SMFA Fine Art students are part of the new artists’ collective Muster Station, created in response to the University of Kent’s planned closure of the School of Music and Fine Art.

As Muster Station, they have been invited by Whitstable Biennale to take part in the 2018 Tate Modern Exchange projects, at the Tate Modern in London, with a theme “Production”.

It takes place on 3-4 February, and will involve SMFA alumni, students and some MA’s and BA’s as well as staff, and is open to the public throughout.

Through a programme of workshops, talks, interactions and interventions Muster Station will explore the means by which artists produce in response to constantly shifting conditions of space, time, audience and the ebb and flow of economic and political support.

For more information, please see our webpage.

International Partnerships is hosting the next Global Hangout of the series on Wednesday the 7 February between 17.00-19.00.

The event will be themed ‘Celebrating Love’ in the lead up to Valentine’s Day on the 14 February. All Canterbury students are welcome to attend and we are inviting everyone to book their places online now by following this link. Places are limited and tend to go quickly – so please get booking asap!

Global Hangouts is a series of free global networking events arranged throughout the academic year. With a fun and relaxed atmosphere, the hangouts include interactive activities, refreshments and live music and performances. If students or staff wish to find out more information, they can visit our webpage.

Registration is now open for the Researching the Rainbow Conference from 15.00 – 19.00 on Thursday 15 February 2018 in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 on the Canterbury campus. We strongly suggest you register online to confirm your place byMonday 5 February.

The conference, which forms part of the University’s LGBT History Month celebrations, is to showcase the vast array of excellent research being done on or related to LGBT+ people and issues, and to encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration and networking. The conference will be opened by University of Kent Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox, who also acts at the Executive Group’s LGBT+ Champion.

Topics include literary and cinematic representations of homosexuality, transsexuality in mental health care and the legal system, and the decolonization of sexuality, from students and academics from a range of schools and disciplines, as well as external partners.

If you would like to display a research poster, please email lgbtstaffnetwork@kent.ac.uk by Monday 5 February.

The conference is free and open to all. Please forward this invitation to any colleagues/friends who may be interested.

LGBT+ Staff Network

Kent Law School early career researchers Dr Asta Zokaityte and Dr Will Mbioh have been awarded a grant of £5,000 for an interdisciplinary research project to examine the relationship between vulnerability and the management of personal data.

The concept of vulnerability is used for the first time in the new EU General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force in the UK on 28 May 2018, to regulate how the personal data of children and employees are collected and processed. With their grant from the University of Kent’s Social Sciences Faculty Research Fund, Dr Zokaityte (Primary Investigator) and Dr Mbioh (Co-Investigator) seek to engage academics in a broader discussion of the concept of “digital vulnerability” and to further investigate the relationships and intersections between vulnerability and the governance of personal data in the UK.

The project team will write a co-authored article, for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, that will describe digital vulnerability. It will also conduct academic and policy scoping exercises with researchers, NGO and representatives of public bodies. As the project evolves, the team plan to apply for external funding that will enable them to run workshops and establish a digital vulnerability research network.

Dr Zokaityte is a Lecturer in Law. Her research explores the ways in which novel edu-regulatory techniques are deployed by financial regulators to govern consumer behaviour in financial markets. Her book Financial Literacy Education: Edu-Regulating our Saving and Spending Habits (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) offers an innovative way of thinking about financial literacy education and has been shortlisted for the Hart-SLSA Prize for Early Career Academics.

Associate Lecturer in Law Dr Mbioh has research expertise in the field of data protection. He has recently published in leading, international peer-reviewed journals including European Data Protection Law Review and the Journal of Internet Law.

Faversham’s first literary festival is being held 23-25 February.

The varied line-up includes a number of staff at the university:

• Alex Preston will be talking about his new book – As King Fishers Catch Fire.
• Prof Alex Stevens is be in conversation with historical novelist.
• Jane Harris about her new book – Sugar Money.
• Prof Tim Strangleman will be participating in a panel discussion with two contributors of ‘Know Your Place’ a collection of  essays on contemporary working class experience.
• Angela Koch will interview refugee activist.
• Gulwali Passarlay on his book ‘The Lightless Sky’.
• Dr Maggie Butt will host an open mic poetry session.

For more information on the full listings, see the website www.favershamliteraryfestival.org

A series of inspiring lectures in association with Medway U3A will take place at the University’s Medway campus from March to June 2018.

You can explore a subject purely for interest in a friendly group, led by an expert tutor. These lectures are open to all and no previous knowledge of the subject is expected.

Lectures include:

•       History

Cunning Regal Women: English queens before Elizabeth I

Saturday 17 March, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Julia Cruse PhD

•       Literature

George Orwell

Saturday 21 April, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Sarah Anthony MA

•       Art History

Let’s talk about Art

Saturday 23 June, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Katia Mai PhD

To find out more and to book your place see our Tonbridge webpages or telephone 01732 352316.

Dr Edward Kanterian, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, has published a new book entitled Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn (Routledge, 2018).

Kant is widely acknowledged as the greatest philosopher of modern times. He undertook a famous critical turn to save human freedom and morality from the challenge of determinism and materialism. He believed that man is a fallen creature and in need of ‘redemption’, and intended to provide a fortress protecting religious faith from the failure of rationalist metaphysics, from the atheistic strands of the Enlightenment, from the new mathematical science of nature, and from the dilemmas of Christian theology itself. Kant was an epistemologist, a philosopher of mind, while upholding his own religious faith.

Dr Kanterian’s book aims to recover the focal point and inner contradictions of his thought, the ‘secret thorn’ of his metaphysics (as Heidegger once put it). It takes its cue from an older approach to Kant, but also engages with recent Anglophone and continental scholarship, and deploys modern analytical tools to make sense of Kant. What emerges is an innovative and thought-provoking interpretation of Kant’s metaphysics, set against the background of forgotten religious aspects of European philosophy.

For more details, please see the publisher’s page.