Between 8 and 17 June Medway Council and partners commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Dutch raid of 1667 with a 10-day spectacular of naval and ship visits, street festivals, exhibitions, arts and cultural activities and family entertainment.

Kent is proud to be a co-sponsor and we encourage staff and students to visit the festival website for the full events listing.

Festival highlights include:
8 June: Launch event – tickets for the parade and joint performance by the Royal Marines and Dutch Marine Band at the Dockyard are available.

8 June – arrival of up to 50 yachts

9 June onwards: Breaking the Chain Exhibition – a rare opportunity to see some of the most important paintings and documents associated with the Battle of Medway, with exhibits from international collections.

10 June: Marine band concert – travel through time from 17th Century with the Great Dutchman, to Robbie Williams and Sting

10-11 June: An exclusive opportunity to see life on board British and Dutch naval vessels

10-11 June: The Dutch are coming – step back in time to 1667 with family friendly re-enactments and a new exhibition at Upnor Castle

14 June: A further 100 offshore sailing yachts will arrive on the river

17 June: Medway In Flames – a fantastic light and sound show involving film, water screens, pyrotechnics and a spectacular firework display on the river.

Find out more at www.medway.gov.uk/bom

Public lecture

A leading expert on the Anglo-Dutch maritime wars of the 17th century will give a public lecture on 30 June. This forms part of a three-day conference organised by the University of Kent and the Historic Dockyard Chatham.

On Thursday 8 June, Jaime del Val, one of the most significant artists/ philosophers in Europe working at the transdisciplinary frontiers of body, subjectivity and the algorecene will present METABODY 2017 Kent – Ontohacking Workshop: Ontopolitics of perception in the Algoricene: Ecologies of indeterminacy in the Big Data Era. This takes place in the School of Music and Fine Art’s Galvanising Shop Performance Space at Historic Dockyard Chatham.

The workshop would offer participants a unique opportunity to explore some of the key questions driving current trans-disciplinary and practice based research through active participation with a leader in the field. This would enable artists and researchers alike to develop and test their research methods, and gain valuable insight into trans-disciplinary and practice based research processes and collaborative practice based investigation, thus opening up the potential of futurity, navigation and speculation within practice as research.

In the Big Data Era new threats to plurality emerge as strategies of preemption and modulation of behaviour of the human and nonhuman acquire increasing sophistication in algorithmic and Big Data environments. From Trump and the Brexit, whose victories were seemingly modulated through big data analytics, to cyberwar, and affective mass media politics, from ubiquitous surveillance, modulation of consumer’s behaviours, capitalization of microgestures, to the war fronts, a new turn to power is happening (which Brian Massumi calls Ontopower), focusing on capturing potentiality and emergence while operating in affective, not in ideological registers. Which is the underlying perceptual ecology of Ontopower, and most importantly, how to elaborate new modes of resistance to, and reinvention beyond, such modes of power and violence?

For more info go to https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html?eid=25526&view_by=month&date=20170630&category=&tag=

STICKY THICK, the annual practice as research forum hosted by the School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent, and the Sound-Image-Space Research Centre (SISRC), takes place on Wednesday 7 June 2017, 11.00-17.00 in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space, Historic Dockyard Chatham.

This event brings together artists, writers, filmmakers, philosophers, composers, performers and researchers across disciplines to investigate practice as research as a continuing process of invention, and explores its capacity to generate dynamic and challenging modes of enquiry.

Now in its 3rd year this annual event forms a key part of the research culture and programme at SMFA, providing a platform for academics and research students to present and discuss their research with colleagues across the University and CHASE consortium, and with invited speakers. Speakers include Jaime Del Val, transdisciplinary media artist, philosopher, activist, Director of the Metabody Institute: metabody.eu; ar  tists and filmmakers Ruth MacLennan, Sarah Turner, Shona Illingworth, Tim Meacham and Luciano Zubillaga; electroacoustic composer Aki Pasoulas; environmental scientist Joseph Tzanopoulos and Yvonne Salmon, Chair of the Cambridge University Counterculture Research Group and writer on law, literature and visual culture, this one day event opens up a dynamic space for discussion, debate and exchange.

All welcome! Please RSVP: mfapgradmin@kent.ac.uk or turn up on the day.

To book go to: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html?eid=25530&view_by=month&date=20170630&category=&tag=

The Student Learning Advisory Service runs its final Creative Language Development (CLD) workshop for 2016/17 on 21 June. This highly original event is open to Kent students, studying at any level, who don’t have English as their first language.

The workshop begins at 11.00 and ends at 15.00 and includes an optional shared lunch. This allows students to network across schools and academic disciplines and facilitates contact with a range of cultures and perspectives.

The workshop provides an opportunity to get out of the classroom and enjoy the tranquil and beautiful environment surrounding our campus. Using a guide sheet and compass, students work together to navigate the local footpaths; the trees and plants are at their summer zenith at this time. Fortunately this year the event falls on the summer solstice – the longest day, so everything should be naturally aligned for a special experience.

While en route, students pause to note their thoughts on a range of environmental issues. These first musings are later re-drafted to produce an unusual and highly individualised memento of the day.

After lunch there is a team quiz offering a light-hearted look at some of the idiosyncrasies of the English language.

This event has proved popular with students since its launch in 2014. Participants always leave the session with new words and phrases to enjoy in their day to day use of English and there is always plenty of laughter. The workshop involves no additional study commitments and is designed to help participants feel more confident and able to express themselves in English.

For more information and to book your place, visit CLD on Moodle (module code DP1350) or email Steve Cope.

The University is undertaking the first phase of what will become annual staff surveys, to understand your perception of Kent as a place to work. This is a chance for you to give feedback about what your working environment is like now and what needs to be done so that it develops in a positive way that enables you to do your best.

The surveys are being rolled out in four phases to enable efficient administration and to ensure we have the capacity to provide follow-up support to respond to any issues highlighted. The first phase begins 5 June, with the remaining phases planned for September, November/December and March 2018.

Responses will be entirely anonymous and we have made the survey deliberately short so you will find it quick to complete (5-10 minutes). When the time comes for your department/school, you will be sent an email from staffsurvey@kent.ac.uk with a link to the online survey. Your opinion matters, so please respond to the survey and encourage others to do the same. We want to get as high a response rate as possible so that we can gain credible insight into what we do well and what we need to develop.

The information we collect will also be used to support our Athena SWAN work and to help us make changes to enhance your working life.

Data from the survey will be held confidentially by HR and results for each school or department will be shared and reviewed with staff within those areas. The information collected will be used to highlight what we do well and to identify areas where we want to take action, to monitor trends and for Athena SWAN submissions. University-level results will be published on the website.

Find out more, including the survey schedule, as well as guides for staff,  managers and Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Teams

The Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee is the main forum for consideration and negotiation between the University and its staff. Its membership includes Management, Union, and Staff representatives who meet each term.

Papers for the 14 June meeting are now available on the JNSCC website.

If you would like to comment on any of the Agenda items / papers, please contact your Representatives.

GMB representatives:

– Lou Cogger (l.cogger@kent.ac.uk)

– Robin Hornsey (r.k.hornsey@kent.ac.uk)

UCU representatives:

– Dr Owen Lyne (o.d.lyne@kent.ac.uk)

– Dr Paul Hubert (p.j.hubert@kent.ac.uk)

– Sian Lewis-Anthony (s.lewis-anthony@kent.ac.uk)

– Mark Dean (g.m.dean@kent.ac.uk)

Unison representatives:

– Phil Rogers (p.rogers-89@kent.ac.uk)

– Derek Baldwin (unisonbranchsec@kent.ac.uk)

– Katie Norton (K.S.Norton@kent.ac.uk)

Unite representative:

– Trevor Reece (t.w.reece@kent.ac.uk)

Non-union staff:

– Mark Ellis (M.K.Ellis@kent.ac.uk)

– Linda Lough (l.m.lough@kent.ac.uk)

– Stephen Rowlstone (s.rowlstone@kent.ac.uk)

The UK General Election 2017 is on Thursday 8 June. Make sure your voice is heard by taking part in the vote.

Not sure where your local polling station is? Find out on the Canterbury and Medway Council websites.

Find out more information on the UK General Election 2017 here.

Entries are now open for this year’s Times Higher Education Awards. Further information on the 2017 Awards, categories and criteria is available on the awards website
Posie Bogan, Director of Corporate Communications, will be working with colleagues across the University to agree our entries over the next fortnight. If you have any suggestions, please email communications@kent.ac.uk as soon as possible and by Friday, 9 June.