About me

Stephen Lewis

Senior Lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Chester.

PhD - University of Wales, Cardiff (1987).

Thesis: 'Studies in Catch-Up Growth in the Rat Skeleton'

MA - History of Philosophy, University of Wales, Cardiff (1992).

BSc (Hons) - Human Biology, University of Surrey (1981).

Why this Website

On one level, this website is a way of putting my ideas in the most public arena available. Putting work on the web makes it available to the largest and most varied audience possible. Some of my ideas are for specialist audiences, some for the general audience – some ideas would be 'at home' in academic journals, some ideas would not – but, why have ideas and limit them by sharing them with only a few? Therefore, I am not confining my ideas to the traditional academic outlets I am making them accessible to everyone.

On another level, this (Google) website is an experiment in developing a different approach to writing. I am trying to develop ways of presenting my work that best suits who and how I am. After many years struggling with reading slowing and writing very slowing and not at all, I was diagnosed as dyslexic. Although I generally shy away from labels, being label-able as dyslexic is not one that I can dismiss lightly or wish to hide. It seems to explain some of the ways in which I am different to others, not least my experiences when it comes to traditional forms of expression.

I have always found it easier to write when I can imagine some sort of audience who will be in receipt of my ideas. There have been times when I have written talks knowing who was going to attend and, on some occasions, even where they would be sitting. While writing I have even been able to imagine to whom I should turn when speaking in order to emphasis a certain point. I have also even been able to imagine the response and debate that was likely to follow having spoken. I always relish the discussion that follows giving a talk - not least because it allows a way of further presenting one's ideas free of the confines of the written page.

Without a definite audience, I find it very difficult to write. In fact, without an audience, what would be the point? I have always found writing for paper publication lacking in the frisson I get from writing for speaking.

Writing for the web seems to get past these problems. I know that there is an audience. I know that people have visited my old Evolutionary (Darwinian) Medicine website because of the number of emails that I have had over the years and because of the people who have come up to me at conferences and commented. Knowing that there is an audience, there is a certain frisson in putting work on the web because there is the constant potential for feedback no matter when the work was originally posted. Furthermore, I most encouraged when I noticed just how many times one piece of work I wrote for an online academic journal had been visited when I had cause to visit it myself.

The written form that this website takes – how it appears in part and as a whole – is likely to evolve over time. It may come to look different from other written work, it may not. However, the way it is being constructed is different.For purposes of writing, I am adopting a form of bricolage and constructing written work in a non-sequential and disseminated way. I am not focusing exclusively on one piece of work or topic until it is 'finished' and ready for publication – I have a strong sense that nothing can ever be said to be finished. Instead, I am putting work on the web as I work on it.

Addendum

Since writing the above, I have presented a brief description of my work to colleagues (please, follow the link). The slides I used can also be found at SlideShare.