Monthly Archives: May 2019

british heart foundation "make packing easier, pack for good"

British Heart Foundation Pack for Good

We work with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to collect and donate any of your unwanted items. See below for your nearest location on and off campus.

Location (on campus) Postcode Collection point type
Darwin Houses CT2 7NZ Clothing Bank
Keynes College CT2 7NP Clothing Bank
Marlowe/Jarman Buildings CT2 7UG Clothing Bank
Park Wood Accommodation CT2 7WS Clothing Bank
Park Wood Reception CT2 7SG Clothing Bank
Park Wood Reception CT2 7SG Book Bank
Turing College CT2 7FN Clothing Bank
Tyler Court CT2 7NZ Clothing Bank
Woolf College CT2 7BQ Clothing Bank

 

Location (off campus) Postcode Collection point type
St George’s Street CT1 2SR Shop
St Peter’s Street CT1 2BQ Shop
Tenterden Drive CT2 7BH Book Bank
Tenterden Drive CT2 7BH Clothing Bank
Wincheap – near Morrisons CT1 3TQ Book Bank
Wincheap – near Morrisons CT1 3TQ Clothing Bank

The following items are accepted: clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, books, computer games, CDs, DVDs, electrical items, crockery, cookware and homeware.

The following items CANNOT be accepted: knives, branded work or sportswear and duvets and pillows. See Give a Dog a Duvet Day

To arrange for the BHF to collect bulky furniture and electrical items, complete their collection request form

The British Heart Foundation fund over £100 million research each year into heart and circulatory diseases.

 

Estates Department Update

In March 2018 we conducted an Estates Department customer feedback survey to gain your views on what you think of Estates and how we operate.  There was a 54% response to the survey and the comments provided us with an important insight into what our customers think we do well and highlighted some areas for improvement.

As a result of the survey and the feedback indicating customers wanted a single point of contact, we launched the Estates Customer Services Centre on 26 June 2018, at our Estates Showcase event.  Since then we have been working hard to address areas which needed improving as well as concentrating on becoming more transparent in the way we operate.  An action plan outlining these changes can be viewed on our website here.

If you would like any more information on the survey feedback please contact Estates Customer Services by email: estatescustomerservices@kent.ac.uk

Partnership Award Success for the Kent and Medway Progression Federation

The Kent and Medway Progression Federation (KMPF) is a partnership between the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, the University for the Creative Arts and 40 schools in Kent and Medway. The partnership works to raise aspirations and attainment of young people disadvantaged by circumstance, who might not otherwise consider progression to higher education.

KMPF were delighted to accept the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) Award commendation in the category of Widening Access Partnership on behalf of all the partners who make up the collaboration at an awards ceremony at the Houses of Parliament this month. NEON is the professional organisation supporting those involved in widening access to higher education to affect change in their own organisations and communities. This NEON award recognises organisations that work together and support each other to effectively widen access for those who need the most help.

The University of Kent has worked in partnership with KMPF since its inception in 2011 and has played an integral role in increasing opportunities and widening access to higher education for so many students across Kent and Medway.

Find out more about the award and the work of the partnership on KMPF’s website

puppy asleep in person's arms

Give a Dog a Duvet Day

To prevent unwanted duvets from going to landfill or incineration, the University is supporting a number of local animal charities by donating unwanted duvets as beds for dogs, puppies, cats, kittens etc.

If you have a duvet you no longer need, and it’s clean and undamaged, please place in a clean carrier bag or bin bag and deliver to Rutherford College reception. The University will then arrange for the duvets to be donated to local animal charities.

This initiative will operate throughout the summer term, from Tuesday 7 May to Friday 14 June 2019.

Ann-Christine Kinzer wins 2019 Graduate School Prize

Ann-Christine Kinzer, PhD student in German and Comparative Literature, has been awarded the 2019 Graduate School Postgraduate Researcher Prize.

In 2018, the Graduate School introduced a series of annual prizes to recognise the excellence of its postgraduate researchers and the outstanding work carried out by academic and administrative staff members in support of postgraduate research and education. Ann is one of three prize winners in 2019 and will receive her award at a ceremony on 30 May.

Ann’s PhD thesis uses a comparative methodology to investigate the phenomenon of wandering in modern European literature. Defining wandering in Kantian terms as a kind of ‘purposiveness without purpose’ – as opposed to walking, which simply seeks to move from point a to point b – it argues that the practice arose in response to the Industrial Revolution, as writers and thinkers sought ways to resist the increasing instrumentalisation of time and space.

Over the last three years, Ann has made an exceptional contribution not only to the postgraduate culture of her discipline, but also to that of her School. She has contributed to numerous conferences and an exhibition, and has also been the leading influence behind the Skepsi group of postgraduates, selecting the topics for their conferences, organising the events themselves, and editing the subsequent proceedings. She has also been an invaluable assistant for the CHASE summer school, which ran successfully last year and is being repeated this summer. Ann’s most important contribution to our research culture, however, might well be her work on our impact case studies.

Professor Ben Hutchinson, School Director of Graduate Studies (Research) and Professor of European Literature, says: “Ann’s experience in helping to organise the event is proving invaluable as we prepare things again for this summer… She has engaged closely both with the individual case study leads (in UoA26) and with the central university REF team. Her efforts have been instrumental in improving both the quantity of the data and the quality of the narratives; one of the case studies on which she worked was even distributed across the university as a model of good practice… She is in many ways a model postgraduate student – industrious, ambitious, and resourceful – and I know that numerous colleagues could give glowing references about her contributions to their own activities”.

Michael Hession

Film noir, ambigious endings and ‘The Buddy Holly Story’: Nostalgia podcast with Michael Hession

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to Michael Hession, an American lawyer and documentary maker.

Michael has recently completed a film about Rev Brian Hession (no relation) – a cancer patient who fought in the 1940s and 50s against the stigma of illness and who had also been a filmmaker (and whose work Chris covers in his own Religion and Film teaching and research). Michael tells us how his study of Brian Hession reignited his interest in film noir and they talk, in turn, about the value of ambiguous endings.

They also talk about why nostalgia comprises ‘history plus emotion’; what motivated Michael to enter the legal profession; the influence of ‘The Buddy Holly Story’; voting in the 1992 Presidential election; what it is that triggers sad memories; why life is a marathon rather than a sprint; and what his 13 year old self would have thought about what he has achieved.

Art History students win Kent Arts Investment Fund

Following on from successfully organising the exhibition ‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’, students from the Department of the History of Art have won a Kent Arts Investment Fund award from Kent County Council.

‘The Female Nude’ was organised as part of the module ‘Print Collecting and Curating’, and the funds will contribute to the costs of hosting a series events associated with the exhibition, including special talks with artist Iwona Abrams and art historian and writer Frances Borzello. In addition, the extra funding will allow us to make a more substantial acquisition for the Kent Print Collection.

Rebecca Hardy, one of the co-organisers of the exhibition, said: ‘We feel very excited and proud at obtaining this funding. The module has been a brilliant practical learning experience, allowing us to gain a wide range of skills and implementing them into the ‘real-world’. We feel confident in entering a career in the arts considering all that we have achieved with this exhibition, which has been the product of just less than four months’ work.’

Rebecca is currently completing her final year on the BA (Hons) in Art History.

‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’ closes this Friday, and an online gallery from the exhibition may be seen here.

Vineyard

Join us for our crash course in Winemaking and Tasting

We are delighted to be hosting Prof Vladimir Jiranek, Head of the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide, for a one-day wine course on our Canterbury campus.

If you are keen to understand how the appearance, taste, aroma and flavour of your favourite wine are achieved then this is a course for you. Running on Fri 21 Jun 2019, the eve of the inaugural Canterbury Wine Festival, our Winemaking and Tasting crash course is designed for novices and wine enthusiasts and is hosted by Prof Vladimir Jiranek, a wine microbiologist ‘by trade’ with over 30 years’ experience in wine research and teaching on Adelaide’s Viticulture and Oenology programmes, which are ranked amongst the top few in the world.

The full-day all inclusive course aims to explain core concepts to demystify winemaking and wine tasting: which grapes are used, and how are they grown and harvested, how are grapes processed into red, white, sparkling and fortified wine styles; how do grape-growing and winemaking impact the finished wine; what are the basic appearances, tastes, aromas and flavours of wine and what do they tell you about the wine you’re drinking?

This course begins with introductory talks followed by a guided series of moderately-paced tastings (about 25 wines in total) that progressively build wine recognition and evaluation skills. By the end of the course attendees should be familiar with the key attributes of different varietals and styles of wine as well as recognise common faults, ready for the Canterbury Wine Festival the following day.

When: Friday 21 Jun 2019, 09.00 to 17.00

Where: Canterbury campus

Price: £118 including lunch, refreshments and all wine tasting

For further information, visit the website.

Pointing at a laptop screen

Please help us improve access to online library resources

Can you spare an hour and help us improve the way we make library resources available to you?

We are trying to understand how you find and access material through LibrarySearch, the library website, and other websites and systems and how we can make it easier for you.

We are looking for undergraduates, taught postgraduates, research postgraduates and academic staff to take part in either:

  • a 1-hour workshop, or
  • a 45-minute interview.

Workshops

The workshop for undergraduates and taught postgraduates takes place on:

Wednesday 5 June, 14:00-15:00 in the Templeman Library.

We’ll schedule the workshop for research postgraduates and academics in June/July.

Interviews

We can arrange interviews at a time to suit you. They will take place in the Templeman Library.

What’s in it for you?

If you take part, you’ll help us improve the way we make online library resources available online to yourself and other students and staff.

If you’re a student (UG, PGT or PGR) you’ll also be able to choose between 10 Employability Points or a £10 Amazon voucher, as a thank you for your time.

Get in touch

If you can help, please email Jennie-Claire Crate: J.Crate@kent.ac.uk

In your email, please tell us:

  • your status (UG, PGT, PGR or staff)
  • if you would prefer the workshop or an interview
Lucy O’Meara

Lucy O’Meara wins Society for French Studies Research Fellowship

Dr Lucy O’Meara, Senior Lecturer in French in the Department of Modern Languages and Acting Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities, has won the Society for French Studies 2019 Prize Research Fellowship.

The Fellowship is open to early and mid-career academics in all areas of French Studies, and provides funding for a period of research leave in the 2019-20 academic year.

Lucy’s project is entitled: ‘Interrogating the Encyclopaedia in European Fiction and Autobiography 1870-2020’. She describes it as “a comparative literary project examining the attitudes of French, German and British authors towards the encyclopaedic organisation of knowledge in European novels and autobiography from the 1870s to the present. I’ll be analysing mainstream and experimental fiction and a range of types of memoir. The prize entitles me to research leave from January to June 2020 and I’m really looking forward to taking up the fellowship.”