Marta Ilves
Guest lecturer for week 7. Eleven years as a case officer, then an ombudsman investigator, on the queues nobody can see the front of.
- Role
- Guest lecturer
- Affiliation
- Office of the Slop University Ombudsman
- Office
- Not on campus. Week 7 only.
- Consultation
- Not available outside week 7. Questions from that week go to the convenor.
- At Slop since
- 2025
- Elsewhere
Not available for consultation outside week 7. Questions from that week go to the convenor.
I processed applications for eleven years and then spent four more investigating the offices that process them. A visible queue is a courtesy. It tells you how many people are ahead of you and roughly what that is worth in minutes. Most of the queues that decide anything important about a person’s life offer neither.
I come in for one week to talk about what happens to a queue when nobody can see its length, including what happens to the people running it.
What to ask me about#
In the week 7 field session you can ask me anything. Bring the invisible queue you have chosen and the request you have drafted, and I will tell you which parts of it will be refused and why. That is the useful hour and it only exists once.
Outside week 7 I am not on campus and questions go to Tessa.
One thing in advance#
Do not send anything to a named individual, and do not send anything on behalf of the course. If you decide to file a real request, file it as yourself.
Teaching this semester
Lectures
Field sessions
- Filing for a numberWeek 7
Interests
Selected publications
- 2026Estimating a backlog from the outside. Slop University Working Papers in Applied Waiting.
- 2023Eleven years of a queue with no published length. Review of Invented Administration.
Awards
- 2024Public Administration Integrity Award. Federated Offices of Invented Government.