All colleagues are invited to attend the University Teaching Prize Awards 2017 which takes place on Wednesday 4 October 2017, from 12.30-14.00 in Darwin Conference Suite.

The prizes will be presented by the Vice-Chancellor.

This year’s winners are:

Barbara Morris Prize for Learning Support

Johanne Thompson (Kent Law School); Irena Jennings (Kent Business School); The Go Abroad Team: Emma Marku, Jan Lowe, Janet Wilson-Sharp, Francoise McKee, Brechje Klok-White, Hazel Lander, Sophie Baker, Sammy-Jo Foster.

Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize
Chloe Street Tarbatt (School of Architecture) Professor Murray Smith (School of Arts)

Sciences Faculty Teaching Prize
Professor Sally Fincher, Dr Colin Johnson, and Ian Utting (School of Computing) Dr Dan Lloyd, Dr Tobias von der Haar, and Professor Martin Michaelis (School of Biosciences)

Social Sciences Faculty Teaching Prize
Dr Stefan Rossbach (School of Politics and International Relations) Dr Anna Brown (School of Psychology)

Find out more about the awards

Please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk if you wish to attend and specify any dietary requests.

An interactive forum offering opportunities to hear about initiatives which have had an impact on student learning; to share experiences with colleagues from across the university; to explore tensions and opportunities of different approaches and how these could apply to your own teaching. The events are intended for academic and teaching staff with at least three years’ Higher Education teaching experience.

The theme for 2017/18 is: Creative approaches to learning, teaching and assessment.

While the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and student surveys such as the National; Student Survey (NSS), the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) and the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) have increasingly foregrounded teaching as a metric. The emphasis in these sessions is on approaching teaching as an exciting, challenging, surprising activity in which we can take pride.

The first session, ‘Using creative and imaginative forms of assessment’ will be presented by Professor Charlotte Sleigh, School of History on Tuesday 10 October, 12.55-14.00

Find out more

All sessions are free and take place in the UELT Seminar Room near Santander Bank (unless otherwise stated). Please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk to book a place.

If you are interested in contributing to a session in Spring 2018 please contact cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk.

The Centre for Practical Normativity will be hosting a conference on ‘The Future of Normativity’ to be held at the University 28-30 June 2018, sponsored by The Analysis Trust The Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association

The concept of normativity, especially work on reasons, has attracted a great deal of attention in recent philosophy. Work has focused on many interrelated topics and questions such as: Reasons and their Ground; Conceptual Priority; Reasons, Motivations and Actions: Reasons and Values; Reasons and Nature; The Moral and the Epistemic and Normativity elsewhere.

The conference will serve to reflect on much of this recent work in order to extend it in new directions. Abstracts are sought for the conference, asking the central question: where do we go from here?

We welcome thinkers who work across all areas of analytic philosophy and its history. It is our intention to have a number of open sessions at the conference. Speakers will be given 30 minute slots; a 20-minute presentation with 10-minute Q&A.

Abstracts should be 1,000 words in length and may be on any topic related to the conference theme.

Please email them to Dr Simon Kirchin, from the Department of Philosophy,  S.T.Kirching@kent.ac.uk

The deadline for submission is Thursday 1 February 2018. We hope to advertise the full conference programme by late Spring 2018.

Find out more about the conference

Professor Mary Evans, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR), will be delivering the Annual Equality Lecture at the British Library this year, in partnership with the British Sociological Association. The title is ‘The Persistence of Gender Inequality’ and it will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre on 23 October 2017, 19.00-20.30 as a ticketed event.

Professor Mary Evans argues that demonstrable inequalities between women and men remain, and that definitions of equality often fail to take gender into account.

For more event details and to book tickets, visit the British Library event webpage

Launched at the 46th Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology in July, the ‘Ageing of British Gerontology Exhibition’ comprises portraits of, and interviews with, 50 key writers and policy-makers who have contributed to the study of ageing over the past 50 years.

The digital exhibition features 50 individuals who have been influential in building the UK’s knowledge base in ageing. The slideshows and images form part of a two-year Leverhulme-funded research project which also includes film footage. The project explores the evolution of British gerontology from the founding of the British Society of Gerontology in 1971 to the present day and features three senior academics from the University of Kent: Professor Julia Twigg, Leverhulme Fellow and Professor of Social Policy and Sociology; Professor Bleddyn Davies, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy; and Professor Ann Netten, Professor of Social Welfare.

Recognised as a centre of expertise in ageing studies, Kent has contributed to the study and interpretation of growing older in our society over several decades. The University’s Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) has conducted a range of research in the field of gerontology. Working with providers, service users and analysts, PSSRU research has helped to inform our understanding of ageing and social support. Professor Julia Twigg’s research has established the field of Cultural Gerontology; her work on a series of interconnected projects exploring clothing and age can be viewed on www.clothingandage.org

More information about the Ageing of British Gerontology Exhibition can be found on the project site where you can also watch Professor Julia Twigg discuss her personal journey to working in the field of ageing and how we adjust to the process of leaving our youth behind.