Paths to the polling station at the village hall (Updated), from Tim Vercellotti
Professor V directs the Polling Institute at Western New England University. He previously directed survey research centers at Rutgers University and Elon University. He combined his serious research interests in psephology with being a committed anglophile and, of course, Archers obsessive.
He uses his comprehensive TA knowledge on the University's London Summer Program where he uses Ambridge as a lens for both British Media and Politics and National Identity in the U.K. Tim has been with us since the BL conference as he often seems to manage to combine research trips with AA… This paper is a revised version of a wonderful paper on political participation connecting the functioning of civil society organsiastions and their formalisation into political arenas
So maybe he can tell us what Councillor Grundy has been up to since she appeaers wholly focussed on her personal life at present.
Tim followed up on his original BL paper with a second piece in Reading this year turning to the social capital exerted through the building of political dynasties and is a firm favourite with the AA crowd
As he is a American and a man he helps us to tick our diversity boxes with great aplomb.
Fear, fecklessness and Freddie and Phillip: policing the crime wave, Charlotte Bilby
Charlotte B’s original paper; fear fecklessness and flapjacks was full of dark portents about criminality which have been largely borne out in the village ever since.
The crime wave in the title refers to the fact that there have indeed been some dodgy goings on recently. Not just Rob and Helen but mattsplat (it is yet to come out that Nic was the perpetrator of the hit and run lthat left matt crawfiord for dead). Jill’s outlandish escapade into criminal damage , Freddie the trustafarian drug dealer and Ed, whose misadventures with Tim Oatie have had lasting repercussions. All have felt the long arm of the law as have Philip and Gav in this horrible Modern Slavery Storyline. J Cartwright is a firm AA fave (have you seeeeen him) his arrival in the village created quite the stir in the WI but while we await his cameo on ru paul’s drag race with his spice girls impression he has settled into cricket captaincy, and is even a member of the extended Archer Clan (with Kenton as his step-father-in law)
Charlotte’s love for I mean research interest in Harrison was fiully extended into her other paper for us “its burns burns burns – when the village policeman comes around” for our 2019 conference in Sheffield in a blatant pitch for the Samanths Grundy Cider with Grundy Award for best title. We could not resist and she was awarded the hotly contested prize.
She has left the academy now and describes this award as the highpoint of her acacedmic career. Charlotte was an early adopter of the knitting craze that has swept through AA (trendsetter)