Registration is now open for the Researching the Rainbow Conference from 15.00 – 19.00 on Thursday 15 February 2018 in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 on the Canterbury campus. We strongly suggest you register online to confirm your place byMonday 5 February.

The conference, which forms part of the University’s LGBT History Month celebrations, is to showcase the vast array of excellent research being done on or related to LGBT+ people and issues, and to encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration and networking. The conference will be opened by University of Kent Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox, who also acts at the Executive Group’s LGBT+ Champion.

Topics include literary and cinematic representations of homosexuality, transsexuality in mental health care and the legal system, and the decolonization of sexuality, from students and academics from a range of schools and disciplines, as well as external partners.

If you would like to display a research poster, please email lgbtstaffnetwork@kent.ac.uk by Monday 5 February.

The conference is free and open to all. Please forward this invitation to any colleagues/friends who may be interested.

LGBT+ Staff Network

Kent Law School early career researchers Dr Asta Zokaityte and Dr Will Mbioh have been awarded a grant of £5,000 for an interdisciplinary research project to examine the relationship between vulnerability and the management of personal data.

The concept of vulnerability is used for the first time in the new EU General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force in the UK on 28 May 2018, to regulate how the personal data of children and employees are collected and processed. With their grant from the University of Kent’s Social Sciences Faculty Research Fund, Dr Zokaityte (Primary Investigator) and Dr Mbioh (Co-Investigator) seek to engage academics in a broader discussion of the concept of “digital vulnerability” and to further investigate the relationships and intersections between vulnerability and the governance of personal data in the UK.

The project team will write a co-authored article, for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, that will describe digital vulnerability. It will also conduct academic and policy scoping exercises with researchers, NGO and representatives of public bodies. As the project evolves, the team plan to apply for external funding that will enable them to run workshops and establish a digital vulnerability research network.

Dr Zokaityte is a Lecturer in Law. Her research explores the ways in which novel edu-regulatory techniques are deployed by financial regulators to govern consumer behaviour in financial markets. Her book Financial Literacy Education: Edu-Regulating our Saving and Spending Habits (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) offers an innovative way of thinking about financial literacy education and has been shortlisted for the Hart-SLSA Prize for Early Career Academics.

Associate Lecturer in Law Dr Mbioh has research expertise in the field of data protection. He has recently published in leading, international peer-reviewed journals including European Data Protection Law Review and the Journal of Internet Law.

Faversham’s first literary festival is being held 23-25 February.

The varied line-up includes a number of staff at the university:

• Alex Preston will be talking about his new book – As King Fishers Catch Fire.
• Prof Alex Stevens is be in conversation with historical novelist.
• Jane Harris about her new book – Sugar Money.
• Prof Tim Strangleman will be participating in a panel discussion with two contributors of ‘Know Your Place’ a collection of  essays on contemporary working class experience.
• Angela Koch will interview refugee activist.
• Gulwali Passarlay on his book ‘The Lightless Sky’.
• Dr Maggie Butt will host an open mic poetry session.

For more information on the full listings, see the website www.favershamliteraryfestival.org

A series of inspiring lectures in association with Medway U3A will take place at the University’s Medway campus from March to June 2018.

You can explore a subject purely for interest in a friendly group, led by an expert tutor. These lectures are open to all and no previous knowledge of the subject is expected.

Lectures include:

•       History

Cunning Regal Women: English queens before Elizabeth I

Saturday 17 March, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Julia Cruse PhD

•       Literature

George Orwell

Saturday 21 April, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Sarah Anthony MA

•       Art History

Let’s talk about Art

Saturday 23 June, 10.00-13.00, £17.50

Katia Mai PhD

To find out more and to book your place see our Tonbridge webpages or telephone 01732 352316.

Dr Edward Kanterian, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, has published a new book entitled Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn (Routledge, 2018).

Kant is widely acknowledged as the greatest philosopher of modern times. He undertook a famous critical turn to save human freedom and morality from the challenge of determinism and materialism. He believed that man is a fallen creature and in need of ‘redemption’, and intended to provide a fortress protecting religious faith from the failure of rationalist metaphysics, from the atheistic strands of the Enlightenment, from the new mathematical science of nature, and from the dilemmas of Christian theology itself. Kant was an epistemologist, a philosopher of mind, while upholding his own religious faith.

Dr Kanterian’s book aims to recover the focal point and inner contradictions of his thought, the ‘secret thorn’ of his metaphysics (as Heidegger once put it). It takes its cue from an older approach to Kant, but also engages with recent Anglophone and continental scholarship, and deploys modern analytical tools to make sense of Kant. What emerges is an innovative and thought-provoking interpretation of Kant’s metaphysics, set against the background of forgotten religious aspects of European philosophy.

For more details, please see the publisher’s page.

An international research network for PhD scholars with a shared interest in thinking about law will be launched at a conference to be held at Kent on Friday 15 June.

The new Interdisciplinary Legal Studies (ILS) Network, an initiative of academics at Kent Law School, seeks to engage doctoral students and early career researchers across all disciplines in a critical exploration of legal research.

The network’s inaugural one-day conference on ‘The Uses and Futures of Interdisciplinary Legal Studies’ will be hosted by the Law School on Kent’s Canterbury campus. Scholars are invited to submit a brief, 200-word summary of their doctoral research project together with a 200-word summary of their experience of/reflection on interdisciplinary legal research to KLSResearch@kent.ac.uk by Thursday 15 March.

As an alternative to the conventional pattern of papers and plenaries, the conference will provide opportunities for collective discussion in small groups and wider discussion with the support of six guest scholars: Professor Diamond Ashiagbor (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies); Professor Kate Bedford (University of Birmingham); Professor Emilios Christodoulidis (University of Glasgow); Dr Emilie Cloatre (University of Kent); Professor Marieke de Goede (University of Amsterdam); and Professor Ambreena Manji (University).

Law Schools already subscribed to the ILS network include: Kent Law School, Westminster Law School, Birkbeck Law School, Warwick Law School, Universidad de los Andes Law School, Melbourne Law School, LSE Law School, Science Po Law School, and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Law School.

The registration fee for the conference is £35. More details, including arrangements for travel and accommodation, are available on the conference website.

Any queries can be directed to conference organisers Dr Thanos Zartaloudis and Professor Donatella Alesandrini.

Information Services are working hard to minimise the risk posed by Spectre and Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities. Please expect some disruption to services while we apply updates. You may also experience slower response times from IS teams and delays to one or two IS projects as we focus on the extra work involved.

Advice for your device

For your own devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.) please keep the operating system and other software updated as you are prompted. Pay special attention to updates for web browsers.

If your device is no longer receiving security updates or is too old to support them then it needs to be replaced.

The BIOS/firmware will also need updating on many devices, however updates are still being finalised by CPU manufacturers. We’ll issue further advice once the situation is clearer.

Kent Sport are hosting an exciting new competition where one lucky winner will bag themselves a brand new mountain bike, simply by completing challenges and taking selfies!

Members just need to participate in as many Kent Sport activities as possible. Each selfie counts as one entry; the more entries the higher the chance of winning. Just keep your eyes peeled across all of Kent Sport’s social media platforms for locations and clues and join in with the challenge. Go on the hunt to find out where that location is and take a selfie while participating in the activity referred to in the clue.

Activities will range from enjoying a fitness class to checking out what the Cycle Hub has to offer. Each selfie will then need to be uploaded and tag the appropriate Kent Sport social media platform, alongside with the hashtag ‘kentsportselfiehunt’ for us to find it.

It’s a fantastic opportunity for Kent Sport Gold, Silver and Bronze members to make the most of all the amazing facilities and activities included with their memberships, while having the chance to win a fantastic grand prize! Each week a participant will also stand the chance of winning a meal and soft drink for two at the Pavilion Café Bar. The grand prize is a Scott mountain bike – the same top quality brand available for hire (free to Gold and Silver members) from the Cycle Hub at the Pavilion. Winners will be chosen based on the number of likes a selfie gets, so make sure to keep sharing your selfies to get all your friends and family to like them!

For information about Kent Sport memberships visit www.kent.ac.uk/sports/membership. Alternatively, you can speak with a member of staff at the Sports Centre or Pavilion receptions.