The new exhibition in Colyer-Fergusson Gallery celebrates the bicentenary of the birth of Sir John Tenniel, cartoonist and illustrator of the first publication of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.’

The display, which is open until Friday 28 February, presents a series of images which brought so vividly to life many of the characters in Carroll’s classic tale – Alice, the Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Mock Turtle – as the Music department prepares to perform a nineteenth-century ‘Musical Dream Play’ adaptation of the novel, first performed in 1886 and overseen by the author himself.

The exhibition is free to attend and open during normal working hours, with disabled access. Come and take a walk through pages of the novel and step into Alice’s world…

‘The changing environment for research: the civic, regional and global university’

We are delighted to announce that registration has opened for the fifth Eastern Arc Conference.

Featuring speakers from Research England, the ESRC, the Wellcome Trust, the  Global Academy and the UPP Foundation, as well as colleagues involved in the first phase of EARC, the conference will explore the changing environment for research in the UK, including:

• the revival of the civic university ethos,
• the regionalism of research funding, and
• the need to engage globally to meet the challenges for sustainable development.

We will also look at the fundamental nature of research collaboration: should we rethink how we work together?

The programme is available on the registration page or as this pdf .

When: Friday 21 February 2020

Where: Wivenhoe House on the University of Essex campus.

The event is free and open to all, however, places are limited, so do register your interest as soon as you can.

Background to the Eastern Arc

Eastern Arc is a research consortium comprising the universities of  East Anglia (UEA), Essex and Kent, With radical founding principles and an open outlook shaped by the travel, trade and migration that defines the southern North Sea region, the three established the consortium in 2013. In its first phase, the focus was on Digital Humanities, Quantitative Social Sciences and Synthetic Biology, supported by leads, fellows and PhD students in each area. It led to significant external funding, and a number of strong links and networks between the three universities.

As we enter our second phase, we are developing a Strategy that seeks to put sustainable development at the heart of our research collaboration, for the benefit of our regional, national and global communities. This will be launched at the conference.

‘Curtains for Endangered Species?’ is the theme of the first DICE talk of 2020.

The talk will be given by Dr Susy Paisley, a DICE alumna and a member of the DICE Advisory Board. Susy will talk about her work as a designer and her focus on a range of endangered species.

The talk takes place on Thursday 16th January, from 18.00-19.00, in Grimond Lecture Theatre 2, Canterbury campus. It  is free to attend and everyone is welcome.

The Development Office sold Season’s Greetings cards on behalf of Professor David Wilkinson’s Brain Injury research at the end of last term. We are delighted to announce that we raised £144 through this!

Thank you to everyone who purchased the cards, and a special thanks to our sponsor – Carbasse Dental Practice, whose support is incredibly appreciated.

If you would like to prepare yourself for next Christmas, we still have a limited stock of the cards left. These will be sold for a special price of £9 for 3 packs of 10, and you can email K.A.Barnsdale-65@kent.ac.uk or come to G22 in the Development Office to purchase.

Fundraising is still on-going, and we need to raise £165,000 to establish a free service for those with neurodisabilities to receive the ground-breaking experimental treatment we are working on. This is a non-surgical, non-invasive treatment that has shown amazing potential.

If you would like to look to get more information on this, and look at ways in which you can support the research, please go onto the website 

For more information on Carbasse Dental, please visit the Carbasse Dental website

Kent Sport is bringing back our popular running groups as we head into 2020! Why not make this the year that you take up a new hobby, or that you dust off those old trainers and get back to running. Whether you’re just starting out or a confident runner, we have adapted our sessions to suit everyone. See the full timetable on our blog.

Beginners’ Running

Our 12-week Couch to 5k program is perfect for those just starting out and will get you comfortably running each week, leading up to a 30 minutes run (approx. 5km) in just 12 weeks.

Social run club

2020 will bring a slight change to our running groups, with the introduction of our Social Run Club. The clue is in the name – this ‘social’ group will meet twice a week and will be guided by a qualified member of staff.

Intermediate Running

Already a keen runner but want to find a group to keep you motivated and push yourself? Why not join our group-led sessions with varied running routes incorporating interval sessions and weekly running challenges. All abilities are welcome!

Parkrun

Parkrun is a collection of 5-kilometre running events that take place every Saturday morning at over 1,400 locations in twenty-two countries across five continents. Join us for the Canterbury parkrun! parkrun is free for everyone, register here.

For the full timetable please go to the Kent Sport Running Group blog

All Kent Sport sessions are led by our motivated and enthusiastic staff. Free for Premium Plus and Premium members, see Let’s Play webpage for details. Just £2 for Plus members. If you aren’t a member join Kent Sport for £5 with a Pay to Play annual membership and pay £2 per session. Any questions please contact sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk.

Dr Suhraiya Jivraj has been been recognised as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (recently rebranded AdvanceHE).

Senior Fellowship demonstrates a personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education. Senior Fellows must demonstrate a thorough understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning support as a key contribution to high quality student learning. As experienced members of staff, they must also demonstrate impact and influence through their leadership, management and mentoring.

Dr Jivraj has also been promoted to Reader at Kent Law School where her work draws on critical race/religion theories and feminist/queer of colour decolonial perspectives to explore contemporary socio-legal problematics in the fields of law and religion, equalities, anti-discrimination and human rights law, gender and sexuality and Islamic family law.

Dr Jivraj’s current work brings together her ethical commitment to critical and inclusive pedagogy and decolonising work. She was awarded a UoK Teaching Enhancement Small Support Award (TESSA) in 2018/19 to collaborate with her Race, Religion and Law Module students on decolonising the curriculum  The project soon extended across the university resulting in the Decolonise UKC Manifesto.

The DtC is now continuing through Suhraiya’s role as Deputy Director of Education for Decolonising the Curriculum and under her Directorship of the Centre for Sexuality, Race and Gender Justice (Centre SeRGJ). She also coordinates the student-led Kaleidoscope Hub activities and the Kaleidoscope Network  for staff and students as part of her broader work on decolonising knowledge production.

Dr Jivraj is one of over 124,000 Fellows across the world, including Kent Law School’s Professor Nick Grief and Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris.

Are research and teaching conflicting priorities?

Research-led teaching (RLT) is supposedly definitional of higher education, and yet research and teaching are often treated as conflicting demands upon staff time. How can we pursue these practices in an integrated and authentic way? How can we explain to senior managers, prospective students and their parents – and actual students – what the value of RLT is for learners and teachers alike?

Featuring speakers from Kent and further afield (China, Australia, Wales) this conference will equip attendees to develop and articulate research-led teaching in their professional practice.

Attendance is free. You are welcome to come for all or part of the day. Please sign up here by Friday 31 January to indicate which aspects of hospitality you are likely to require – tea breaks, lunch, closing reception etc. If you make a last-minute decision to attend, that’s fine.

You can also attend the event remotely. Please email resledteach@kent.ac.uk f you wish to do so.

When:  Wednesday 26 February (week 19/reading week at Kent)

Time: 10.00 – 17.00

* 10.00 – 13.00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 2
* 14.00 – 17.00 in Grimond Lecture Theatre 3
* lunch in Aphra Foyer 13.00 – 14.00

For more details please check the  conference website for the latest news and details/timings of papers so you can drop in and out

We look forward to seeing you there.