Monthly Archives: October 2015

Author Ian Rankin OBE In Conversation with Gavin Esler

The internationally bestselling author Ian Rankin OBE is ‘In Conversation’ with Chancellor Gavin Esler on Saturday 7 November.

This free, open-to-all event, will take place at 18.30pm in the Woolf Lecture Theatre on the Canterbury campus. Early arrival is recommended.

The informal discussion between Ian Rankin OBE and Gavin Esler will explore the life and work of the UK’s number one best-selling crime writer and his most famous character, Rebus.

It will conclude with a Question and Answer session with the audience, or you can also submit questions in advance by email to events@kent.ac.uk or on twitter using #GavinAsks. Ian also be signing copies of his latest novel, Even Dogs in the Wild: The New John Rebus.

Following the talk there is a ticketed High Table Dinner (further information is available here). Money raised from the sale of tickets for this part of the event will go towards the Chancellor’s Hardship Fund.

New Kent Extra Courses Starting This Term

We have lots of exciting Kent Extra courses starting this term.

Courses are filling up fast, but there are still spaces available on the following courses:

KE013 – Justice & Persuasion – An Interdisciplinary Workshop (Modern Context) (Starts Saturday 24th October 2015)
KE004 – Dirty History: Exploring Film & TV Medievalisms (Starts Saturday 21st November 2015)
KE065 – A Tweet is Forever: Where our data goes and what we can do with it (Starts Thursday 26th November 2015)
KE064 – Mentoring at University: Reflective Practice at Medway campus (Starts Wednesday 4th November 2015)
KE066 – A History of Anthropological Theory: 1890-1980 (Starts Wednesday 4th November 2015)
KE068 – Excelling in the Graduate Recruitment Cycle: Your Guide to Applications, Interviews and Assessment Centres (Starts Tuesday 10th November 2015)

Plus many more to be confirmed

Why do a Kent Extra course?
It’s a great chance to build transferable skills and enhance your CV and career prospects. If you complete a Kent Extra course, you will get Employability Points. It’s also a chance to study something purely for pleasure, free of charge.

How do I find out more and sign up for a course?
Visit: www.kent.ac.uk/extra

When you find a course you would like to do, follow the link to sign up in the Student Data System. Choose ‘Workshops’ under ‘My Study’ you will see a list of Workshop Skills choose ‘Kent Extra’ to see a list of Kent Extra workshops.

2015 T S Eliot Memorial Lecture: Terry Eagleton

Jointly sponsored by Eliot College, the Centre for Postcolonial Studies and the School of English the T S Eliot Memorial Lecture will take place in Woolf Lecture Theatre at 18.30 on Thursday 22 October 2015. A drinks reception will follow in the Woolf Foyer. All welcome.

For catering purposes please email Meredith Johnson (Eliot College) by 17.00 on Tuesday 20 October: M.L.Johnson@kent.ac.uk (01227 823141)

Terry Eagleton is one of the most prominent literary critics, cultural theorists, and public intellectuals writing today. The range of his contributions from the late 1960s is remarkable: from literary theory, marxist criticism, religious discourse, and cultural critique to Shakespeare, the English Novel, Ireland, and the Bröntes. He is the author of numerous books, including Exiles and Émigrés (1970), Criticism and Ideology (1976), The Rape of Clarissa: Writing, Sexuality, and Class Struggle in Samuel Richardson (1982), The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996), Sacred Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2002), After Theory (2003), Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (2009), and The Event of Literature (2012).

Team ‘Kent iGEM’ brings home the gold

Undergraduate students from the School of Biosciences have been awarded a Gold Medal at the 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Giant Jamboree held in Boston. Initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), iGEM is the world’s premier synthetic biology competition, encouraging students the develop and test innovative solutions to global problems.

Kent iGEM students developed a research project entitled “Envirowire” to investigate the feasibility of generating functional amyloid nanowires, under the guidance of Dr. Wei-Feng Xue and other academic and research staff within the School. Nano-wires formed from proteins by bacteria provide a potential solution in the fabrication of biologically- and clinically-applied circuitry, with benefits including miniaturisation, improved efficiency, biocompatibility and use of renewable sources of energy and materials. Working with students from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts and the School of Physical Sciences, the students were able to combine biological experiments and analysis with computing-based modeling approaches.

Team Kent iGEM presented their cross-disciplinary research at the Annual Jamboree in Boston alongside over 2,700 participants and 280 teams from Universities all around the world. They were awarded a Gold Medal for their project, alongside teams from world-leading institutions including the universities of Cambridge, Cornell, Heidelberg, Tokyo and Sydney.

The Stacey Fund [5] – generously supported by School of Biosciences alumni – provided bursary support and travel costs for Team Kent iGEM. The Fund ensures that talented students can gain financial support to gain valuable experience for future career development. Students were, in addition, supported by bursaries from the BBSRC, Wellcome Trust, The Society for Applied Microbiology, The Society for Experimental Biology and The Society for General Microbiology.

Nuria Triana-Toribio to talk at Audiovisualtopia

Professor Núria Triana-Toribio, Professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages is to be the keynote speaker at a conference entitled ‘Audiovisualtopia’ in Madrid, from 23-24 October 2015. The conference is on the ‘Contemporary Screen Scene’ and is hosted by Saint Louis University.

Núria’s talk is entitled ‘Awards Culture: Spanish Cinema and the Rise of the Prize’, and looks at The Goya prizes, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars. Some critics have argued that the Academia guides Spanish cinema through a narrow path, elevating certain types of filmmaking and ignoring others, claiming it is an institution for branding cinema and generating a particular type of Spanish film culture.

Núria will address how it befits national film institutions and professional lobbies to encourage consistent and non-contradictory (and yet diverse) national cinema discourses, particularly if these enable transnational distribution or if these images are useful in nation/community building ventures. She will then focus on how we could question the purpose of using the same instruments of control and branding on behalf of other nations and territories. For this, she will engage with the Goya a la Mejor Película Iberoamericana category of the awards. Is this prize a declaration of possession? Is this a hangover of post-colonial sentiment? Is it a valid claim to exerting authority over Latin American film cultures in the field of cinema by the Academia? Or is it something else entirely? She aims to encourage questioning the awards culture in which cinema is immersed.

Full details of the conference can be found at: www.audiovisualtopia2015.wordpress.com/

Children in Need: the Unsemble!

The Music department invites you to join its scratch band, theUnsemble, for a play-through of The Pink Panther: with a difference – on Friday 13 November at 13.10.

Open to all students, staff & alumni, you should be no further than Grade III (or lower!) on your instrument – and preferably not have had any lessons at all! Or you might not have picked your instrument up for 20 years, and used it as a door-prop or dust-gatherer in the meantime.

Bring your instrument, enthusiasm and a contribution for BBC Children in Need, to the Colyer-Fergusson Hall for a light-hearted play-through – all in a good cause!

Find out more on the Music webpages.

 

Care Leavers at Kent – Our commitment to you

We recognise that students who have grown up in care are likely to have experienced many more challenges, and much more uncertainty, than students who have grown up in more stable family settings.  We provide a range of practical and emotional support services to try to ensure that your needs are met and that your experience at Kent is a positive one.

Kent offers a Care Leavers Pack which includes a laptop, £250 of Argos vouchers and £100 towards  the membership costs of the Sports Centre or of Societies.  Eligible students are those who are new undergraduate students who are home fee paying, are under 25, who have spent 13 weeks in care since the age of 14, including on or after their 16th birthday.  Further information and the application form can be found here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/finance-student/funding/IndexCareLeavers.html

In addition to this, we offer the Kent Financial Support Package. In 2015 this is £2,000 per academic year, paid in two instalments.

To check the full eligibility criteria, and conditions, please follow this link:  https://www.kent.ac.uk/finance-student/funding/kfsp.html

We are also committed to providing accommodation to care leaver students during the university holidays if this is required.  If students wish to remain living on campus after their first year, they will be able to request this.

The university has two designated members of staff to support care leavers.  For any enquiries pre-registration, please contact Ffion Capelin-Simms on dmstaff@kent.ac.uk or 01634 888455.

Once on your course, please contact Rachel Levy for any practical or emotional support needs, or just for a general chat about how things are going for you.  Rachel can be contacted on: r.levy@kent.ac.uk or on 01227 816164.  She is mainly based in Canterbury, but is at Medway every Wednesday and appointments can be booked by contacting: medwaywellbeing@kent.ac.uk or phoning 01634 202984.

Last chance to apply for the Global Skills Award Programme!

The Graduate School administers the unique Global Skills Award for taught postgraduates. Postgraduate students registered on taught programmes of study are invited to apply for a place on our programme which comprises of a range of lectures on global issues and a series of skills workshops which have been specifically designed to improve your employability in a competitive job market.

Come to the Introductory lecture on Monday 2nd November, 18.00 in Woolf Lecture Theatre to find out more!

Wear it Pink – Wednesday 21 October 2015

It’s October and so time once again for us to put on something pink and raise some money for Breast Cancer Now

Just come along to Room 106 in the Registry on Wednesday 21 October  with your suggested donation of £2 and collect a piece of cake as a thank you.  If you don’t have anything pink in your wardrobe, you can still come along and contribute as the charity have created special stickers for those not wearing pink this year!

There will be even more lemon cakes than last year, and the usual  cheesy bacon loaf, ginger cake etc.  The vegans will be happy too as I’ve discovered one of my long-standing recipes works for them too.  If anyone else would like to bake something for the event, this would be much appreciated.

Last year we raised £357.15 – I wonder if we can get to nearer to the magic £400 in 2015?

Thank you for your support.

Sign up to earn £15 KentOne card credit and enjoy some free pizza for sharing your thoughts

Play a key role in improving the student experience at the University of Kent and work with an experienced PwC Consulting team to help us understand what it feels like from your perspective to be a student at Kent. We are interested in your views on a number of stages of your student journey, from the moment you were aware of the University of Kent, through to applying and studying here.

How to get involved:
We are running workshops in Medway and Canterbury next week.
Sign up by emailing KSDDproject@kent.ac.uk stating your name, subject and year of study. Places are limited, so please email us as soon as possible.

Workshop dates and times:
Medway Campus: Monday 19 October 16.00 – 18.30
Canterbury Campus: Tuesday 20 October 16.00 – 18.30