The Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow has just published a high-profile book on peasants for a general audience. But even though she is determined to raise the profile of the countryside in public discussion, she tells Matthew Reisz she is also committed to ploughing the academic furrow

The past decade has seen a dramatic rise in teaching-only roles in the UK, particularly outside the sciences. But does that amount to a welcome focus on education or a cost-saving wheeze that constricts the pipeline of research talent? Juliette Rowsell reports