around 1964, is the same age as Shula, and shares her birthday with Tracy Horrobin. A long-term member of the Archers Anarchists (‘The Archers is real, there is no cast'), she has been involved with Academic Archers since the first conference in 2016 and has presented papers at four of the five conferences to date: on using The Archers in social work education, mapping family dysfunction, Morris Dancing, and transformative fandom. Her chapter in this book is a development of her transformative fandom paper presented at Reading in 2019.

Archers Fandom and the Online Public Sphere Elizabeth Anne BaileyThis chapter considers some of the confluent factors which shape debate in the online public sphere the intersections between this and the practice of fandom generally and Archers fandom in particular. Situating fandom as a part of the wider online public sphere it considers its performative aspects, characteristics of online behaviour, the role of emotion and some of the hard-wired factors which underpin this. It concludes by identifying fandom as a learning experience, both in terms of changing attitudes towards storylines and the way we interact with each other when discussing them.Elizabeth has been an Archers listener for more than half a century. By day, she has held down a long and varied cross-portfolio career in national and local government policy and communications. Drawing on many of her experiences, she has recently published a book from a mid-life doctorate. In her chapter in this book, Elizabeth, who in real life is married to an actual Nigel, who spent a lot of the pandemic lockdown entirely safely on the roof of their home building a dormer window, explores some overlaps between an abiding academic interest in how people talk about politics and her Archers fandom.

When the Script Hits the Fan: Why Archers fans stop listening (and why they can't completely keep away)Sarah Kate MerryAccording to the BBC Archers website, ‘Listeners to The Archers are loyal fans but take no prisoners' (BBC, 2016). But are fans of The Archers always loyal in their listening? This chapter presents stories of Archers fans who stopped listening, for various lengths of time, but still considered themselves to be fans of the show. ‘I listen so that you don't have to'; ‘Well, I won't be listening for a while – again!'; ‘I have only listened once since they murdered Nigel.'. These comments come from one online Archers fan community, and are not uncommon among those who continue to have an interest in Ambridge, despite choosing not to listen regularly. The assumption regarding people who identify as fans of serialised media is that they watch or listen to all of the episodes. This chapter considers the phenomenon of non-consuming fans of The Archers, and asks: If someone doesn't listen, can they be called a fan? Why do Archers fans stop listening? and Why do they start again (or not)?Dr Sarah Kate Merry is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University. Her PhD is in the field of Information Studies, and her research is primarily concerned with the impact of the internet on friendship and the nature of community, including the value of non-participatory membership of online communities. Sarah was exposed to The Archers at a distressingly young age and has finally accepted that she will never fully break free from her indoctrination.

Fans, Flouncers, Fundamentalists: Understanding Online Archers Fan CulturesClaire AstburyFans of The Archers interact in many different groups across multiple online platforms. This chapter explores the motivations of moderators in establishing groups and of fans in joining them, considers how different groups develop their own subcultures, and summarises the benefits of online engagement for fans. The findings are based on two surveys in December 2019 and January 2020. The results indicated that fans noticed different cultures in different online spaces, and that they moved into spaces they preferred, and left those which they didn't enjoy. The research also confirmed the existence of multiple fan spaces which have evolved from a base of Archers listeners, whilst being focused on other outside interests. Despite some adverse experiences which were described by respondents to the survey, the benefits of online engagement were very clearly articulated. A sense of community, personal friendships and emotional support featured strongly for fans involved in online discussions.Claire Astbury has been an Archers listener since 2002 and was a regular contributor to the former BBC The Archers messageboards, known as Mustardland. More recently, she has participated in various online fan groups and is a long time callerinerer to the DumTeeDum podcast. Since the start of the coronavirus lockdown(s) in March 2020, she has spent more time involved in Archers fan activity than actually listening to the programme, being a regular attendee of the Saturday Academic Archers group and DumTeeDum zoom meetups. Her career as a housing professional with 25 years' experience informed her analysis of rural housing issues which was presented to the 2018 Academic Archers conference at the British Library and included in Flapjacks and Feudalism: Social Mobility and Class in The Archers (Courage & Headlam, 2020). In this book, her research into online fan cultures and subcultures has been expanded from her presentation to the 2020 Academic Archers conference in Reading.

Hello, and thank you for coming to listen to the audio book version of the Academic Archers book, Fandom Culture and The Archers: An Everyday Story of Academic Folk.The book was edited by Dr Cara Courage and Dr Nicola Headlam, co-founders of Academic Archers, with contributions from a number of Academic Archers people. It was published in book form in May 2022 by Emerald, and is the fifth book in the Academic Archers library, and sits alongside our Saturday Omnibus podcasts. We were rightly prompted to record this audiobook due to one of the book contributors, Laura Smith – whose chapter The View from Lakey Hill: how The Archers empowers, liberates and enables listeners who are blind, is the last in the book and of this audio book – asking if such a version were available. With the kind permission of our wonderful publishers, Emerald, we set about the recording, and here we are now, our very first audio book. As its our first, and as we did this ourselves, working across time zones, degrees of technical competency and performance nerves, please keep the Academic Archers values of joyfulness, generosity and of kindness to heart when listening – this is a book created by a fan community for other fans in that community; we are not professional voice over artists, nor audio producers. Like everything we do at Academic Archers, its all voluntary and done for the love we have of those Ambridge residents and for each other. Forgive our occasional stumbles, accidental mispronunciations, the sound of the odd page turning…What follows then is each of the contributors reading their chapter, in the order that they appear in the book, starting with a welcome from Cara Courage and her reading of the books' introduction chapter, On Being and Doing Academic Archers.

Evening dinner at Grey Gables, with very special guest and one half of Ambridge on the Couch, Lucy V Freeman.The conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

Afternoon Tea at The Orangery and The Tea Room, and Women in Ambridge III, the fifth session at the 2021 Academic Archers conference. Papers include: A Friend Indeed: Aristotelian friendships in Ambridge, Sarah Kate MerryShula's Calling: Whose Idea Is It Anyway?, Meg BurtonLearning and love at Borchester College, Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind JanssenAlice: Through the Wine Glass, Lou Gillies The conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

Travelling Ambridge between the imagination and the impossible, the fourth session of the 2021 Academic Archers conference. Papers include: Ambridge: Imaginary Place or Place of the Imagination?, Gareth Davies Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be Molly and Tilly Button: Ambridge and the amateur sleuth, Helen BurrowsThe conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

Enough about us, what do you think of us?? The Archers Fandom as Action, the third session from the 2021 Academic Archers conference. Papers include: Plenary Paper: Gauging Guerrilla Academia – Exploring the impact of the Academic Archers conference, Prof Carenza Lewis The View from Lakey Hill: How The Archers empowers, liberates and enables blind and visually impaired listeners, Laura Smith A Year in Ambridge: Introducing American Students to English Village Culture through The Archers, Timothy VercellottiThe Archers, The Radio, Violence against Women and Changing the World at Teatime, Harriet SamuelsThe conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

Flapjacks and Feudalism: Social Mobility and Class in The Archers, the second session from the 2021 Academic Archers conference. The session opens with Feeding the Horses, from Dr Nicola Headlam, reading from her chapter in our Flapjacks and Feudalism… book, and talking about the wider neoliberal necropolitics at play when prosperity is built on the backs of those who share in it the least. The conversation then opens up to a conversation with other contributing authors and the assembled delegates, exploring themes of the inequalities around both work, wages and housing. The conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

The Village and the Virus, the first session from the 2021 Academic Archers conference. We start with a Plenary Paper, Monologuing, from Karen Pollock, followed by It's Saturday, it must be The Archers, By fans, for fans, about fans, by members of the Saturday Omnibus Group.  The conference was held over zoom, but we had fun in entering a fantasy world where we held the conference at University of Felpersham, The Orangery, the Tea Room, The Bull, Grey Gables and Brookfield Barn, so you will hear mention of that, as well as our accommodation at anything from The Gills to Grundys Field. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

This week we are joined by Archers commentariat, Lucy V Freeeman, in a conversation that moves around the village, up the Felpersham bypass, and back again. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

This week, as she got the day off from Grey Gables, we are joined by Kathy Perks, aka, Hedli Niklaus, talking about her Archers story and of course, about Kathy. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are back with the Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, the return of Maggie Bartlett, with her fascinating findings from interviews with the ‘silents' in Ambridge. What they have to say is fascinating, and poignant, and this is one of the best papers we have had, its gone down in Academic Archers history. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

This week, Karen Pollock,  looking at psychological types, and love languages, and in particular exploring those systems which work, and those which are more dysfunctional in Ambridge, in Infj or Leo? Recourse investigator or Plant? Meaningless mumbo-jumbo or useful guides to how we interact with others? If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are back with the Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week Prof Carenza Lewis was with us to talk about the Brookfield dig, a topic she predicted in her paper at the first ever Academic Archers conference back in 2016. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

This week our very own Academic Archers co-founder/organiser, Dr Nicola Headlam, spoke from her chapter ‘Feeding the Horses': Modern Slavery, the dark side of construction hidden in plain sight in Ambridge,' in the forthcoming Academic Archers book, Flapjacks and Feudalism: Class Politics in The Archers. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, Queering Shula, an updated look at heternormativity in Ambridge, from Karen Pollock (conference film here); and A History of Ambridge in 100 Objects (revisited), from Felicity Macdonald-Smith (conference film here). If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, Ambridge – a case study in using genograms to assess family dysfunctionality, from Lou Gillies and Helen Burrows (conference film here, 14.37 mins)and ‘An everyday story of country folk' online? The marginalisation of the internet and social media in The Archers, from Lizzie Coles-Kemp (though without Debi Ashenden this time; conference film here, at start.) Listen to the podcast here.If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, two tour de force papers: Can't Afford the Laurels? - Care Provision in Ambridge in 2041, from Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind Janssen (conference film here 14.4 mins), and ‘This isn't about curry, Alistair': Shula Hebden-Lloyd and Iris Murdoch on Love, from Hannah Marije Altorf (conference film here.) Listen to the podcast here. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, The Archers as a Lieu de memoires of the First World War (with possible reference to the virtual Ambridge War Memorial), from Jessica Meyer, and Psychological Wellbeing in Retirement: What the Archers Tell Us, from Bronwen Williams.If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week: Cult and Culture - Transformative Fandom de dum de dum de dum (updated), from Helen Burrows; and I am Woman Hear me Roar, and now watch me play cricket, from Katharine Hoskyn. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, Local Infrastructure for Emergencies - Resilient Ambridge Flood Team (RAFT) revisited, an update on AA2 paper, with evidence from subsequent experience in a Community Resilience Team, from Fiona Gleed; My parsnips are bigger than your parsnips: The negative aspects of competing at Flower and Produce Shows, from Rachel Daniels and Annie Maddison Warren; Neighbourhood Watch: Gossip, Power and the Working-Class Matriarch in The Archers from Claire Mortimer; and Almost without exception they are shown in their relation to mem': Ambridge Women and Their Conversations from Sarah Kate Merry. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, Paths to the polling station at the village hall: Social networks and voting in Ambridge, from Tim Vercellotti, our very own political Peter Sedaris, and Fear, Fecklessness, Philip and Freddie: Policing the crimewave, from Charlotte Bilby, our very own Jane Tennison. If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation, we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers.This week, a revisit of From kitchens to smartphones: Updating our understanding of The Archers listening practices in the digital age - situating this work in theory, from Jerome Turner; Death at Ambridge Hall:How the Archers demonstrates the impact on owners when they lose animals, from Bronwen Williams; and a watch of the conference film of Ambridgology and Counter-insurgency doctrine, from James Armstrong, political advisor to the NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan. Watch the conference films here: Jerome Turner, Bronwen Williams, James Armstrong (1.46).If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation , we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers. This week, a revisit of 'Seeming, seeming: “Othello”, The Archers, and Rob Titchenor', from Abi Pattenden; and ‘The Archers Vs The Simpsons: What would happen when two very similar worlds collide?' from Gary Gilday. Thank you in advance for your listening patience in this one as we navigate the tech.If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows. 

To see us through the Archer-less Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable time of isolation , we are hosting an Academic Archers Saturday Omnibus for anyone to join, where we revisit past conference papers. This week, 'Soundtrack to a Stabbing', Freya Jarman and Emily Baker, Dept of Music University of Liverpool, and 'Lynda Snell: Middle Class Warrior,' Peter Matthews, University of Stirling.If you listen to this podcast, please consider supporting us on Patreon towards its upkeep. All monies go to supporting the conference and online community of Academic Archers Research Fellows.