The pre-graduation photobooth is coming to Drill Hall Library in Medway today (Tuesday 7 June, 12.30–15.00) and Canterbury on Wednesday 8 June (Jarman Plaza, 11.00–14.30) and all staff are invited to come along and send a special message to their graduating students.

In the ‘photobooth’ we’ll take a professional photo of you holding one of our special #KentGrads message boards that you can personalise with a message to your graduating students. The photos we take will then be displayed on plasma screens in both Rochester and Canterbury for guests and students to see inside the Cathedral during their graduation ceremony. We will also share them across the University’s Facebook accounts during the week so everyone can tag themselves and their friends. It will only take a few minutes and, especially as this is its first year, we think it will be a lovely surprise for the graduands and their guests.

Sent in by congregations@kent.ac.uk

Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, Reader in Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, will be participating in a round table discussion on ‘The Aesthetics of Witnessing: A Conversation about Violence and the Challenges of its Representation’ at Birkbeck, University of London, at 18.00 on 9 June 2016.

The discussion is tied with the launch of an exhibition, ‘Tejas Verdes: I Was Not There’, that focuses on ex-detention and extermination sites in Chile and explores the possibilities of representing violence without reproducing it.

The round table is a conversation between Professor Vikki Bell (Goldsmiths College), Dr Jelke Boesten (King’s College London), Dr Margarita Palacios (Birkbeck College) and the visual artist Dr Livia Marin.

For more details about the event, please see the webpage.

Sent in by secl@kent.ac.uk

Dr Jeremy Scott, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Literature from the Department of English Language & Linguistics, will be presenting a paper at the forthcoming conference ‘Thinking Through Fiction’, hosted at the University of Kent on 21-22 June 2016.

The conference offers a rich programme exploring the relations between fiction, language, writing and thought, including panel discussions, round tables and an evening of readings in Canterbury.

Jeremy’s paper, entitled ‘Worlds from Words: Cognitive Poetics and Creative Practice’ will be presented on the second day of the conference. The paper sits on the critical-creative boundary, and draws upon aspects of the field of cognitive poetics to explore what happens when readers read, and asks how an understanding of these processes can benefit the creative writer.

Using terminology drawn from narratology, cognitive linguistics, Text-World Theory and Possible Worlds Theory, Jeremy will explore how writers build and manipulate worlds and, second, how an understanding of this theoretical infrastructure can invigorate creative practice.

For further details of the conference, including a full programme, please see the conference webpage.

Sent in by secl@kent.ac.uk

Considering a career in web development or web design? Want a job to help you gain experience while you study?

The University of Kent Requirements and Solutions team is looking to employ enthusiastic part-time web developers and web designers who enjoy using the latest technologies in IT, the web, and media. This is a great opportunity as it offers the chance to develop and support a range of central services, departmental websites and web applications.

More details and how to apply

Sent in by is-publishing@kent.ac.uk

The School of Music and Fine Art will be holding its annual Practice Research Forum ‘Sticky Thick: Thinking through Practice’ on Tuesday 7 June 2016. 12:00 – 19:00, United Reformed Church, Whitstable as part of the Whitstable Biennale.

Hosted by the School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent, and the Sound-Image-Research Centre (SISRC), this one day symposium will bring together artists, writers, filmmakers, composers, actors, geographers, historians, anthropologists, architects, performers and researchers across disciplines to explore key directions in current research practice, and contemporary discourse around the importance of practice research in art, culture and society.

FREE to attend, the event will include presentations by Shona Illingworth, Adam Chodzko, Sarah Turner, Duncan MacLeod, Amber Priestley, Gretchen Egolf and Sinéad Rushe, Tim Meacham, Jan Hendricks, Steve Klee and others.

The day starts at 11:00, meeting for coffee in the Horsebridge Arts Centre to listen to readings from Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby. Symposium presentations begin in the United Reform Church Hall from 12:00, with breaks at intervals to view Biennale exhibits. The symposium closes with drinks on the beach at 19:00 before the world premiere of Nichola Bruce’s new film Gifts.

More information and directions at http://stickythick.tumblr.com

Image credit Adam Chodzko, Deep Above, 2015.

Sent in by J.Seaman@kent.ac.uk

From 29 May 2016:

• The current ‘Triangle’ timetable (4/4A/4X and 6/6A/6X) will become two separate timetables. One timetable for the 4 and 6 services, and one timetable for the new Triangle service.
• The new Triangle service will operate with brand new double decker buses with free Wi-Fi and USB charging points as well as special local designs for Whitstable, Herne Bay and Canterbury displayed on the new buses.
• Route 36 buses serving University of Kent will be replaced with the new route 4 buses. See timetable below.
• Triangle (NEW) – the new Triangle will run a direct route between Canterbury > Whitstable > Herne Bay > Canterbury every 15 minutes in each direction, during the daytime Mondays to Saturdays. During the evening and on Sundays, the Triangle will run as the existing 4/6 timetables, with journeys via University of Kent, Greenhill and Broomfield.
• Route 6 (NEW) – the new route 6 will run from Canterbury to Tankerton via Broomfield, Herne Bay and Greenhill every 30 minutes during the daytime Mondays to Saturdays. Buses will continue beyond Tankerton towards Whitstable and Estuary View Medical Centre but will be numbered route 4, passengers can stay on the bus.
• Route 4 (NEW) – the new route 4 will run from Canterbury to Tankerton Priest & Sow via University of Kent, Estuary View, Whitstable High Street and Whitstable Station every 30 minutes during the daytime Mondays to Saturdays.
  Buses will continue beyond Tankerton towards Green Hill and Herne Bay but will be numbered route 6, passengers can stay on the bus. Buses towards Canterbury will call into Whitstable Station Forecourt.

For full details of the changes see here .

Sent in by M.Sandiford@kent.ac.uk.

There are still a few spaces on:

• KE102 Developing and delivering arts events  (7 and 8 June) – you will gain skills needed to set up and run events related to performance, live art, comedy etc.
• KE044 Journalism (Medway campus) 13-17 June – an intensive course in multimedia journalism, which gives you a chance to write news stories to deadlines under professional leadership
• KE100 Music for Creatives 3 (4 and 11 June) – learn about the connections between words and music and compare songs conveying different types of message
• KE095 How to communicate with confidence (31 May and 2 June) – learn how to communicate clearly and confidently through interactive workshops and find out about your own communication style
• KE096 Sharpen your writing skills for work (31 May and 2 June) –  around 20% of graduates’ English skills are not up to scratch for the workplace: this workshop will teach you about tone, content and structure and help you write more clearly
• KE097 Meditation for study, work and life (4 June) – an introduction to meditative practices drawing from mindfulness, Yogic and Taoist approaches, with a practical and pragmatic focus

Kent Extra courses are free to all Kent students and give you a chance to study for pleasure and improve your employability by learning new skills.

You can sign up for Kent Extra courses via Workshops in the Student Data System.

If you would like to hear about all new courses before they start, please subscribe to the mailing list by emailing kentextra@kent.ac.uk.

The European Union Referendum on Thursday 23 June is one of the biggest UK political decisions in a generation. Make sure your voice is heard by taking part in the vote.

If you want to see where your polling station is in Canterbury go to the Council website. 

Information on referendum events and activities.