Yearly Archives: 2015

Kent professor’s book about Barbara Hepworth’s psychoanalytically-minded champion, Adrian Stokes

Published to coincide with the opening of this year’s Barbara Hepworth exhibition at the Tate, Kent professor Janet Sayers’s latest book (with a photo of a Hepworth sculpture on its cover) tells the story of Hepworth’s close friend and champion, the psychoanalytically-minded art critic, Adrian Stokes. As well as recounting Stokes’s revolutionary emphasis on the materials-led inspiration of architecture, sculpture, painting, and the avant-garde creations of the Ballets Russes, Sayers tells the story of how Stokes brought Hepworth to St Ives thereby helping to transform it into an internationally-acclaimed centre of modern art; and of how he used this and other experiences, including falling in love again in his early forties, and his many years of being psychoanalysed by Melanie Klein, in forging insights about ways the outer world gives form to the inner world of fantasy and imagination.

Summer vacation parking 2015

The University hosts a number of events and conferences during the summer, requiring coach and car parking. In addition, there are major maintenance works and new building developments taking place.

In order to manage parking safely and effectively through the summer the following car park disruptions are required:

  • Giles Lane blue zone partial closure from 20 June to 11 September. This will be for coach parking and will change in size in accordance with the number of coaches requiring parking. This is dependent on the reported numbers given to us from Hospitality and other departments. This aims to stop coaches parking in central car parks.  If you arrive to the University and find a coach parked in any of the central car parks please report this to Campus Security.
  • Sports Centre blue zone car park full closure from 22 June until 11 September. This is for use by contractors working on summer maintenance works in central campus. (Please note there is still a requirement for some vehicles to use central car parks).
  • Sports Centre blue zone car park partial closure from 14 September until 16 September.  This is to assist with the Open day event on 16 September.
  • Lypeatt Court car parks full closure until 14 September.  This is for a site compound for the Hospitality refurbishments work.
  • Park Wood Courts – Contractors for University building projects and projects within the Park Wood area will receive a permit to park within these car parks.
  • Tyler Court B & C Accessible bays full closure until 14 September.  As this area is being used as the site compound for Hospitality refurbishment. 2 bays will remain if possible.
  • Rutherford rear Accessible bays will remain available to use but a manned barrier will be in place on the fire road which accesses these bays.

On Wednesday 16 September an Open day is being held which will results in car parks closures.  Full details will be announced nearer the time.

The Traffic Regulations continue to apply.

Dissertation Award for Mark Batty

Dr Mark Batty has won the 2015 John C Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award. This prestigious prize is presented annually to the author of an outstanding doctoral dissertation in the area of Programming Languages from submissions received globally.

Mark, who is joined the School of Computing as a Lecturer in March 2015, completed his dissertation titled The C11 and C++11 Concurrency Model while at the University of Cambridge.

The dissertation award is given by ACM SIGPLAN, a special interest group of ACM that focuses on programming languages. In particular, SIGPLAN explores the design, implementation, theory, and efficient use of programming languages and associated tools.

The selection committee for the award consists of leading academics and industry leaders in computing.

For more on this story please go to the School of Computing website news page.

St Stephens Hill/Tyler Courts Steps Closure

From Monday 22 to Friday 26 June the St Stephen’s Hill/Tyler Court steps will be closed.

This is to enable the installation of floor markers on the concrete landings for the visually impaired.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

If you have any queries please contact the Estates Helpdesk on Ext. 3209.

‘Big Lunch’ at the newly refurbished Westgate Hall

Westgate Hall was home to this year’s ‘Big Lunch’, organised by the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, which took place on Sunday 7 June.

‘he Big Lunch is a simple idea from the Eden Project: that as many people as possible across the UK have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun.

The hall was decorated with bunting, seasonal flowers and homemade table decorations in light pastels to bring in the feeling of summer. Everyone brought along plenty of food to eat and share. There was balloons and bubbles and hula hoops for the kids and the big kids.

ASDA generously supported the event as did the Curzon Cinema by providing our raffle prize.

The event was a great success and attended by about 80 residents of Kent.

Event organiser Famy Rashid said:

‘I love community events and saw this as a great opportunity to bring the people of Canterbury together.

‘Having only recently joined the Westgate Hall team, I had a limited time to organise the event but the community spirit in Canterbury is alive and kicking, and everyone came together and made it a fun day.  We had families, young people, older residents – a real mix.  We have a whole year to plan the Big Lunch for next year and it’s going to be bigger and better.’

Oxfam Walk to Whitstable with Roving Librarians

Maria Centrone, Karen Earl, and Gemma Tucker from Templeman Library and Philippa Rose, from King’s School Library have formed the ‘Roving Librarians’ team for the Trailwalker 2015 challenge.

The challenge is in aid of Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust and involves walking across the South Downs for 100km in 30 hours or under. As part of their fundraising, they are organising a fun and healthy event on a walking theme:

Please come and join a walk to Whitstable from the Canterbury Campus on Thursday 2 July after work, along the Crab and Winkle Way. For a small contribution of £6.00 you will support a good cause, enjoy some exercise with pleasant company (hopefully in the sunshine) and receive a goody bag. Some walkers will be finding some fish and chips and maybe a refreshing drink on the beach if the weather permits. Sound tempting? Details and booking here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/oxfam-walk-to-whitstable-with-the-roving-librarians-tickets-8829341799

CHSS Open Lecture, 7 July 2015

CHSS’ 2015 annual lecture will be taking place on Tuesday 7 July commencing at 6pm in the Colyer-Fergusson Music Hall with a drinks reception in the foyer from 5pm onwards.

This year’s lecture will be delivered by Professor Chris Ham, The Kings Fund, and will look at ‘What are the prospects for the NHS in the new parliament?’ A flyer with full details, including the abstract, can be found here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/chss/

This event is free and open to all. To book your place, please contact Helen Wooldridge.

Medway student hub receives planning permission

Plans for new state-of-the-art, purpose-built student social facilities at the Medway campus have moved a step closer to reality.

Official permission has now been granted for the development by the universities of Kent and Greenwich to convert an unused listed building at Medway – formerly home to a swimming pool and bowling alley – into a ‘student hub’ for use by all 10,000 students at the campus.

Now that both listed building consent and planning permission has been given by Medway Council, the universities aim for facilities to be open in time for their respective student intakes in September 2016. The student centre, which will feature a café/bar, catering, entertainment and social activity space, will also include a home for GK Unions , the students’ union partnership between Kent Union at Medway and the Students’ Union University of Greenwich.

‘Phase 1’ for carrying out work on the project is currently out to tender and the universities expect to make an appointment in late June, with the works beginning in either July or August.

The universities hope to appoint contractors to begin work in near future. Students themselves have been helping to shape the design of the new facilities, through surveys and a consultation process led by GK Unions working with Dannatt Johnson Architects.

All the key buildings on the Medway site, including the old swimming pool, date back to the early 20th century when they were part of the HMS Pembroke Royal Navy barracks .

While the universities of Kent and Greenwich will fund and manage the proposed capital project, many of the new facilities will also be available to students of Canterbury Christ Church University .

 

Students running 300 miles for charity

A team of students and alumni runners is taking part in a 300-mile ultra marathon from Canterbury to Amsterdam to raise money for charity.

The University of Kent Athletics and Cross Country Club runners will complete ten marathons in ten days. They are raising funds for the British Heart Foundation and the Kent Opportunity Fund, which supports scholarships, extra-curricular projects and bursaries for our students.

The runners left Canterbury on 15 June to a rousing send-off by Kent students and staff, including Dame Julia Goodfellow, Vice-Chancellor; Graham Holmes, Kent Sport Director; Kim Brophy, Fundraising Volunteer Manager at British Heart Foundation; and Nina Mehmi, Kent Union Vice President (Sport). The Kent Bunny also made an appearance.

Runners from the Athletics and Cross Country Club are well-known for taking on big challenges and, in 2014, completed eight marathons in eight days running from Canterbury to Paris. The Cants2dam run is their biggest challenge yet and one of many exciting student projects taking place during Kent’s 50th anniversary year.

You can support the team by making a donation via Just Giving  or by texting TEXT CDAM50 £5 to 70070 to donate.

For further information, contact Tim Farrow.