Allyphant

About Allyphant

I'm Ally.
Half-🇺🇸/🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 from an ex-mining town on the south side of Edinburgh where I am back living having just finished a DPhil in social policy at Jesus College, Oxford as a Centenary Scholar. I research poverty/welfare rights/the ethics of welfare reform and teach politics at the uni.
A musician who played in bands for years before academia got in the way. I tend to sing in bands (badly) but also play guitar/bass/drums (even worse). I'm especially wild about post-punk, the avant-garde, and art rock but also adore blues, jazz, opera/classical, psychedelic, alt rock (new/cold/dark/no wave, ambient, shoegaze, 80s indie, Krautrock, college rock), stoner rock, grunge, punk, prog rock, Britpop, country, folk, glam rock etc...
I also love to read and learn. Especially about literature (English/French/Russian/American/Beat), politics, psychology, sociology, history, economics, philosophy.
I also collect cuddly penguin toys and enjoy theatre, art, and museums.