Amanda Thomas, a SECL alumna having graduated in Italian in 1983, has just published her new book Cholera: The Victorian Plague (Pen & Sword Books, 2015), and will be signing copies of the title in Waterstones Rose Lane store in Canterbury on 28 November from 11.00.

The book tells the story of the disease that devastated the Victorian population, and brought about major changes in sanitation. Drawing on the latest scientific research and a wealth of archival material, Amanda uses first-hand accounts, blending personal stories with an overview of the history of the disease and its devastating after-effects on British society. This fascinating history of a catastrophic disease uncovers forgotten stories from each of the major cholera outbreaks in 1831-3, 1848-9, 1853-4 and 1866.

Following her graduation, Amanda worked in the media and, for the past few years, has been writing non-fiction history books full time for Pen and Sword Books.

For details of the book, please see the publisher’s webpage.

The final Festival of English event will take place on the Canterbury campus next week. Dr Derek Ryan will be giving a paper entitled ‘Virginia Woolf: Voyaging Out, 1910-1915’ at 18.00 on Tuesday 17 November in GLT1 as part of the Festival Open Lecture Series which highlights Canterbury and Kent’s prominent literary figures. A wine reception to follow in the Grimond Foyer. All are warmly welcome.

English Literature was one of the University of Kent’s founding subjects and to celebrate the milestone of fifty years at the forefront of local, national and international literary studies the School hosted the Festival of English throughout 2015. Highlights included a residency by the renowned poet Patience Agbabi, the Open Lecture Series and a performance of the opera Tokaido Road, based on the award-winning poems by Nancy Gaffield, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing. We would like to thank all those that supported the festival by participating and attending over the last year.

The Universities at Medway have been awarded a further significant donation to The Medway Student Support Bursary.  This donation will provide bursaries to home (UK/EU) students from Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Greenwich and the University of Kent each year.  This is an excellent opportunity to apply for additional funding and the selected recipients will receive a bursary of £2,500.

Applying for this bursary is easy. Check the eligibility criteria below, if you meet the requirements, all you need to do is complete the application form and return it along with the required evidence by the deadline. The Selection Criteria and Important Notes below will provide guidance on this.

The deadline to apply by is midnight on the 19^th November 2015

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA OF THE MEDWAY STUDENT SUPPORT BURSARY

In order to be eligible to apply for The Medway Student Support Bursary you must:

• be a home student (UK/EU)
• be currently registered full or part-time on an undergraduate degree programme based at the Medway Campus
• demonstrate a household income of £42,875 or less.
• already be or be prepared to become, an ambassador within the Medway community and demonstrate how you have contributed to the local community to date or plan to in the future

SELECTION CRITERIA OF THE MEDWAY STUDENT SUPPORT BURSARY

Your application will be considered on the basis of your fulfilment of the eligibility criteria and the 500-750 word statement sections demonstrating:

• why you are in need of financial support and what has changed in your financial circumstances since embarking on the programme
• what the award will be used for (See important note below)
• what you have or intend to contribute to the local community as an ambassador (e.g. voluntary work, paid work, sports contributions, community activity organisations such as the Scouts etc.)
• information about you and your aims and aspirations for the future

Important notes:

• awards will not fund general (exceptional travel may be considered) programme travelling expenses or new equipment such as laptops or phones.
• awards are intended for the student‘s use only and not for family support.
• successful recipients of a bursary will be expected to demonstrate their ambassadorial contributions to the Medway Community by providing evidence such as a report from the organisation, awards received for sports or similar documentation.
• successful recipients will be able to hold other awards whilst in receipt of the Medway Student Support Bursary such as the NSP and may reapply for a further bursary in subsequent years.
• successful recipients will be required to sign a Bursary Agreement which sets out the conditions of the bursary award.
• payment of the bursary will be suspended immediately, and any payments may be required to be returned, if an awardee:

(i) ceases to hold an offer of a place at any of the Universities,

(ii) ceases to be a registered student at any of the Universities,

(iii) becomes a debtor to any of the three Universities,

(iv) is found to have made a misrepresentation or misleading or fraudulent statement in connection with his/her application.

• recipients are expected to remain in satisfactory academic standing.
• students out on a placement year are not eligible for that year, but may apply once academic studies are resumed.
• successful recipients will be required to write an end of year report to the board detailing how the bursary has supported them and how this support has impacted on their ambassadorial role and/or their academic studies.

All applications confirmed as meeting the eligibility criteria will be taken forward. The bursary recipient(s) will be chosen by the Medway Student Support Bursary Board which will meet in early December and all applicants will be advised of the outcome shortly afterwards.

Your completed application along with all required evidence can be scanned and emailed to us at medwaymastersoffice@kent.ac.uk or a paper application can be submitted to M2-25 (Medway Building 2^nd Floor).

We look forward to receiving your application and remember, the deadline is midnight on the 19th November.

Members of the University community are invited to come together to observe two minutes’ silence for Remembrance Day.

At Canterbury campus, third-year trumpeter and Music Scholarship student, Joe Prescott, will play ‘The Last Post’. The event will take place on the lawn outside the Registry Building on 11 November at 11.00; all are welcome to attend.

At Medway campus, Rev Sally Apokis the Campus chaplain will lead a service of Remembrance on 11 November for all staff and students at the Medway campus outside Drill Hall Library. Please gather at 10.50 for a short 10-minute service.

A team of Kent Law students has finished sixth out of 19 teams in the 10th LAWASIA International Moot Competition 2015 held in Australia.

Final year Law LLB students Orestis Anastasiades, Elena Savvidou and Lizzie Virgo were the only team from Europe represented in the competition hosted this year by The College of Law in Sydney. The other 18 teams were drawn from institutions across the southern hemisphere, including from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, China, Japan, Indian, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil, Kenya and Australia.

Orestis, Elena and Lizzie flew out to Australia last week, accompanied by the School’s Deputy Director of Mooting Joe Thompson, to compete in the international rounds of the annual moot organised by LAWASIA. LAWASIA is an international organisation of lawyers’ associations, individual lawyers, judges and legal academics in the Asia Pacific region; the chair of its Moot Standing Committee is Kent alumnus Raphael Tay, now a partner at Chooi & Company in Kualar Lumpur.

This year’s moot problem centred on international law and involved a dispute over an ancient stone statue on display in a museum in Malaysia and which the Government of Nepal requested be returned. All parties agreed to resolve the issue under the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration i-Arbitration Rules.

Kent Law School runs an intensive and wide-ranging mooting programme; in recent years the Law School has entered teams in the OUP/BPP Moot, the English Speaking Union Moot, the Jessup International Law Moot, the Oxford French Law Moot, and the UK Student Law Association Moot. The Law School also runs an annual Crown Prosecution Service Moot against the University of Sussex, with the winning team receiving work experience with the CPS.

From 11-12 November ROOM, a shipping container turned gallery, will host an exhibition by School of Music and Fine Art student Sariya Suwannakarn.

Sariya’s exhibition titled ‘Declaring Individuality’ explores the increasingly blurred line between the virtual and physical world. Presenting the audience with the alien language of code that represents an individual’s online identity.

ROOM is the bright blue shipping container outside the Pilkington Building on the Medway campus. Read more about ROOM.

If you’d like to exhibit in ROOM please email E.V.Murton@kent.ac.uk.