Back from sabbatical

Today, I return to work from a six-month sabbatical. Like most things I do, it wasn't particularly well planned. As the 100th person asked me what I would do on my sabbatical before I left. Honestly, the only answer that came to my head was "not this" before uttering, "Not sure yet".

Yet, on reflection, I have done quite a bit and a lot less. It's interesting how, when you slow down, the important things seem to have space to emerge. Not all things were easy; stopping certainly wasn't. However, all have been rewarding. I write this post to mark the return to work and the end of my sabbatical because I have come to find that endings and beginnings are important for me to mark; without them, I notice time blurs, achievements dissolve, and life feels a little harder. I also anticipate a few people asking me what I did, so here is the answer. Well, ten of them.

1. Became a Co-Active Coach

I signed up for the training to become a professional coach with Co-Active Training Institute because I had a gut instinct to have a greater impact on the world and better support my team, early career researchers and innovators. I needed a pause button. I neither needed to have nor had the answers, especially when working in contexts very different to my experiences. People had the answers. I knew that. I wanted to learn how better to help them see this, and walk their path more confidently.

What I didn't expect was what happened. I could describe the details, but you had to be there! In the process of learning to become a coach and the 104 hours and counting of experience I gained, I learnt an unmeasurable amount about myself and about people. This strengthened my understanding of humanity. I also made many wonderful friends (too many to list here, but you know who you are!)

I have also started offering coaching services to academics, graduates, innovators, and anyone interested in transforming an aspect of their life. Contact me if you would like to know more.

2. Remembered I love to read

Over the past few years, I managed a novel each holiday, which was about it. Apart from PhD theses I was supervising or examining, I could not remember when I sat and read for a large portion of a day. Honestly, most PhDs were read between meetings in chunks where I just about remembered where I had stopped before starting again. Time before Sabbatical had become packed with meetings, endless online, hybrid meetings, which I invariably struggled to concentrate on as I was constantly thinking of the many things I still had to do and would need to start once the working day (and meetings) had ended. I had the feeling of being everything and nothing all at once – like I was needed everywhere and nowhere at the same time. (Yes, I saw the burnout signs, hence the sabbatical!),

When I stopped, this scattered mind reminded me of the last not-a-novel book I had read properly during COVID-19, which changed my thinking on how my mind works – Gabor Matte's Scattered Minds. And that informed my purchasing of a bunch of books. Many have focused on my new passion for mental health and trauma research. Here are a few of those I have enjoyed the most:

• Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
• Mad World by Micha Frazer-Carroll
• The Maps We Carry by Rose Cartright
• The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilChrist

3. Won some awards and attended the fabulous CHI Conference

My sabbatical also had some firsts. My team and I won several awards at the premier human-computer interaction conference. This was a surprise. And here is the roll call.

• ⭐ Mindfulness-based Embodied Tangible Interactions for Stroke Rehabilitation at Home. Preetham Nagaraj Wen Mo , Catherine Holloway. BEST PAPER AWARD
• ⭐ Enhancing Communication Equity: Evaluation of an Automated Speech Recognition Application in Ghana. Gifty Ayoka , Giulia Barbareschi , Richard Cave PhD MRes, Catherine Holloway. BEST PAPER HONORABLE MENTION AWARD
• ⭐ A Systematic Review of Ability-diverse Collaboration through Ability-based Lens in HCI. Lan Xiao , Dr Maryam Bandukda , Katrin Angerbauer , Weiyue Lin, Tigmanshu Bhatnagar, Michael Sedlmair M, Catherine Holloway. BEST PAPER HONORABLE MENTION AWARD

I don't love conferences. They overwhelm me. There is so much to absorb and so many people that within 30 minutes, I have had my 100 ideas for the day and need to lie down. I am also awful at recognising people or remembering names, so I make social faux pas left, right and centre.

However, I surprised myself.

The team presented brilliantly, and the follow-up conversations were excellent. I also began to like talking to people, which was quite a shock if you know me. I even did some socialising and had some lovely conversations with people.

Best conversation award goes to Jon Froehlich (Project Sidewalk) and Garreth Tigwell, which led to a collaboration led by Laleh Nourian on 'Challenges and Considerations for Accessibility Research Across Cultures and Regions – an upcoming workshop at the ASSETS conference.

My favourite paper presentation was Cultivating Spoken Language Technologies for Unwritten Languages,by Thomas Reiter , Jennifer Pearson and Matt Jones.

4. First Glastonbury

Probably less is more here. Short version: I had a great time!

5. Research in Ghana

I returned to Ghana to investigate Mobile as an assistive technology with the wonderful Ghanan team Gifty Ayoka and Derick Omari CPACC, MSc, along with Richard Cave PhD MRes and Giulia Barbareschi.

📣 The paper is now under review, and a grant Giulia and I wrote in the back of the car on a 2-hour journey whilst managing not to get ill has just been awarded funding 🎉, so we will be expanding this work soon - more news when the formal announcement is out.

And a shout out to Richard Cave PhD MRes who recently defended his PhD, which no one knows how he had time to write given all he does 🙌!

6. Launched an Indian Assistive Technology Accelerator

📣 We launched Attvaran, an Assistive Technology (AT) startup accelerator, in Delhi, in collaboration with UCL, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, & Global Disability Innovation Hub. Shout out to Tigmanshu Bhatnagar , Justin Jesudas and the whole team for the launch success. Read more here (l, and the ongoing progress. Looking forward to meeting the ventures later this month at the EMPOWER conference.

I'll also quickly mention Tigmanshu Bhatnagar's PhD graduation alongside Dr. Tao Bi – two fabulous people, who conduct exceptional research and know how to have a lvoely celebration 🙌!

7. Learnt to box

Boxing 🥊 , who knew? Not me. I have enjoyed every second of getting fitter, stronger and mentally more focused with the gang at the boxing classes yogahome - with special thanks to Jerome Tracey for teaching me all I now know!

8. Royal Society Disability, data and digital assistive technologies project

Having time to give to the data and digital assistive technologies project project has been a joy. The team at The Royal Society have brought enthusiasm and insight at every turn. I've learnt a great deal about small data sets and how they can support #AssistiveTechnology. I've enjoyed the lively debates and learning from panel memberswhilst sharing what I and we at Global Disability Innovation Hub have learnt. Jamie Leigh Danemayer and i also contributed a background paper on Disability Data Gaps which will be published soon.

9. Mental Health & Trauma research

As is probably evident from my reading list, I am developing a keen interest in mental health and trauma, and in how technology can support well-being and be a contributing factor to harm.

I have been helped on my journey by Professor Nick Midgley, Professor of Psychological Therapies with Children and Young People UCL and THE ANNA FREUD CENTRE.

At the moment, we have more ideas than grant applications, but one application has at least been submitted for review 🙌.

10. Got married, bought a house & spent many hours walking Yogi Bear

Last but absolutely not least, I married Dr Victoria Austin in NYC with the wonderful Cara E. Yar Khan as our witness. It was the happiest day of my life so far. We returned to spend several months trying to buy our house, which is now a much-loved home.