Dr Lois Lee, Research Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Understanding Unbelief research programme, has contributed to the latest issue of The Church Times, dated 3 November 2017.

The Church Times is an independent Anglican newspaper, produced in London.
Lois’s piece, entitled ‘Take the Beliefs of the Non-religious Seriously’, and argues that non-religious belief should be more seriously understood. Although 51% of the British population identify as non-religious, this hides some differences within that population.
‘The current approach makes a category error when it asks whether people belong to one of several religious traditions, or are not religious at all, and then compares these groups,’ ‘ explains Lois in the article. ‘This pits people who have a specific religious identity (C of E, Roman Catholic, Muslim, etc.) against those who opt for a generic and composite one (the “not religious”).’

‘Were it to take the transcendent beliefs and world-views of non-religious people seriously, the picture would look quite different.’

The full article is available online here.

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning & Teaching Network session taking place on Wednesday 22 November, 13.15-14.30 in CNWSR6.

Ben Watson, Accessible Information Project Adviser will present this session titled ‘How to take a KIP at work – and not get into trouble’

Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) offers simple but powerful mainstream adjustments to learning and teaching delivery at Kent and are informed by analysis of our most frequently requested Inclusive Learning Plan (ILP) adjustments. Embedding these adjustments will improve the learning environment for all students, reduce the need for retrospective adjustments and lessen the additional workload required to implement individual Inclusive Learning Plans (ILPs).

The session will look at inclusive design principles and identify how everyone in an academic school or professional services department can play their part in developing learning experiences that are accessible by design to everyone.

To book a place please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk 

Event and Experience Design (EED) graduate Elise Berdah from the School of Music and Fine Art has been commissioned by Clara Lee, Vice President (Welfare) of Kent Union to re-make her EED Independent Realised Project.

‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ is a touring awareness raising experience of sexual harassment, particularly in the university environment. It was originally presented in the Drill Hall Library during the Student Wellbeing Festival last May. Watch the project video for more information.

It will be presented again in the Student Hub at Medway from 20 – 26 November, and from 27 November – 3 December in Canterbury. It may tour to other universities and colleges. Watch Elise speaking about her project.

Music truly was out of this world when ten singers from the University performed alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Voices, in a sell-out performance of Holst’s ‘The Planets’ suite’ under the baton of John Wilson at the Marlowe Theatre.

Ten members of various University choirs, including several University Music Scholars, headed down the hill during the afternoon of Wednesday 8 November to rehearse with Aidan Oliver, founding director of Philharmonia Voices, before returning in the evening to lend their voices to the ethereal final movement which brings Holst’s famed orchestral work to a celestial conclusion.

Director of Music, Sue Wanless, said: ‘It was such a privilege to be part of this concert and to see from ‘back-stage’ the extraordinary expertise and detail that these distinguished musicians bring to create the performance on the night.’

Pictured clockwise from top: Charlotte Webb, Alice Baker, Alice Scott, Alice Hargreaves, Fleur Sumption, Alice Shires, Ruth Webster, Lulu Hammond, Carmen Mackey, Helen Sotillo

Congratulations to the ladies on their involvement in a terrific concert, and our thanks to the Philharmonia musicians for providing such an unearthly experience for our students.

As part of an AHRC-funded project, ‘Roman and Late Antique Artefacts in Egypt’, led by Dr Ellen Swift FSA, Reader in Archaeology in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, archaeology technician Lloyd Bosworth has been joining researchers at UCL’s Petrie Museum to undertake laser scanning using the department’s Romer laser scanner.

The laser scanning of a range of musical instruments from Roman Egypt is a key element of the project, as it allows the recreation of these objects through both 3D printing and the making of replicas using authentic materials and techniques. The instruments will then be played, giving us the chance to hear the music of Roman Egypt in the 21st century.

The scanned objects include reed panpipes, a bell in the shape of the head of Bes, the dwarf god of ancient Egypt who protected mothers and children, and a number of small bells attached to tiny bracelets which were worn by children as amulets.

Lloyd is currently creating 3D models of the instruments from the scanned data, before the 3D printing process can begin. The 3D printing will be done by craft technicians in the School of Music and Fine Art here at Kent, while a number of other replicas will be handmade by Canterbury jeweller Justin Richardson. These replicas will form an important part of the project’s public exhibition at the Petrie Museum opening in December 2018, and will showcase the project’s research alongside a range of artefacts from Roman Egypt.

You can follow the project blog to keep up-to-date with progress: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/egypt-artefacts/blog/

Professor Ian Beckett, of the School of History, has completed a round of 16 radio interviews for local stations across the country following research he undertook for the military charity, Forces Net.

The new website www.forces.net/remembrance has an interactive map with additional material showing every conflict in which British servicemen and women have served since 1914 and the cost in lives.

The aim is to inform and educate the public about British participation in conflicts, peacekeeping missions and deployments from such well known conflicts as Afghanistan to those long forgotten such as military supervision of the plebiscite in Upper Silesia in 1921.

The research was accompanied by a survey. It revealed that 92% of those asked did not know how many members of the British armed forces had died in wars and conflicts since 1914 [1,088,879], 85% were not aware of more than half of those conflicts in which the armed forces had been involved since 1945 [61], and more than a third were unaware of any of current conflicts in which British forces were involved.

Depending upon region, between 83% and 91% did not know how many members of the armed forces had died on active service since 1945 [7.048]. An astonishing 56% of those aged 18-24 were not aware that British armed forces had participated in the Second World War!

Professor Beckett, Professor of Military History at Kent, said: ‘There is understandable emphasis upon the commemoration of the two world wars with the ongoing centenary of the Great war and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War. The public is also aware of recent conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan.The significance and value pf the Remembrance campaign is that it reminds us of those other occasions on which service personnel have made the ultimate sacrifice.’

The Centre for Critical Thought is delighted to invite you to a lecture by Dr Sean Molloy of the School of Politics and International Relations  on Thursday 23 November.

The lecture, entitled entitled ‘Removing the ‘The Foul Stain of Our Species’? Mankind, Providence and the Prospect of Salvation in Kant’ will take place  in Eliot Lecture Theatre 2 at 17.00.

All are welcome (University staff, students and the general public) and no booking is necessary.

Details of Dr Sean Molloy’s new book on Kant’s International Relations can be found here.

Academic and professional services staff are invited to try the digital classrooms in the Templeman Library. Be part of this pilot that will help shape how we use technology in the future.

Come to a digital classrooms drop-in session, and find out the features a digital classroom offers get hands-on experience of using the equipment chat to us about using a digital classroom next term.

Sessions are in the Templeman Library, TSR5: A Block, Ground Floor:

• Monday 13 November 13:00, 14:00, 15:00
• Wednesday 15 November 13:00, 14:00, 15:00
• Monday 20 November 13:00, 14:00, 15:00
• Wednesday 22 November 13:00, 14:00, 15:00

If you can, please tell us you’re coming so we have some idea of numbers: futurelearningspaces@kent.ac.uk.

If you can’t book a place in advance, please come along anyway! We will make sure everyone can join in.

Or contact us to find out more: email the Future Learning Spaces team at futurelearningspaces@kent.ac.uk

More about our digital classrooms pilot

The Library has two digital classrooms for the 2017-18 academic year. They are pilot rooms, designed under the Future Learning Spaces project. This is a collaboration between Estates, UELT, Information Services and Timetabling.

The project supports the University Education and Student Experience Strategy 2016-2020. It is exploring innovative teaching space design including:

• active learning
• new audio-visual technology
• innovative furniture and writing surfaces mobile device and BYOD (bring your own device) support lecture capture interactive voting systems.

How are they being used?

16 academics have taken the opportunity of teaching in the rooms, enabling them to understand the extended functionality and experiment with different teaching approaches.

At the end of the pilot, academics who have used the rooms will help us evaluate them. This will feed into teaching space provision.