Name and AAU unit:
Mikkel Jensen, Assistant Professor, Department of Culture and Learning.

Name three things you spend the most time on in your work?
I teach and do research in American history, culture and film/television. So that's what I spend my time on. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on my book about TV series creator David Simon who is best known for the TV series The Wire and The Deuce. Hopefully, it will be published in the autumn and will be the first work to examine the common thread in Simon's works. A lot has been written about The Wire, but my book takes the long view on his career. For the time being, however, my days are mostly spent teaching courses on American history and historical theory in the English programme.

What would you like more of at AAU? 
I once heard an American professor who had a visiting professorship somewhere here in Scandinavia talk about how sometimes in day-to-day relationships, you get the opportunity to create partnerships and projects that would otherwise not arise. He talked about exploiting the potential of otherwise random interactions. Sometimes I think about how, at a university that celebrates interdisciplinarity, you might be able to make better use of some of the potential that exists here at AAU.

And what would you like to change at AAU?
When I was teaching at an upper-secondary school, it was common to tell your colleagues about a lesson that had gone really well and you were thus really happy. But we also openly talked about a lesson that had gone completely awry. In the university context, I find that there is more focus on talking about the things that are going well in people's working lives and perhaps less focus on/openness about when things go badly with, for example, writing an article. I would like to see both aspects be part of the conversation about our work.

What is your best AAU memory?
I graduated from AAU, and my best memories are back from that time, but in my working life, the day I defended my PhD thesis is a highlight. From day-to-day working life, I also have several fun and good memories from my writing group in particular. Sometimes, I also feel that a supervision activity has worked particularly well and the students have made progress. This gives me professional satisfaction and pride. Last year, I was also awarded Teacher of the Year for humanities. I was really happy about that and I still am.

What is the best AAU tip you would give a new colleague?
There are too many different groups at AAU for me to give advice that I think everyone can use. But since it has only been four years since I submitted my PhD thesis, my advice/anecdote goes to the PhD students.

Me and some other PhD students set up a writing group where we met one morning a week. We started out by talking about this and that, and then we had concentrated writing periods (maybe 35 minutes) where no one said anything and we all just wrote incessantly. That way, we had a nice time with fun conversations during breaks, but some of those mornings were also some of the most productive writing moments of my PhD period. If you want to try that idea, I can tell you that it works, at least for some people.

Who are you passing the baton to and why?
I would like to pass it on to Ulla Langballe; we used to work at the same department. She is one of the warmest and friendliest people I have met in my seven years as a staff member here. And that's actually saying a lot.