The Estates Logistics team provide a removal and disposal service for all Schools and Departments based at the Canterbury Campus. Services include the collection of certain recyclable materials; confidential waste, batteries, toner and ink cartridges and waste electrical equipment. As well as assisting with furniture removals and deliveries during office moves.

After 30 August 2019, the way customers contact Estates Logistics is changing.

From 31 August 2019, the Estates Logistics email account will be closed and all enquiries should be made to Estates Customer Services: estatescustomerservices@kent.ac.uk or by telephoning extension 16666.

For more information about how Estates Logistics can help you, or for further information regarding the Estates Department, please visit our website: www.kent.ac.uk/estates. The Estates Logistics service level standard can be found here.

If you have any enquiries in relation to this or anything regarding the Estates Department in general, please contact the Estates Customer Services team.

Today’s first UN International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief  was initiated by Kent Law School postgraduate research scholar Ewelina Ochab.

Ewelina authored the initiative in 2017 in a bid to recognise the importance of providing victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief and members of their families with appropriate support and assistance in accordance with applicable law. It was proposed at the UN by Poland at the end of 2017 and adopted by the UN General Assembly on 28 May 2019.

 UN Secretary-General, António Guterres said: ‘On this Day, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the victims of violence based on religion and belief. And we demonstrate that support by doing all in our power to prevent such attacks and demanding that those responsible are held accountable.’

In an article for The Conversation, Ewelina lists ‘Five reasons the world needs a wake-up call on religious persecution’ and explains the need to shine a light on “those dark corners where acts of violence based on religion or belief are a daily reality.”

Ewelina says: ‘This initiative is intended to raise awareness and provide a springboard towards an action plan rather than being an end in itself. What will become of this day is up to all states, civil society and individuals. Everyone needs to play their role in making this a meaningful day – one that can bring a change to the lives of the people targeted for their religion or belief.’

A video on Ewelina’s Twitter feed features contributions from academics, politicians and policymakers from across the world affirming their support for the Day’s message.

Ewelina’s thesis focuses on the accountability of medical professionals for their involvement and complicity in torture in American detention centres.

A workshop on World Heritage and Sustainable Development in Africa: Implementing the 2015 Policy, is being hosted this week at the iconic Robben Island World Heritage site, 19 – 23 August.

Organised by Dr Sophia Labadi, Senior Lecturer in Heritage and Archaeology, the African World Heritage Fund, Cape Town University and Robben Island Museum, the workshop aims to better understand how the principles contained in the 2015 UNESCO Policy on World Heritage and Sustainable Development, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been operationalised and localised at and around World Heritage properties in the whole region of Africa.

The 20 presentations of different case studies illustrate the integration of a sustainable development perspective at and around World Heritage sites and different challenges.

The expected results of this workshop include a published e-book with case studies and step-by-step guidelines on how to implement the 2015 policy and related key texts at site level in Africa. Key areas for curricula development by educational institutions on World Heritage and Sustainable Development in Africa will be identified and an Action Plan for the implementation of collaborative projects will be drafted.

Sophia comments: ‘This workshop has revealed the rich, diverse and too often unknown experiences of integrating sustainable development perspectives into the management of World Heritage sites’.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies, interviews Judith Francis. Judith shares her experiences of being an evacuee in the Second World War, moving to Pembrokeshire, where she still lives today.

Judith talks about air raid shelters and gas masks and a tragedy she witnessed on the beach during the War. Judith also talks about growing up listening to ‘Workers’ Play Time’, receiving a signed photograph from comedian Tommy Handley, why she learned Welsh and trained to become a teacher in the 1970s, the difference between being a student then and 25 years later when she returned to undertake a degree in Theology and Religious Studies, the relationship between having a faith and studying religion, the political heat around Welsh nationalism in the 1970s, and whether Judith is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

Sadly Dr Kazimierz Krynicki died of a heart attack on 18th July at the age of 88. Kaz was lecturer in Physics at Kent from 1964 until his retirement (about 1995) although he continued to be associated with The School of Physical Sciences as an Honorary Fellow well into his retirement.

He came to London in 1962 on a rare visiting postdoctoral scholarship from an Iron curtain country, having grown up during the war in occupied Poland and graduated from Krakow University. He would tell us of his friendship at his University with a young colleague who was then Chaplain, later to become Pope Paul. His research blossomed with Dr Powles at QMC London and he moved to Kent with him when Powles became the foundation Professor of Physics at Kent in 1964. His research throughout his career was concerned with exploring the liquid state and studying molecular motion using the techniques of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Relaxation. He also helped to set up the first physics and chemical physics courses at Kent and subsequently taught widely across the undergraduate curriculum, contributing significantly to the development of our astrophysics teaching. For many years he was a leading light in the student astronomical society and looked after the first observatory on the roof of the original Physics building as well as other campus facilities for observational astronomy. He will be remembered as a kind and most enthusiastic colleague and teacher.

Professor J.H.Strange

Emeritus Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Kent

Friends and colleagues at the University were sorry to hear of the death of Jessica Ashdown, who died on 4 August 2019.

Jessica started to work at the University in 1988 as Secretarial Assistant in the Registry, Academic Division.  In 1990 Jessica was appointed as Personal Assistant to the Registrar and by the time that she left the University, in 2000, Jessica had worked for three different Registrars.

Jessica will be remembered as a wonderful colleague and a kind and gentle person who will be greatly missed.

Jessica’s funeral is on Tuesday 27 August 2019 at 12.30pm in Blean Church, with a reception afterwards at the Tyler Hill Memorial Hall.  The Registry flag will be flown at half-mast on that day.

Alumna Ece Ger, who graduated with an MA in Film – including a term at Kent’s at the Paris School of Arts and Culture – in 2015, saw her documentary film Meet Jim, Citizen of the World screened on BBC Scotland last Saturday 17 August 2019.

He dined with The Beatles and shacked up with the Rolling Stones. He rubbed shoulders with soul diva Mama Cass, folk troubadour Leonard Cohen and a fledgling Pink Floyd. He was a figurehead for a new generation of playwrights. After he was stopped at Munich airport with a bag full of blank ‘world passports’, he lectured bewildered German border police about the virtues of ‘world Government’.

Today, at 83, Jim Haynes just won’t slow down: this ‘godfather of social networking’ organises open dinners every Sunday night in the Parisian artist studio that’s been his home for the past 50 years. Total strangers, unknown both to him and to each other, meet in his living room and Jim’s friends show up to cook cheerfully for crowds of 60 or more. It’s simple: you sign up, you come over, you meet Jim. As he once said: ‘My home is a World Government Embassy that never closes.’

The documentary composes an impressionistic portrait of Jim Haynes the man and the cultural phenomenon, as seen by the many and diverse people whose lives have been touched by his. The film is a hymn to the lasting spirit of the 60s, an inspirational living proof of how we can all chose to live on the bright side: to Jim, the choice is ready-made: ‘Life is short: we have a duty to enjoy ourselves.’

The documentary first premiered as Meeting Jim at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year. It was supported by a crowdfunding campaign that ran in early 2016. For more details on its background, please see the page here.

To view the documentary, please see the page on BBC iPlayer here.