Kent will be the first university in England and Wales to hold a paperless moot after being given access to CaseLines, a computerised evidence and courtroom presentation system.

CaseLines helps eliminate paper in courtrooms and gives lawyers, court staff and judges access to legal evidence bundles (including multimedia evidence). It has been used by the UK’s Supreme Court since 2014 and was chosen by the UK Government to digitise all of the criminal courts in England and Wales in 2015. The CaseLines Crown Court Digital Case System is used in all the Crown Courts (and some Civil Courts) in England and Wales.

Kent Law School will use the digital bundling software at its first paperless moot on Wednesday 27 March. The moot is being held to mark the naming of the Law School’s Moot Court in honour of Dr Kennedy Wong, a major benefactor of the Kent Law Campaign. The Kent Law Campaign raised £5m for the construction of the Wigoder Law Building, the building in which the Moot Court is housed.

Four Kent Law School alumni will be returning for the special show moot to act as the advocates for the appellant and for the Crown in a case that involves a threat to the Prime Minister at a party conference.

Joe Chambers, Samuel Davis, Cara Hall and Guevara Leacock will present their arguments before a Court of Appeal panel comprising: barrister Richard Honey (from Francis Taylor Building); the Rt Hon Lord Justice Mummery; Judge Andrew Patience QC; Law School Lecturer (and criminal barrister) Darren Weir; and Her Honour Judge Adele Williams.

The evidence bundles will be available to view by everyone in the Moot Court, including members of the audience with access to a mobile device.

The Department of Philosophy is organising its annual Philosophy Reading Weekend, which this year takes place on 23-24 February for a trip to the coast, featuring philosophical talks by fellow students, as well as walks, games, and an evening at the local pub.

This is a great opportunity to relax mid-semester and talk philosophy with other students and staff in an informal setting, spend time doing non-philosophy outdoor activities, and read or chat in the common room.

Tickets are £30. Limited places are available; for further information and to book tickets, visit the Philosophy events page

Throughout February we will be observing LGBTQ+ history, and the history of gay rights and related civil rights movement.

The University of Kent, LGBT Staff Network, Kent Union, LGBT Student Network and the Gulbenkian Theatre have brought together a range of events throughout February to celebrate and commemorate LGBTQ+ individuals and history.

Find the full programme of month-long events here.

The next Kent Q-Step pubTALK on Palliative Care – Not Just for Cancer? will be given by Professor David Oliver, Tizard Centre, on Monday 11 February.

The talk will take place from 19.00 for 19.30 at The Old Buttermarket, 39 Burgate, Canterbury CT1 2HW. Entry is free.

Palliative care is the active support of people with life threatening illness, considering all aspects of care – physical, psychological, social and spiritual. It is often associated with the care of people with advanced cancer, although when St Christopher’s Hospice was opened in 1967 by Dame Cicely Saunders, patients with other diagnoses were admitted.

Professor David Oliver’s interest has been in the development of palliative care of people with neurological disease and his research and publications have been on this developing field, particularly for people with motor neurone disease. This pubTALK will look at this area and how palliative care, in hospices, hospitals and the community, is developing to care for people with any disease.

Professor Aylish Wood and Dr Kaitlyn Regehr from the departments of Film and Media  at the School of Arts have organised an event entitled Diversity and Disruption: An Intersectional Valentine on behalf of the School of Arts’ Film, Media and Culture Research Cluster and the Identity, Politics and the Arts Research Cluster. The event will take place at the School of Arts on Thursday 14 February 2019, from 10.00 to 16.00.

Opening dialogues around the challenges diversity offers to theories and practices in visual and online cultures, this event combines short interdisciplinary and interactive workshops to provoke questions on the diversity of images, diversity in themes and the making of visual and online cultures. Taking place on 14 February, Diversity and Disruption is positioned as an alternative love event, which additionally considers connectivity, digital intimacy, intersectionality and representation in the post-digital age.

There are a variety of sessions to attend throughout the day, run by Dr Kaitlyn Regehr (Kent), Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Kent), Shiva Zarabadi (UCL), Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL), Amelia Jenkinson (Sexplain), Dr Christina Kim (Kent), Dr Sara de Bendictus (Brunel University), Mojisola Adebayo, and Dr Helen Brooks (Kent).

The available sessions include a craft workshop drawn from a Mayor of London commissioned project which explores gender and advertising,  workshops on the perception of diversity, 3D modelling as a form of communication, a Q&A session with actor and director Mojisola Adebayo, and a badge-making workshop on the subject of period poverty.

Please click on our School of Arts webpages to view a full schedule of events, and to book your free tickets for Diversity and Disruption.

Sadly, Ann Hadaway passed away on 3 January this year after a short battle with Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s.

Ann worked at the University from 1986 until she retired in 2010. She started as an Office Manager in Kent Business School and then moved to Politics and International Relations in 2000 as a Clerical Officer.

Ann was a much loved member of staff and will be sadly missed by her friends and colleagues.

Her funeral will be held on Wednesday, 30 January at 11.20 at Barham Crematorium. A wake will follow at The Castle pub, Oare. The Registry flag will stand at half mast on Wednesday in honour of Ann.

A Just Giving page has been set up in memory of Ann to support the research of the Lewy Body Society.

Kent Sport employees don’t shy away from taking on challenges. Yasmin Benaleten, a Kent Sport auxiliary Duty Officer and Master’s student, certainly fits the bill. She has taken on the arduous task of climbing Kilimanjaro in support of the Meningitis Research Foundation.

Yasmin is currently studying for her Master’s in Organisational Psychology and became a Kent Sport auxiliary in September 2018, slotting right in with the team. With her history of sport having been involved with the rowing team as well as lacrosse, Yasmin is no stranger to keeping fit.

She decided to take part in an extraordinary challenge along with 50 other people that not only tests physical, but mental ability as well – climbing the tallest free-standing mountain in the world in September 2019.

Pairing her challenge with a charity, Yasmin chose the Meningitis Research Foundation, hoping her efforts go towards helping to eradicate this horrible disease by 2030.

‘As I am a current student, I especially want to raise awareness that [students] are at the second highest risk in getting the bacteria which causes the swelling of the protective layers around the brain and long term damage which [causes] one death per every tenth person being infected. The vaccinations are funded by the Foundation, supported by events like climbing Kilimanjaro,’ said Yasmin.

Yasmin is going to be fundraising as much as possible to ensure her challenge happens. She’ll also be taking part in fitness regimes and applying to participate in the Xercise Factor to get her in tip-top shape.

If you’re interested in finding out more and supporting Yasmin on her trek up Kilimanjaro, please see her fundraising page.

Kent Sport wishes Yasmin and her teammates all the best for such an incredible feat.

Qualify to teach English or improve your own English

The Centre for English and World Languages runs an intensive CELTA training course starting on 17 June.  CELTA (Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is an internationally recognised qualification.

If English is not your first language and you’d like to improve, you can sign up for FREE classes, which will be taught by our CELTA trainee teachers.

Find out more about the CELTA course and the free English classes.