Christina Kanouta, a recent graduate of the MA in Applied Linguistics for TESOL has received a commendation from the British Council for the potential impact of her dissertation on the field of English Language Teaching.

Christina entered the British Council Dissertation Award Competition after receiving a Distinction for her dissertation on the teaching of pragmatics to English language learners in state schools in Greece. The competition is open to students who obtain a Distinction in their dissertation, although only one entry is allowed from each institution.

There were entries from 24 institutions in this year’s competition, many from acknowledged leading providers in the field. The dissertations, which are anonymised for the judging process, are scrutinised by Panels from both the British Council and the participating universities. To obtain a commendation competitors have to reach the final stage of the competition. Christina’s dissertation will soon be published in full on the British Council website where it will remain permanently.

Dr Michael Hughes, Christina’s supervisor, said:

‘Christina took a relatively neglected area in English language teaching and carried out a very thorough investigation into its status in the Greek state school system. She produced a high quality report of her findings which has implications for English language teaching worldwide.’

Christina was in the first cohort of the new MA in Applied Linguistics for TESOL offered by the Department of English Language and Linguistics.

For more details about the competition, please see the British Council webpage.

Sent in by secl@kent.ac.uk

The School of Music and Fine Art is delighted to announce that Sariya Suwannakarn and Daniel Owusu, two of our Fine Art graduating students have been selected to have their work shown at the Turner Contemporary, Margate on Thursday 4 August as part of the Platform Graduate Award project.

These prestigious awards showcase the talent of emerging artists from Kent, aiming to support graduate professional development and nurture new talent.

Sent in by j.seaman@kent.ac.uk

Third year Event and Experience Design student Virginia Brennan organised an ambitious promotional event called ‘Wonderland’ for the release of the Alice Through the Looking Glass film at Costa in the Odeon Chatham Maritime.

Virginia’s event included activities for young people and families, face painting and crafts. She also had a new range of drinks designed for the event and the Costa staff dressed up in costumes.

The event brought together the two businesses – Costa and the Odeon – and it was so successful, the cinema’s General Manager, Natalie Fisher, asked her to repeat the event over the bank holiday weekend.

Virginia comments:

‘We had to adapt to the high volume of cinema attendees – bank holiday Monday saw over 1,200 guests walk through the doors! The winners of the drawing competition at the original event collected their prizes of free cinema tickets and goodies and the fundraising activities for MIND continued throughout the week.’

The final independent third year projects celebrate student work which creatively explores a broad range of formats and subjects, questioning what constitutes an event, and is an annual showcase.

Sent in by j.seaman@kent.ac.uk

KBS Medway hosted a small day conference for the local Anglican clergy on Tuesday 21 June to present some of the findings from a recently published paper by Dr Krystin Zigan (KBS) and Dr Alan Le Grys (SLAS-SECL).

Krystin and Alan have embarked on an on-going research project looking at the way the Church of England organises and delivers social responsibility projects and some of the management issues raised.

The keynote speaker at the Conference was the Revd Dr Malcolm Torry, author of Managing God’s Business (Routledge 2005) and Managing Religion (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), and papers in the morning session were also presented by Krystin and Alan.

After lunch (and a quick tour of KBS Medway), participants broke into groups for more detailed discussion as they reflected on the impact the research might have on practical aspects of parochial ministry.

Discussions at the conference were lively, thoughtful and engaging, and all the participants suggested in feedback that they had been given much food for thought. They, in turn, had opened out further lines of enquiry for Krystin and Alan as they move into the next stage of their research project.

Sent in by a.legrys@kent.ac.uk

The Staff Connect Steering Group met last week and considered the implications of a planned autumn launch. It was decided that in light of a number of factors, the scheduled launch date should target January 2017.

This decision takes account of business as usual priorities that go hand-in-hand with the start of a new academic year, when the focus of our work is on the arrival of new students and many new colleagues.

It also reflects a belief that we can better ensure that staff are prepared for the launch of the system in term time, rather than over the summer break when many of you may have periods of leave.

Despite the new target, the work of the project continues unabated, with final user acceptance testing (UAT) of the Staff Connect system currently being completed by Payroll and Pensions, and now being overseen by an experienced UAT manager.

To ensure that staff feel confident using Staff Connect, a number of support resources have already been developed by the Project team and are currently being tested by members of the Staff Connect Advisory Group. In addition to these, all staff will have the opportunity to attend one of many demonstrations of the system that will be offered throughout the autumn term.

As well as these demos, the Project team will continue to provide updates on the work of Staff Connect over the summer and into the autumn term.

Should you have any questions, do contact Su Westerman, Staff Connect Employee Engagement and Communications Manager.

Sent in by s.westerman@kent.ac.uk

On Thursday 26 May, a team of Kent Union staff and student officers cycled over 200 miles to Paris, to raise money for the Access to Activities Fund.

The fund allows the Union to support University of Kent students from disadvantaged backgrounds, or who have a disability, enabling them to participate in their sports clubs, societies and wider student activities.

Kent Union volunteers and the Activities team do some fantastic work, and the fund aims to allow as many people as possible to have access to these opportunities.

In the lead up, many members of staff also took part in the 24 Hour Cycle Challenge, pedalling through the day and night, again, to support the fund.

The final total raised for the Access to Activities scheme was £4189.05, which will enable Kent Union to support many more students this year.

Congratulations to everybody who took part and a huge thank you to everyone who supported the event.

Sent in by C.Parris@kent.ac.uk.

A Kent conference exploring the relationship of time to law and regulation will be making innovative use of Lego to help participants visualise key concepts.

The Lego will feature in a plenary session entitled ‘Visualising Law and Time’ during the final international conference of Kent Law School’s Regulating Time network to be held on Kent’s Canterbury campus from Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 September.

The three-year network, funded by the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council, comprises an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in the relationship between law and dominant concepts of time. It is co-ordinated by Kent Law School Reader in Law Dr Emily Grabham and Dr Sian Beynon-Jones, a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York.

Kent Law School Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris, who will lead the innovative plenary session with Lego, said:

‘Let’s say I am facing a problem in my current research/administration/teaching project, and I want to get the advice of my colleagues. I can build a model for my colleagues of where my project is now, explaining what each piece represents and how it relates to the other pieces. The building process, including the selection of the pieces and where to put them, will force me to think very precisely about my project, but in terms that are still accessible to others. I learn new things about how my project fits together, and I offer a shared point of reference or vocabulary to my colleagues.’

The conference, The New Legal Temporalities: Discipline and Resistance across Domains of Time, will explore time’s fraught relationship with law, governance and ordering: the use of time in projects of discipline, the significance of time to resistance, and the creation of new temporal horizons.

Sent in by A.P.Shieber@kent.ac.uk.

The next meeting of the Kent Enterprise and Impact Network (KEIN) will take place on Tuesday 28 June, 12.15-14.00, Cornwallis North West Seminar Room 5 on Canterbury campus,

KEIN, a network jointly created by Kent Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) and Learning and Development (L&D), brings together academics, researchers, technicians and other members of staff interested in collaboration, innovation and enterprise activities, maximising the impact of their work, and tapping into alternative sources of funding.

For this meeting, Dr Jennifer Hiscock from the School of Physical Sciences will be sharing her ongoing engagement with external organisations and Dr Lisa Harper from KIE Commercialisation Team will also be sharing tips on when and why to protect your intellectual property and when to consider a spin out option.

All University staff are welcome to attend. To reserve your place at the session including a free light lunch; please email ldev@kent.ac.uk and specify any dietary or access requirements.

If you would like to come along for the presentations only, you are welcome to turn up on the day without booking a place and feel free to bring your lunch with you.

After a networking lunch, there will be two short presentations with Q&A, and then an informal discussion. If you have any enterprise ideas or ideas prompted by the presentations, this is also an opportunity to share these and hear about how the University can provide support.

For any questions or queries about the meeting, please email enterprise@kent.ac.uk or phone 01227 827376.

Sent in by enterprise@kent.ac.uk.