Mark Flear as Visiting Professor at the Law Centre for Health and Life
14 December 2023
Shared Knowledge and Inspiring Conversations
Flear's enthusiasm lies in collaborations, finding them rewarding and pivotal in propelling his ideas forward. “I love collaborating with people. For instance, Anniek de Ruijter, here in Amsterdam, is one person with whom I’ve worked. I find research collaborations often very rewarding and enriching. They help to drive my research forward. My discussions with Anniek during my fellowship in Amsterdam, for example, have really spurred on my thinking”, Flear says.
I find research collaborations often very rewarding and enriching. They help to drive my research forward.Mark Flear
Teaching as Collaboration
He sees teaching as akin to collaborative engagement. “I see teaching as a kind of collaboration too, especially seminars. It’s in such classes that I get to co-construct answers to questions, often learning a bit along the way. I spend a lot of time alone, writing and thinking, so it’s especially welcome to have an opportunity to discuss things with other people.”
The Flow State in Crafting Compelling Arguments
Next to collaborations, Flear takes pleasure in becoming deeply immersed in his writing. He finds his greatest fulfillment when he enters the flow state while crafting convincing arguments. “That said, I do love being alone with my thoughts. Just writing, pondering and redrafting can be such a deeply nourishing thing. Of course, it’s often very hard work, but when things gel, and really come together, all of that graft really pays off, and I feel it. The thing I most like about writing is when the process becomes a flow. It’s a really wonderful feeling, just being in the flow of thinking, clearing my mind and focusing on creating the most timely, original, convincing and rigourous argument I can.”