By Majken Ravnkilde
Professor Paul Bruce McIlvenny
- Describe yourself with 3 words:
I am sedulous, fair-minded and a jack-of-all-trades.
2. What did you want to become as a child?
I was inspired as a child by Frank Lloyd Wright and his natural design (Fallingwater house) that I read about in a paper magazine, and so I always wanted to be an architect until I met one when I was fourteen
3.What is your greatest academic achievement?
To become a Professor is my highest professional academic achievement. It is not a position that I or my family ever imagined possible given that no one had ever been to university before.
4. If you won 10 million DKK, what would you do?
With 10 million I could retire gracefully and invest in sustainable renewables and local equitrade initiatives through an ethical bank.
5. What is the craziest thing that has ever happened to you?
The craziest thing that has happened to me (and everyone) is climate change. It is wicked!
6. Who, dead or alive, would you want to meet?
I would like to meet the very first homo sapien who spoke. What was the first word spoken and what language did it become? And then I would like to meet the second speaker to hear the very first conversation ever spoken.
7.What is the worst thing about your job?
The worst thing is the endless encroachment of neoliberalism and new public management that is damaging to the fundamental principles of university, free education, collegiality and the pursuit of knowledge.
8.What is your favorite food?
I like Indian food, and my daughter is getting good at cooking it!
9.What animal would you be?
I would be a wolf. Not only did some of the species become ‘man’s best friend’, but the wolf also domesticated humans. The rewilding of Denmark and Northern Europe with the wolf is fascinating. Will wolves domesticate us once again?
10. Which project are you working on right now?
I am working in the field of discourse studies in the context of digital humanities, specifically what we call Big Video. The goal to develop a theoretical and methodological framework so that software tools can be developed to embed and manipulate layers of recorded and virtual video in interactive 3D reconstructions in mixed reality in order to better document, analyse, share and archive complex sites and scenes of social interaction and performance.
