Five students from the School of Arts will have their own directorial features showcased at the forthcoming KTV Film Festival 2019, to be held in Gulbenkian cinema on Saturday 16 March.

The festival is organised by KTV, Kent Union’s television station, and is independent of any curricular film practice. The festival aims to showcase the outstanding talent from student filmmakers at Kent.

The films by School of Arts students include:

• Steps of Detachment, directed by Elliot Bowden, who is studying on the BA (Hons) in Film and Drama
• Cigarettes and Alcohol, directed by Alfie Court who is also studying on the BA (Hons) in Film and Drama
• You Won’t Remember Me, directed by Victor Blaho who is studying on the BA (Hons) in Film with an Approved Year Abroad
• Sending to the Sea, directed by Iris Perović who is studying on the BA (Hons) in Film and Drama
• Sweet Child of Mine, directed by Tyler Hamblin, who is studying on the BA (Hons) in Film.

SECL student Dominic Taylor, who is studying on the BA (Hons) in Religious Studies and Philosophy, has also directed a contribution entitled Waiting for Certainty.

The filmmakers have dedicated weeks of their time to adhere to each of the key component of filmmaking, giving them the opportunity to use skills vital in the film industry and tell sophisticated stories. The festival aims to be a celebration of film, friends and fulfilment, as well as a chance to hear from our directors themselves and learn about their experiences on set. All are welcome to the festival, where from cast and crew, family and friends will be present.

Entrance to individual films costs £3; an all-day ticket costs £12, with an option of a VIP ticket including access to buffet lunch and glass of Prosecco or soft drink at £14.

For full details, please see the KTV Facebook page.

The Learning and Organisational Development Team will be running a seminar on HRT and The Menopause on Friday 8 March 2019 in Keynes Seminar room 16, Keynes College, Canterbury campus starting at 10.00am until 12.00. (Originally organised to take place at the Medway campus).

This important seminar will provide information, advice and guidance on the Menopause, how it affects women and the impact of this from a work perspective.

This seminar will be delivered in two parts:

Part 1 a presentation by Anita Ralph MSc (Herbal Medicine), MNIMH MCPP, who will share and open for discussion holistic medical approaches in treating the symptoms of The Menopause.

Part 2 of the seminar will be a presentation by Miss Anne Henderson – Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, who will share information and discuss The Menopause and Prescription HRT, medications etc.

This seminar is open to everyone (this includes men). The menopause is something that affects not only those who are going through it but also colleagues, managers and others who are there to support people who are going through it.

If you are interested in attending, please book a place via Staff Connect.

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 Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education and Professor of English Language and Linguistics.

In this episode, April talks about being born in Edinburgh during a Beatles concert, how there weren’t many opportunities open to her as a child, being into the New Romantics, Altered Images and musicals, what inspired her to go to university, giving a lecture on the day that Margaret Thatcher resigned, how her Christian faith came along while she was in her 30s, listening to ‘Junior Choice’ on Saturday mornings as a youngster, her mother’s sudden death, and why it is important to enjoy the present.

Dr Sophie Quirk, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre in the School of Arts, has featured on Morning Edition, broadcast on National Public Radio in America, yesterday 20 February 2019.

Morning Edition is the most popular news radio programme in the United States.

Sophie was interviewed for an item called ‘The Other Side of Anger’, which explored how comedy can be cathartic way of expressing anger. The piece particularly focused on comedian Mo Amer, who has used comedy to explore his experiences as a Kuwaiti-Palestinian man in modern-day America. The topic coincides with Sophie’s research interest in the social and political impact of contemporary stand-up comedy performance.

‘There are some comedians who I actively want to see when something happens that makes me angry, say, politically,’ explained Sophie, ‘because they have had the same experience of current events, and they are going to talk about them. And the people around me are going to be expressing through their laughter and their groans a real empathy with what I’m feeling.’

The broadcast can be heard online here, with Sophie featuring 4’30” into the programme.

Professor Simon Kirchin, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and Dr Graeme A. Forbes, Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, along with colleagues in the University’s School of Arts, have been awarded funding from the British Society of Aesthetics, for ‘Aesthetics and comedy: how to do things with jokes’, a conference about the philosophical background of comedy.

Dr Forbes said, “analysing comedy is said to be like dissecting a frog: no-one’s that interested, and the frog dies. But comedy writers and performers often analyse comedy: to craft new material or perfect timing. By bringing comedy writers and practitioners together with philosophers we can potentially change how comedians understand their craft, but also add fresh impetus to debates in aesthetics, ethics, and theoretical philosophy about how comedy works and what it is for.”

The conference will take place in October 2019, bringing together philosophers from a number of areas with comedy practitioners. The University of Kent is uniquely placed to host such a conference, as the home of the Aesthetics Research Centre, the Centre for Practical Normativity, and the Centre for Popular and Comic Performance. As well as being the home of a number of philosophers interested in comedy and performance, Kent is one of the leading universities for the academic study of comedy, both nationally and internationally, and hosts the British Stand-up Comedy Archive and the British Cartoon Archive.

Dr Sophia Labadi, Senior Lecturer in Heritage and Archaeology in the department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has recently released an action plan on World Heritage, Sustainable Development and Civil Society following a workshop which took place in March 2018 at the University’s Brussels School of International Studies.

The workshop on World Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Civil Society took place on 29 March 2018 and saw the gathering of 50 civil society actors from all over the world. The aim was to find innovative ways for civil society actors to implement the UNESCO’s 2015 Policy on the Integration of a Sustainable Development Perspective into the Processes of the World Heritage Convention. This workshop was part of the official programme of the European Year of Cultural Heritage and was organised in cooperation with Europa Nostra, and with generous funding from the European Cultural Foundation and the University of Kent.

The policy on World Heritage and Sustainable Development, adopted by UNESCO in 2015 represents ‘a significant shift in the implementation of the (World Heritage) Convention and an important step in its history. Fundamental considerations such as the respect of human rights, gender equality, poverty alleviation, among others, will be now integrated in conservation and management approaches of the Convention.

This workshop was part of the official programme of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, organised in cooperation with Europa Nostra, and with generous funding from the European Cultural Foundation and the University of Kent.