Dr Reshmi Dutta-Flanders, Assistant Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Linguistics, is to present a conference paper at the Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics’ fourth annual roundtable in forensic linguistics and phonetics.

The GSFL is an international organisation made up of social scientists, practitioners, and students who are devoted to promoting cooperative work within the field of forensic linguistics (FL) and forensic phonetics (FP) to the betterment of the society. The GSFL holds an annual roundtable where FL/FP researchers, educators and practitioners can present and discuss their work within an interdisciplinary, supportive and scholarly environment.

Reshmi’s paper on ‘The Modus Operandi of Analysing Criminal Narrative’ will demonstrate how a plot is structured based on the ‘principle of relevance’, that is, how an audience interprets any situation for meaning based upon expectations. Using Ford Madox Ford’s novel The Good Soldier (1915), she uses a ‘discourse-based’ frame analysis that is looking for reoccurring themes and how they are placed across the plot form of a story. The consecution of these themes as scenarios contextualise the motives of participants in a story, and can enable a better understanding of an offender’s narrative and further aspects of criminality.

The GSFL Roundtable takes place in Mainz, Germany from 26-28 August 2016. Further information about the event is available at: www.gsfl.info/roundtable–16.html

The Santander branch on the University Canterbury campus will be closed each Wednesday from 3 August to 7 September in order to assist next year’s students when they receive their A-Level results.

The branch will open as normal from 10.00 – 18.00 every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during this period.

The branch has a new ATM, which in addition to cash withdrawals, allows cash and cheque deposits from Santander customers. Cash deposits will credit accounts immediately, Cheque deposits will clear in the same timeframe as those paid in over the counter.

Adam Baker, University Relationship Branch Manager
Email: adam.baker@santander.co.uk or phone 07715 088419.

Antony Copley, a loyal member of the School of History, died on 18 July 2016.

Antony saw active service during the Suez Crisis, then studied at Oxford and taught at Bangor before joining the University of Kent in 1967. He specialised in 19th century French and Indian history and retired in 2002 as a Reader.

He remained an active member of the School and University, attending events and continuing to research and write books, including Music and the Spiritual: Composers and Politics in the 20th Century (2012). He also generously sponsored the Copley Prize for the best final year history dissertation, and enjoyed judging them and presenting the prize itself.

In 2014 Antony became an honorary Professor of Modern European and Indian History, which gave him much pleasure. Last year he published his autobiography, A Memoir: Historian and Homosexual: Search for a Postwar Identity. He will be much missed by those who knew him.

Kenneth Fincham, School of History

Antony’s funeral will take place at St Clement’s Church, Sandwich, at 15.30 on Tuesday 2 August. A memorial service will be arranged in Canterbury in the autumn. 

An obituary was published in the Guardian on 1 August 2016.