Monthly Archives: June 2015

Students ready to run 300 miles for charity

On Monday 15 June, a team of students and alumni from the University of Kent Athletics and Cross Country Club will begin a 300-mile ultra-marathon from the University’s Canterbury campus to its Brussels centre, and then on to finish in Amsterdam.

The runners will complete 10 marathons in 10 days to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation and the Kent Opportunity Fund.

Students and staff are invited to give the runners a rousing send-off at 12.30pm on 15 June outside the Venue. The runners will be preparing for the challenge at a leaving event outside the Venue from 11am; there will be a BBQ for their supporters.

Donations can be made via Just Giving (www.justgiving.com/cants2dam) or by texting TEXT CDAM50 £5 to 70070 to donate.

Runners from the Club are well known for taking on big challenges and in 2014 they completed eight marathons in eight days when running from Canterbury to Paris. In 2013 they completed a similar charity event running from the East coast of the United Kingdom to the West Coast. This challenge in 2015 is their biggest yet!

For further information, contact Tim Farrow.

Colyer-Fergusson gallery exhibition: ‘Ringing Changes’ by Phil Ward

As part of the ‘Ringing Changes’ project by the University Music department, the new Colyer-Fergusson Gallery is now hosting an exhibition of photographs by Phil Ward, Deputy Director of Research Services.

Phil’s evocative exhibition explores the changing landscape around Kent in a series of stunning images, several of which will be projected on-stage during the performance of the choral commission, ‘Ringing Changes,’ being performed as part of a choral concert this Friday in Colyer-Fergusson.

Admission to the exhibition is free, gallery open during normal hours; find out more about the exhibition online here. http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/music-matters/2015/06/08/modern-day-digital-pilgrim-an-interview-with-phil-ward/

Linguistics student secures journalism internships

Third-year student Aimee Dutto has secured three internships at women’s magazines following the successful completion of the module ‘Writing in the Media: A Practical Approach’, run by the Department of English Language and Linguistics .

Aimee took ‘Writing in the Media’ as a wild module and enjoyed it so much she decided to try journalism as a career.

The module involves producing a portfolio of journalism and media-related writing, but also has some brilliant tips, including using LinkedIn, which helped her gain some great contacts and network with the right people.

Aimee has just completed her first internship at Woman magazine and has secured two more internships with Cosmopolitan magazine and Woman’s Health magazine.

At Woman magazine Aimee worked on the fashion pages writing captions for articles on high street matches and celebrity latest styles, as well as liaising with PR assistants and fashion outlets.

Aimee said ‘The module really helped me decide the path I wanted to take. It is very competitive and takes a lot of patience and hard work to get the internships but ‘Writing in the Media’ was the first step in my career and a great inspiration. My career goal is to be Editor-in-Chief at Vogue – one day!’

She has now also been offered a place on the MA in Fashion Journalism at the London College of Fashion and has an interview for an editorial assistant role at Harrods publishers.

We wish Aimee every success for the future.

Natalia Sobrevilla Perea publishes on the Cadiz Constitution

 

Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, from the Department of Hispanic Studies, has just co-edited a book with Scott Eastman, Associate Professor at Creighton University, entitled The Rise of Constitutional Government in the Iberian Atlantic World (University of Alabama Press, 2015).

The edited collection follows on from the recent bicentenary of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812, the first liberal constitution of the Hispanic world.

The Constitution was extremely influential in and beyond Europe, and the essays within the book explore how its enduring legacy not only shaped the history of state-building, elections, and municipal governance in Iberian America, but also affected national identities and citizenship as well as the development of race and gender in the region. It sheds new light on the early, liberal Hispanic societies and show how the legacies of those societies shape modern Spain and Latin America.

For full details, please see the publisher’s webpage.

Summer sports membership available to all

 

We’ve had a fantastic response to our summer membership offer so far, and we hope that all the new members are enjoying the Kent Sport facilities! You too can try out the facilities on the Canterbury campus on a one-month basis with a summer sports membership.

Sign up now for a one-month Gold membership, which includes access to the tennis and squash courts, all the outdoor facilities, every fitness and dance class and unlimited visits to the fitness suite. And, even better, you get all this for 50% off the regular price!

Simply pop in to the reception at either the Sports Centre or Pavilion to join. Fitness suite orientations can be booked for the same day so you can make the most of your membership!

Summer membership can be taken out at any point until 1 September 2015. A one-month Gold adult membership is now just £33.50, and a one-month Gold junior membership (16 to 18 years) is now £26. Under 16s pay £3.90 per activity.

For further details and terms and conditions, please visit our website kent.ac.uk/sports/membership

To stay up to date with Kent Sport news, events and special offers, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @UniKentSports.

JSNCC non-union representative nominations

You are invited to make nominations for two representatives of non-union members of staff to join the Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee.

These two vacancies are for non-academic staff members. Currently there are two academic-related staff representatives namely Dr Sarah Hyde and Linda Lough.

What is the Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee?

The Committee is the main forum for consultation and negotiation between the University and its staff. Its membership includes management and union and staff representatives who meet each term. For more information about membership of JSNCC, please go to: https://www.kent.ac.uk/hr-staffinformation/jsncc/index.html

Nominations for appointment to the vacancies have to be proposed and seconded by two other members from this staff group.

Elections, if necessary, are held using a simple majority system.

The period of appointment is three years commencing from the date of election and representatives are eligible for re-election once.

Enquiries and nominations (there are no pre-prepared forms for nominations) should be directed to the Secretary of JSNCC, Maddy Withers, either by email M.M.Withers@kent.ac.uk or by internal mail to The Registry, Room 125.

Closing date: 10 July 2015

Award-winning creative meditation CD

An imaginative collaboration between the School of Music and Fine Art and the Student Learning Advice Service (SLAS), Wellbeing and Counselling team, to tackle the social stigma often surrounding mental health, has resulted in two award nominations.

Student Charlotte Harding (Event and Experience Design BA) was instrumental in the project, coming 2nd in the 2015 Kent Student Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity. The project was also nominated for the Barbara Morris student support prize.

As part of a campus-wide mental health awareness campaign, SMFA offered a popular weekly meditation session, which resulted in the production of a free meditation CD. Student support staff contributed a meditation, with SMFA music and art students creating soundscapes, original compositions, and cover artwork.

The University funded 200 CDs, released to coincide with exams, and the tracks are free to students and staff to download via the university’s VLE.

Louise Frith, SMFA Student Support Officer who initiated the project said: ‘The CD generated discussions and awareness about mental wellbeing, and was discussed at the Medway mental health forum, reaching beyond the university into the local community, and to a national and international audience, with papers submitted to two major conferences.’

For further details, contact Louise Frith, Student Support Officer, SMFA, tel: 01634 888450 or email: mfasupport@kent.ac.uk

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – special Marlowe offer

Kent staff can take advantage of priority booking for a new production of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, starring Pixie Lott, at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

The classic tale of Holly Golightly, memorably portrayed on film by Audrey Hepburn in the iconic 1961 film, is being given a new lease of life as a stage play.

The new production comes to Canterbury from Tuesday 14 to Saturday 19 March 2016.

Tickets go on sale to the public from Friday 19 June but, as the University of Kent is a corporate member, our staff can book tickets now.

Staff can also book places at a special members’ evening on Tuesday 15 March, which for £18 will include a ticket for the show plus post-performance drinks reception with cast and company.

To book, call the Box Office on 01227 787 787 and quote COR15.

Mikkel Zangenberg at Nordicana 2015

Dr Mikkel Zangenberg from the Department of Comparative Literature will be participating at Nordicana: Nordic Noir & Beyond, the UK festival of Scandinavian drama and fiction.

The event will be held over this weekend, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June.

The event plays host to stars from the Scandinavian television shows and crime fiction, including The Bridge’s Sofia Helin as well as Sofie Grabol, who played the iconic Sarah Lund in three seasons of The Killing.

Mikkel will participate in a panel on Sunday, alongside historians, linguists from UCL and the Nordic Film Festival, entitled ‘1864 as National “Wound”, Then and Now’, discussing the television series 1864, currently being shown on BBC4.

Mikkel will talk on the disastrous reception of the programme in Denmark, as opposed to the comparatively benign reception in the UK.

The event will be held at the Troxy theatre in East London.

For more details on the event, please see the page here: http://nordicnoir.tv