Packing up my library

Packing up my library

Somewhere in these boxes is a copy of Illuminations, the collection through which Walter Benjamin’s writings are known to English-speaking undergraduates everywhere. And somewhere within that is Benjamin’s 1931 essay, ‘Unpacking my library’. Benjamin was moving his books after a divorce, but I’m moving mine because I have a new job with a contract that comes into effect today. I’m sad to move on from the University of Leicester, which has been one of my happier academic homes. But as of now, I am Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King’s College London, and on Monday I will begin to unpack.