Author Archives: Alice Allwright

Come celebrate Pancake Day at the Spring Global Hangout

This year, the University’s Global Hangouts have been taken over by Kent’s Global Officers re- designed and incorporating some new fun activities along the way. They have proved to be a huge success.

Our Spring Global Hangout will be no exception, with a pancake-themed event. Of course, there will be pancakes with a selection of toppings, along with a themed quiz plus a pancake flipping competition.

When: Tuesday 25 February 16.00 – 18.00

Where: Gulbenkian Café Bar

Spaces are limited. Get your free ticket to attend at Eventbrite.

Global Hangouts are a series of events co-created with students that take place throughout the year. They are themed appropriately with various activities designed to encourage interaction between attendees and the student hosts. Previous themes have been Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“Our first Global Hangout of the year was a huge success! I’m glad that I got to be a part of organising such a fun and relaxing event. It was so wonderful to see students from all over our University (and the world) come together to enjoy each other’s company and appreciate the many things we have to be thankful for.” – Chiara Batasar, Global Officer 2019/20.

For further details about future events, visit the Global Hangouts website

SDG Fortnight – Get outdoors

As part of our fortnight of activity based around the Sustainable Development Goals, William Rowlandson, lecturer in SECL is hosting 2 outdoor events to help staff and students reconnect with nature on campus:

18 February, 12.00 – Nuts about trees (William Rowlandson)

Join us in planting a Kentish cobnut in the nut orchard at the Kent Community Oasis Garden. A cobnut is a cultivated variety of hazelnut, developed in the early 19^th Century. Hardy and bountiful, cobnuts are ideal trees to supplement our precarious food security. The nuts contain a range of vitamins and are an excellent source of fibre and protein. Meet outside the School of Arts at 12 to walk to the Garden (10 mins)

21 February, 12.00 – Wild Walk with William (William Rowlandson)

The Kent Tree Ogham is a landscape art project, launched in 2017, mapping 13 autochthonous trees across the University campus in a walking route. Each tree is marked by its associated symbol in the ancient Celtic Ogham script, an alphabet somewhat similar to Nordic runes.

From meeting outside the School of Arts at 12.00 we will walk the Southern half of the route, spending time Rowan, Birch, Willow, Oak, Ash and Holly.

At the heart of the Kent Tree Ogham is the will to honour and protect the trees, mindful that the trees honour and protect us.

Bring a sandwich and thermos and stout boots.

The SDG fortnight is being organised by the Sustainability Team. For more information or to view the full programme please visit our webpages or email sustainability@kent.ac.uk

Research grant to test surrogacy myth

Surrogacy law reform champion Dr Kirsty Horsey has secured a Kent Faculty Research Fund grant of £3,375 to critically test a ‘myth’ that traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate uses her own egg) is materially different to host surrogacy (where the surrogate is implanted with genetic material unrelated to her).

Dr Horsey will undertake empirical research to determine what difference may or may not exist between the way traditional and host surrogates view both their surrogacy journey and their genetic connection to the child.

The research project, ‘Surrogates Views on traditional surrogacy: is it different?’, is timely given that both the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission are conducting a UK-wide review of laws on surrogacy. The Law Commissions are aware that some jurisdictions regulate traditional and host surrogacy differently and recognise that there is a gap in research in this area. Dr Horsey’s findings will help fill this gap, informing legal reform as well as public and political debate on surrogacy.

Many of these myths were dispelled in a report published by Dr Horsey back in November 2015. Her report, ‘Surrogacy in the UK: Myth busting and reform’, provided an unprecedented insight into how surrogacy is practised in the UK. It was produced as part of Surrogacy UK’s Working Group on Surrogacy Law Reform. Dr Horsey subsequently organised a London conference looking at surrogacy law reform in May 2016, the proceedings of which were subsequently published in a special edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics and Law.

Dr Horsey is a Reader in Law at Kent Law School. She is also part of the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Surrogacy.

Women’s Network: International Women’s Day

The Athena SWAN team will be hosting a special meeting of the Women’s Network on Thursday 5 March in honour of International Women’s Day, on the theme of inspirational women. We will be holding an informal discussion about the amazing women who have inspired us in work and life.

The event will take place from 12.00 – 14.00 in the UELT Seminar Room. Everyone is welcome to come along and join in the conversation, or just listen and get inspired. Lunch will be provided.

Please book your place via Eventbrite:

SDG Fortnight – Teaching Sustainability

In support of the University’s commitment to embedding Sustainability into our teaching, we are encouraging lecturers and teaching staff to pledge to incorporate the Sustainable Development goals into their teaching for one week.

Next week (17 – 21 Feb) we are hosting our first ever SDG Teach-In where academics pledge to incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals into their teaching. At the time of writing, Kent were currently in 8^th place nationally in terms of current pledges and the number of students who will potentially be reached.

A number of academics have agreed to open up their lectures to anyone who is interested. In addition, a number of lectures will also be recorded and made available to download after the event.

Open lectures during the SDG Teach-In Week:

18 February, 13.00 – Open lecture DI510 Conservation & Communities (Charlie Gardner)

All are welcome to join us in GLT3 for this week’s lecture ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation: linked agendas. This lecture explores the importance of biodiversity for poverty alleviation and discusses the role that conservation can play in meeting multiple Sustainable Development Goals’

18 February, 15.00 – Open lecture SE558 The Anthropocene (Miguel Alexiades)

Come find out more in RLT1 about The Anthropocene: Planetary Crises and the Age of Humans. Exploring the Anthropocene this lecture explores the ‘new normal’: crisis, risk and uncertainty.

21 February, 10.00 – Open lecture HI426 Making History (Karen Jones)

Being held in RLT1, this open lecture introduces students to environmental history as a discipline and encourages a look at the past that puts humans in their ‘place’ as well as thinking about how scholarship and activism might fit together.

Lecturers and teaching staff interested in getting involved in the Teach-In can:

Identify one or more sessions where they can teach the SDGs during or after the week of the 17 – 21 February 2020.
Pledge to take part on the SDG Teach In website
Confirm to sustainability@kent.ac.uk that you are taking part – guidance can be provided to help to plan your session

The SDG fortnight is being organised by the Sustainability Team. For more information, resources including 5, 10 and 30-minute session plans or to view the full programme of events please visit our webpages or email sustainability@kent.ac.uk.

Book your place at the Menopause Café

You are warmly invited to a Menopause Café next week! Hosted by the Athena SWAN team the event is open to staff of all ages and genders, and is an opportunity to eat cake, drink tea and discuss menopause in an informal environment.

When: Thursday 20 February at 15.00

Where: Suite 3, Darwin Conference Suite.

Please book your place via the Eventbrite website

Menopause Café was founded by Rachel Weiss in Perth, Scotland. For more information, please visit the Menopause Café website

Intro to coding workshop

Do you want to get into coding but don’t know where to start?

Why not drop into one of our fun, free and interactive intro to coding sessions run by the Kent Computing Society?

Location: COPC1 (Cornwallis South East – Octagon)

Time: 18.00 -19.30

Dates:

Wednesday 19 February
Wednesday 26 February

For further information email compsoc@kent.ac.uk or look for Kent Computing Society on Facebook

Community Cup Result – strong performance and dominant win(d)!

The University of Kent’s Community Cup team played their first fixture of their Kent FA Community Cup campaign on Sunday morning. Despite the gusting winds of Storm Ciara, the team managed to rally together and walk away with an impressive 4-0 victory against Lateef Restaurant.

The first half was an interesting performance with both teams struggling to break away from the right hand side of the pitch due to the powerful cross winds. With just minutes of the first half remaining, Billy Radford, managed to secure the opener, with a big help from a deflection and the unpredictable weather conditions.

With the wind behind them in the second half, the team pressed on and goals from Charlie Dast (1) and James Budge (2) secured the victory for the team.

The victory against Lateef Restaurant puts the team in a strong position going into their last fixture of the group stage (hopefully in better weather) against Christchurch University on Sunday 1st March, 10:30am kick-off, at The Pavilion, University of Kent. The Pavilion Café Bar will be open for refreshments, so why not show your support for the team.

If you are interested in joining the team or are looking for casual football opportunities on campus, please email sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk for further details. All levels and abilities are welcome!

The Facebook album for the Kent v Lateef Restaurant can be viewed on this page.

SMSAS Public lectures

Love the SMSAS Public Lectures? Here are the details for the talks coming up:

The next lecture is titled: A story of doughnuts, power lines and the London Underground

When: Tuesday 25 February 2020, 18.00 – 19.00

Where: Sibson Lecture Theatre 3, University of Kent Canterbury Campus

Who: Dr Constanze Roitzheim, University of Kent

Audience: The talk is suitable for a general audience and is free to attend.

Abstract: Topology is a new form of geometry that looks at things quite differently compared to the classical, Euclidean approach. We will explore how this can be applied to the world today as well as how it can be used to solve problems that have been open for several thousand years.

May Lecture

When: Thursday 14 May 2020, 18.00 -19.00

Where: Sibson Lecture Theatre 3, University of Kent Canterbury Campus

Who: Professor Peter Clarkson, University of Kent

Title: Rogue Waves, Tsunamis and Solutions

Audience: The talk is suitable for a general audience and is free to attend.

Student Case study Dan Bird- EP points Beats by Dr Dre

When you sign up to the Employability Points Scheme, you never know where it may take you. For Dan Bird, he has gained a range of videography rewards with organisations such as the Historic Dockyard Chatham and Landmark London, leading to an amazing opportunity to work with Beats by Dr Dre in their LA office. This opportunity arose from a chance meeting at a summer camp as part of their year in industry, where Dan and his friend Joe, met Beats Head of the Marketing. From this meeting, both Dan and Joe were invited out to LA to do promotional filming.

Dan and Joe, took their personal videoing equipment out to LA to film educational unboxing videos designed to give an in depth detailed review and educate the selling points of the product. These videos are stored on the company iPad App, which all staff have access to and can use to help enhance and develop productivity. Unfortunately the videos are not available to the wider public, but Dan was able to log the experience on his Employability Points portfolio.
Dan started to collect Employability Points in his first year after meeting the team and talking about the scheme, activities that could be logged and potential rewards that could be gained such as internships.

Dan has logged points for his freelance videography and photography. He has worked for a furniture company and hotels in London, recording promotional videos. One of Dan’s most memorable events was filming a Bar Mitzvah in American, which was obtained through contacts he met at summer camp. His work at Beats by Dr Dre has earnt him 50 points, which has pushed Dan’s points to over 500, which can be converted into rewards, such as internships and work experience, over the summer.

Visit our EP blog to read the full article.