In September 2019 we will be launching a new Student Foodbank and Freecycle Scheme run by Kent Union. The service will support University of Kent students in financial difficulty by providing them with food provisions and homeware. 

Collection points are located at the following areas Wednesday 3 July 2019

·         The Plaza (opposite the main SU Shop) 12.00 – 14.00

·         Keynes College Atrium (opposite reception) 10.00 – 17.00

We welcome any donations of unopened non-perishable food, but there are some items that we could really do with:

·         Tinned potatoes, Vegetables and Fruit

·         UHT Milk (and lactose free/vegan alternatives)

·         Tea, Coffee, Hot chocolate and Sugar

·         Long Life Juice and Fruit Squash

·         Breakfast Cereal

We are also looking for donations of kitchenware, cleaning products, sanitary products, and bedding, but please no electrical equipment.

If you cannot make it to one of these collections but would like to donate some items, please email volunteering@kent.ac.uk.

Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education, is leaving the University of Kent to take up a new appointment as Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students at the University of Manchester.

Commenting on Professor McMahon’s new role, our Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox said: ‘April joined the University in 2016 and since that time has had a considerable and hugely positive impact on the student experience here at Kent. As a member of the Executive Group, she has been a strong advocate for students and ensured that they have remained at the forefront of all our decision-making.’

Professor McMahon will take up her new role on 1 October. The University will consider interim arrangements while looking to recruit a new Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education.

Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, Lecturer in Media Studies, featured in article published in iNews this week, published on 25 June 2019.

The article, entitled ‘Love Island Shows How Men Use Female Sexuality to Increase Their Own Social Capital’ and written by Ruchira Sharma, explores how the reality TV show demonstrates the way that some men use ‘locker room talk’ to boast about themselves and objectify women.

The article cites a particular example from Love Island, where contestant Tom Walker bragged about his own conquests while belittling fellow contestant Maura Higgins. The piece draws upon Kaitlyn’s expertise in digital and modern culture and its impact on gender.

‘I think this is very telling as it shows how normalised this behaviour is,’ explains Kaitlyn in the article. ‘The fact that he continued this banter while he knows she’s there shows that it’s not about her – it’s about his own capital within this group of men.’

Read the full article

From Monday 1 July to Friday 12 July, 20 staff members from institutions in the Lille area will attend a bespoke two-week programme in CEWL entitled ‘Everyday English for Work and Business’. The programme includes Business English language classes, Presentation Skills classes and visits to places of cultural and historic interest. There are also sessions on topics of interest delivered by colleagues from around the University (including sessions on International Partnerships, Research Services, Internationalisation at Kent).

A networking afternoon tea will take place on Thursday 4 July with staff from across the University of Kent. This will allow Lille colleagues to meet with their Kent counterpart to present their institution and explore potential collaboration.

The visit has been arranged in the context of the I-SITE ULNE project led by the University of Lille and in which the University of Kent is a partner, along with Belgian universities Ghent University and KU Leuven, creating a cross-border network of institutions. A range of activities are already taking place within the network including joint Kent-Lille PhD Scholarships and joint Kent-Ghent projects  with more collaborative activities under development.

If you would like to meet with members of the delegation or to find out more please contact International Partnerships: internationalpartnerships@kent.ac.uk

Lecturer Dr Jason Nurse has been called on to give his expert opinion on a security vulnerability on a popular gaming platform.

Jason is quoted in a Wired UK article entitled ‘A series of dumb security flaws left millions of EA Origin users exposed’.

EA are the makers of hugely popular games such as the FIFA series of football games, Star Wars, Madden NFL and SIMS. Researchers managed to find a flaw in the way EA managed its subdomain names which left users’ data vulnerable to hackers. However there is no evidence that this vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.

Earlier this year, Jason was also asked to give his cyber security expertise on a Fortnite security flaw also in Wired.

Jason’s  research focuses on the interaction between users and aspects of cyber security, privacy and trust. He is part of the School of Computing’s Cyber Security Group and is a core member of the Kent Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security (KirCCS). The Centre has NCSC and UKRI recognition as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR).

Colleagues from the departments of Comparative Literature, English Language and Linguistics and Modern Languages hosted this year’s Text and Language Day on the theme of ‘Unlocking Language’ on 26 June.

Text and Languages Day is an annual event which forms a key part of the School’s outreach programme, and is aimed at enthusing and motivating students about language and culture. It follows World Languages Day events for younger pupils, which took place at the University’s Medway and Canterbury campuses on 19 and 25 June.

Aimed at year 12 pupils studying English Language or Modern Languages, Text and Language Day explores approaches to language and text at A Level and beyond. The day is designed to encourage pupils to think more boldly about text and language, exploring different approaches to key ideas covered at A Level and providing an opportunity to discover some of the ways in which language and literature are studied at university. The University was delighted to welcome pupils from St George’s C of E School, Dover Grammar School for Boys, Rainham Mark Grammar School, Ashford School, The Harvey Grammar School, and Chatham Grammar School for Girls.

Dr Alexandra Martin-Carey, Humanities Subject Specialist in the University’s Partnership Development Office, who organised the day, said: “It was fantastic to work with a range of colleagues and postgraduate students from across three departments to create a day of exploration for local year 12 pupils. Students from a range of A level subjects were able to discover the connections between their own studies and disciplines taught here at the University, and to forge connections between those various disciplines, whist learning about university life and our campus.”

Feedback from students attending the day included:

“The subjects discussed were different from A Level so were eye opening”

“I already wanted to do linguistics and modern languages and now I am even more excited to!”

Dr Eleen M Deprez, curator of the Studio 3 Gallery, has been awarded a grant from the British Society of Aesthetics to support a symposium hosted by the Aesthetics Research Centre to discuss Immaterial: A Philosophy of Contemporary, a forthcoming book by Professor Sherri Irvin.

Professor Sherri Irvin specialises in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. She edited the collection Body Aesthetics (Oxford, 2016) that explored the aesthetics of the body in relation to social justice, art, evolutionary theory, race, gender, disability, sexuality and sport.

The funding will cover a reading group/discussion session with Irvin, to be held on 20 March 2020, followed by and a one-day symposium on 21 March 2020, with Sherri Irvin, Diarmiud Costello, Elisabeth Schellekens, Elisa Caldarola, Kathryn Brown, and Louise Hanson.

Eleen completed her PhD in the History and Philosophy of Art last year, with a thesis entitled ‘The Curated Exhibition: A Philosophical and Historical Analysis’, last year.

Booking details for the symposium will be made available when confirmed.

On Friday 28 June, the Grounds Maintenance  team will be assisting  with the removal of a tree in the Keynes pond courtyard which has been identified as being at a high risk of failure. As this tree is in a highly populated location, the risk of injury is too high for it to be left in place.

The felling of the tree will be carried out by a contractor called Blean Tree Care. They will cordon off the area, and fell the tree in sections and remove the wood from the court yard are through the side gate leading to Turing College.

In the autumn the felled tree will replaced by a substantial new one.

There will be some disruption whilst this work is taking place, and footpath closure whilst the wood is being removed.

We apologise for any inconvenience this work may cause. If there are any queries please contact Estates Customer Services on extension 16666.

Dickens was one of England’s greatest writers and he lived in North Kent at two different times. Why did he return and what kind of impact did his experiences have on his work? Find out more at the next Drill Hall Dialogue 2 July 10.00 in the Guildhall Museum DA002 in Rochester. The talk, by Dr Jeremey Clarke, will be illustrated with objects from the Guildhall Museum’s collection. 

Dr Jeremy Clarke has been Education Officer at the Guildhall Museum, Rochester, since 1998. He is responsible for all formal education and learning programmes supported by the museum collection or its listed buildings. Most of this is work with or in local schools, but he also runs courses, lectures and illustrated talks for adults. 

Dr Clarke has also run partnership projects to support children in making music for Dickens’s novels, in illustrating scenes from Great Expectations, and in working with actors at locations made famous by the novel. In 2010 he hosted a shared reading of Great Expectations in the original parts, timed to coincide with their publication 150 years before.

 Drill Hall Dialogues is a monthly series of talks held at the Drill Hall Library, the learning resource centre for the Universities at Medway collaborative project. A wide variety of topics has been covered including prison libraries, NHS libraries, Dickens and Christmas, Medway regeneration, the Medway Floods of 1953 and Fort Amherst.

Previous Drill Hall Dialogues have been from academics based on the campus including the Centre for Journalism and the Faculty of Education (CCCU). The talks take place on the first or second Tuesday of the month and usually last no longer than 45 minutes with 15 minutes allotted for any questions and answers.  All staff are welcome to attend.