Author Archives: Annabel Chislett

UKC Student

UKC Student’s top tips for exam success!

UKC Student, Rowena reveals her top tips for exam success, with the help of Gandalf, the University of Kent, Woolf College cat.

1) Don’t leave revision to the last minute so you’re feline good for the exam. Give yourself enough time to cover each topic within the module. Factor in time to go through all the example questions, or even better if you can get your paws on them, the exam paper from the year before! Don’t try and cram everything last minute and get enough sleep the night before.

2. If you have a purrticular learning style, have a go at tailoring this to how you revise. There are online quizzes which can identify which type you are. I’m a visual learner so drawing ideas really helps for me! If you are an auditory learner, try reading your notes aloud and reciting them. If you are a physical learner, try and keep active whilst revising –  have a stress ball to hand or even some playdough! It may sound strange but give it a go, you might be surpurrised!

 

Gandalf’s preferred style is to stare at you with his big innocent eyes until you feed him his 7th dinner of the day… I can’t guarantee this will work well in your exams though…

3. Read the question slowly and carefurlly. Don’t be that guy who realises an hour in that you’ve misread the essay question. Read it several times and make sure you understand exactly what’s being asked before planning your answer. Keep refurring back to the question to see if you have addressed each part of it. If possible, underline or highlight the important words in the question to help you stay focused. Don’t get caught out by a simple mistake.

 

Meow-velous luck to you all. Ace your exams by giving it your best shot. Stay pawsitive, you can do it!

International Women’s Day 2019

In celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March, here are a range events taking place across our campuses to celebrate women and their achievements:

Friday 1 March

  • Songs of Freedom workshop with Sabina Desirt & Jessica Lauren – A singing workshop utilising on a song about political activism – 17-18.00, The Gulbenkian.
  •  The Jazz Sessions: Jessica Lauren’s Naga 5 – Composer and jazz keys player Jessica Lauren with a 5 piece ensemble for a special concert exploring female empowerment – 19.30, The Gulbenkian.
  • UKC Women’s Campaign present Pink Shirts – The Women’s Campaign are raising money for Coppafeel by selling pink t-shirts until 8 March. Get yours in Essentials!
  • Gender Equality Survey – the survey is open to women until 8 March 2019.
  • Get Talking –  If you don’t have anything planned for your area how about following the footsteps of the HR department and promote famous and influential woman and get the conversation flowing? Contact Equality & Diversity for your information pack.

Wednesday 6 March

  •  Wear Pink – All staff and students are invited to wear pink for charity.
  • ‘On Wednesday’s We Wear Pink’ – The Women’s Officer and the UniBoob Team present a IWD Vensday takeover at The Venue.

Thursday 7 March

  • Self Identity and Empowerment Painting Workshop: Female-identifying only painting workshop (from 18.00, location TBC). Register your interest and find out more from Yvonne Ayeni.

Friday 8 March

  • Uchenna Dance – The Head Wrap Diaries
  • Self-Identity and Empowerment Exhibition (time and location TBC)
  • Unravelling the mysteries of the menopause and the taboo! – Book via Staff Connect (search ‘menopause’) – 09.30-11.15, Rochester Board Room.
  • Athena SWAN ‘Balance for Better’  – International Women’s Day at Kent Q&A from 12-14.00 in Grimond Lecture Theatre 3.
  • Inspiring International Women: Shown and Tell – 13-14.00 in UELT Seminar Room – Register your interest.
  • Funny Rabbit Comedy Club – An all-female line up of comedians for our regular comedy night. Featuring, Jayde Adams, Tanyalee Davis and Carrieann Redneck.
  • A Quiz Night Out – Kent RaG have teamed up with K-Bar, Woody’s, Origins, Mungo’s and Cargo to host a campus-wide charity pub quiz on Friday 8 March to commemorate International Women’s Day!

Sunday 10 March

  • This Girl Can Family Day – A day for all the family to celebrate women and girls and champion gender equality. Featuring clay-modelling workshops, films directed by and about girls/women, science workshops/demos, a disco and pop-up performances
  • F-rated films

Thursday 14 March

  • Kent Sport Q&A with Claudia Du Val, #1 ranked female MMA black belt. (More details to follow.)

Ongoing

In honour of International Women’s Day, Student Services, the Library and Kent Union have compiled a suggested reading list of titles that focus on female empowerment. Titles are classic and modern, fiction and non-fiction, sad and funny so there should be something there for everyone! Copies available of selected titles.

 

KTV Film Festival 2019

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:

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.

Unravelling the mysteries of the menopause and the taboo!

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.

Nostalgia podcast with Professor April McMahon

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.

Sophie Quirk interviewed on USA National Public Radio

Dr Sophie Quirk, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre in the School of Arts, has featured on Morning Editionbroadcast 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.

Funding awarded for aesthetics and comedy conference

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.

World Heritage, Sustainable Development and Civil Society action plan released by Dr Sophia Labadi

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.

Short stay accommodation available now in Eliot College.

Do you commute to Canterbury Campus and have an exam you don’t want to be late for? Then why not consider staying on campus in Eliot College. Reduce stress and have more time to concentrate on studying with no need to worry about driving home late at night or missing an exam because of traffic, train strikes or other travel delays outside your control.

Living in a corridor of up to eight other short stay students, all rooms are self-catered singles with bedding and towels provided. Rooms are £20 a night with a minimum of a two night stay required to book.

You can find out more or book online.

While short-stay accommodation in Eliot College is only available for Kent students, don’t forget that we also have year-round visitor accommodation available in Wedgewood Court in Darwin Houses and Beverley Farmhouse next to Canterbury Innovation Centre. Ideal for when you have friends or family visiting who want to stay on campus for the duration of their visit.

If you have any questions please email: holidays@kent.ac.uk

Conference Office summer casual vacancy

Would you like to join Kent Hospitality’s Bed & Breakfast reservations team from April to mid-September 2019?

Applicants must be able to demonstrate exceptional levels of administration, customer service, confident telephone manner, computing skills and the ability to work calmly and accurately under pressure, both alone and as part of a team.

You will be required to work:

• 1 April – 17 May, 9am-2pm, Monday to Friday

• Sunday 14 and 28 April, 8am-4pm

• 20 May – 14 June, 8.30am-1.30pm, Monday to Friday

• 17 June – 8 September, 8am-1.30pm, Monday to Friday

• Alternative Saturday or Sunday, 8am-4pm

If you think this summer vacancy is for you, please apply by emailing your CV and a cover letter to Louisa Harvey, Senior Events Coordinator: L.M.Harvey@kent.ac.uk

Closing date for applications: 8 March 2019.

(Please note, this may close early if we receive a large number of applications.)
www.kent.ac.uk/holidays