Chaired by Professor Richard Reece, this Staff Webchat on Tuesday 9 November will update on the work actively underway to improve the current situation with our student records system, KentVision.

Supported by the new Project Manager Martin Carvey and the KV Project Board, project priorities include re-designing KV Service Desk to better manage emerging issues; and increasing the size of the KV Project delivery team to ensure the planning, testing and delivery cycles are completed fully, including full engagement and consultation with relevant stakeholders. This will avoid issues impacting staff and students. Some benefits of these changes should start to be realised from December onwards.

Alongside Richard and Martin, the panel will include Anthony Brenton, Lead Business Analyst; Paul Sales, IT Trainer; James McCrea, Head of Enterprise Systems; Anita Jackson, Director of Strategic Planning & Performance; Kyra Harwood-Lucas, Head of Student Administration; and John Crook, Director of Operations in the Division of Computing, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences.

The session will take place on Teams on Tuesday 9 November from 13.00-15.00, including time for questions. You can sign up now, and ask your questions in advance, via this link. A calendar invite will be sent to all attendees by Monday, 8 November, with further information of how to join us.

The University of Kent Players are extremely excited to be back with social readthrough events throughout November. We’ll be providing both in-person and virtual sessions to get together and get theatrical!

Our readthroughs are an excellent opportunity to meet up with fellow actors and theatre enthusiasts, and make new friends from across the University. You don’t need any previous experience to get involved; just be welcoming, friendly and supportive of your peers!

What are we reading?

Relative Values | Noël Coward

11th November 2021 | 12.30 – 13.30 | KENSR11 (Kennedy Building)

This comedy of manners, set in East Kent, follows an eventful dinner at the grand residence of Marshwood House. When the Countess’ son invites his fiancé, American actress Miranda Frayle, his mother is by no means pleased…

And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie

16th November 2021 | 17.30 – 18:30 | KENSR11 (Kennedy Building)

Eight disparate guests arrive at an isolated mansion located on an island off the coast of Devon tended by two staff but no host. A recording accuses all ten people of past crimes that went unpunished by the law. Soon they start dying one at a time, and the remaining guests deduce that the murderer is one of their own.

Frankenstein | Mary Shelly, Tim Shelly

25th November 2021 | 17.30 – 18.30 | Microsoft Teams (virtual)

No one can shake free the dark secret that terrifies Victor: not his mother, nor his fiancée, nor his best friend. Even the pleading of a gypsy girl accused of murdering Victor’s younger brother falls on deaf ears, for Victor has brought into being a creature made from pieces of the dead.

How to get involved

If you would like to get involved or have an interest in acting, directing, technical directing or anything theatrical get in touch with us on unikentplayers@kent.ac.uk

You can also follow us on social media for regular updates and events!

Instagram: @unikentplayers

Facebook: /unikentplayers

Twitter: @unikentplayers

Congratulations to Dr Albena Azmanova, in our Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS), on receiving the Michael Harrington Book Award.

The annual award, from the American Political Science Association (APSA), recognises ‘an outstanding book that demonstrates how scholarship can be used in the struggle for a better world’.

Albena’s book, Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia, was published by Columbia University Press in 2020.

Capitalism on Edge analyses the mutation of neoliberal capitalism into a more malignant social form Albena terms “precarity capitalism.” Drawing on history, political theory and political economy to reveal the insecurity afflicting a majority of the population under precarity capitalism, Albena provides fresh approaches to thought about radical change in which capitalism is overcome or subverted, rather than stabilized or overthrown.

Albena, Reader of Political and Social Thought at BSIS, comments: ‘This award is precious to me as it marks a critical moment in a journey that began more than 30 years ago when, as a student at Sofia University in Bulgaria, I became involved with the dissident movement against the communist dictatorship. That experience influenced my writing and led me to pursue lines of inquiry that challenge the entrenched views of the day. Receiving the award is also an inspiration to live to its terms of using scholarship in the struggle for a better world.’

Find out more about the Michael Harrington Book Award on the APSA webpages. For more information on the Capitalism on Edge book, see the Columbia University Press website.

The 2021-22 application round for members of our academic and research staff to apply for promotion is now open.

All applications must be made via DocuSign by 12 noon on Monday 6 December.

Guidance, documentation and application forms for candidates can be found under on the HR webpages.

You will also find  guidance and template forms for the Divisional Promotions Panels, promotions committees etc within the Promotions: Academic and Research Staff section of the HR webpages.

Guidance on Mitigating Circumstances, and an accompanying template form, is available in the Staff Information/Policies section.

We’re excited to announce that the 7th annual Human Resources Conference: Keeping up with the Change will be taking place on Wednesday 24 November with a focus on helping you to adapt to cultural change at work and cultivate a new, future-proof way of working.

Once again, we’ll be joined by the University’s world-leading academics and guest speakers who will share their latest research, examples of best practice and tips and tools which can be applied in the workplace. We’ll provide expert advice on change management, discuss the importance of job sharing as a means to enable flexible working, and hear from innovative local businesses about how they manage and reward their teams whilst working remotely. You’ll also have the opportunity to take part in a stress management workshop led by our in-house expert.

The virtual event will run from 09.30 to 14.00 and tickets can be purchased for £20 per person. Book online here.

The HR Network was established by our Knowledge Exchange and Innovation team to enable HR professionals and small businesses owners responsible for HR to engage with academic experts from the University, aiding collaboration and knowledge exchange. Sign up to the HR Network newsletter and our LinkedIn Group to receive news of upcoming training and events, the latest research in the field and best practice from other individuals in the network.

If you want to know more about the HR Network and support we provide to HR professionals you can find it on the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation website or contact the team at keinnovation@kent.ac.uk.

Jacquie Edwards is PA to the Director of Sport, but better known to many as performer Ginger Bennett. During Black History Month, she tells us how stories of being and growing up in the UK during lockdown helped create this alter ego. 

‘I joined the University in 2001 as a temp in the Estates Department. Jill Andrew’s Friday afternoon tray bakes were amazing and I think I knew from the first bite I would be working here until they shoehorned me out!

‘I’ve always had an affliction or a gift, whichever way you look at it. If I say I’m going to do something out loud, I will generally do it. Sometimes I will fail spectacularly but I will always see it through.  

‘In the past, this has led to some marvellous opportunities: I was a canoeing Instructor (who couldn’t swim that well); a karaoke hostess (with chronic nerves); PA to the Head of Exhibitions and Displays at the National Maritime Museum (with no keyboard skills whatsoever); and managed to hoist the Women’s Rugby World Cup (even though I really don’t like mud and dirt). 

‘I think a lot of working mothers know how that adventurous, pioneering spirit can so easily be diluted once you have children. It happened to me and, three children later, I was more prone to muttering under my breath than boldly proclaiming my next bonkers venture.  

Becoming, Being and Belonging 

‘Enter global pandemic and the lockdown. I’d always thought I came from a very close family but those Zoom calls take to you to another level! Those talking heads revealed family stories I’d never heard – stories about my parents’ arrival to the UK and their feelings of being and belonging. When I shared these stories with friends, I found the stories of their parents’ arrivals meshed with their own feelings and stories. Unconsciously, I had started to build an account of Becoming, Being and Belonging for 1st Generation Immigrants to the UK and their 2nd Generation children.  

‘Somewhere around month six or seven, I became very low – Long Covid, lockdown, three children, home-schooling and menopause all played a part. I have a lovely friend who saw through my thin smiling veneer – we talked, sometimes daily, and I read her the stories and poems I had written around the theme. She told me they were funny and important and, before long, I said out loud “I think I can write a play about this” so I did. It may have helped that friend is an award-winning jazz pianist but, regardless, I’ve done it.  It’s out there. 

The England Women’s Rugby World Cup-winning team, 1994. Jacquie is in the front row with her arm around the flag.

Songs from My Soul 

‘Songs from My Soul is an amalgamation of tales told to me by friends and family about being and growing up in the UK. I think it cuts across race too as I hope it tells the age-old story of mothers fighting for their children the best they know how and then letting them go.  

‘The stories are distilled into the life of Aretha a mother who, now retired, sees the path travelled very differently from her daughter, Bernadette.  

‘Those Zoom calls were a real awakening and I now have a few more job titles to add to my dodgy CV: Playwright, Producer, Actress.’ 

Listen and find out more 

Jacquie performs regularly across Kent as Ginger Bennett with her funk and Soul Band Project F and the KD Dance Orchestra.  

Songs from My Soul will be performed at the Tower Theatre, Folkestone, on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 October from 20.00. Tickets, priced £12, are available on the Tower Theatre webpages.  

Songs from My Soul is a year-long Arts Council funded project and will examine, Becoming, Belonging and Being as part of a performance of new works next year. The Songs from My Soul team would love to hear your stories and write your song. Get in touch via this Songs from my Soul link.  

You can also listen to original songs for the Songs from my Soul project on YouTube. 

From Simone Davies, Director of MORA

We’re holding an Open Day for potential UG students this Saturday (23 October) and we need your help! The Open Day takes place from 10.00 – 14.00 on our Canterbury campus and we need extra staff volunteers to meet and greet visitors and to be available on information points.

Please help us by encouraging colleagues across your team to help on the day. MORA will be able to cover overtime to those on grade 6 and below. Anyone able to volunteer should get in touch asap with the Schools Liaison team. They will need to be at Grimond Building from 08.45 on Saturday for a pre-event briefing. Further information on the Open Day is available on our Visit Kent webpages.

Many thanks your help with this.

Simone Davies | Director of MORA

This Autumn, we’ll be hosting postgraduate open events on Wednesday 17 November with two ways to attend, designed to make the events as accessible to as many potential postgrad students as possible.

12.00 – 14.00 – Virtual event

17.00 – 19.00 – In-person event

Our virtual events have been really successful, especially for overseas enquirers and this November we’re delighted to also be able to invite prospective students to come to the Canterbury campus to meet academics as well as support staff and students.

The November events will be of special interest to potential PhD students looking to the meet January funding deadlines, January start Master’s students and final year UG students researching the next steps for their careers.

The scholarships team will be there to advise on Research Council funding applications as well as Tomorrow’s World and alumni discounts available to Kent graduates.

To make 2022 postgraduate recruitment as successful as possible it would be great if colleagues could promote the events to current Kent undergraduates, through professional networks, among family and friends and on their social channels.

For further information about the event and to find out how to register, please visit the Postgraduate Events webpage.

Congratulations to Dr Jim Everett, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, who is among the winners of this year’s 2021 Philip Leverhulme Prizes.

The annual prizes recognise the achievement of ‘exceptional researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future careers are exceptionally promising’. 30 prizes are awarded annually, each worth £100,000 to be spent on further research.

Jim has been awarded the prestigious prize for his work ‘on experimental social psychology; moral psychology; experimental philosophy.’ His recognition by the Leverhulme Trust is an honour given to only a handful of the UK’s psychologists in each three-year cycle, and follows several other awards from the international research community, including a Rising Star award by the International Association for Psychological Science, the Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Early Career award from the European Association for Social Psychology.

Jim said: ‘To see my name amongst such impressive awardees in psychology from this year and previous years is a very strange feeling. As always, thank you so much everyone who has supported me. I say this every time I get an award, but nothing I have done, or will ever do, will be mine alone and I remain deeply indebted to my family, mentors and colleagues.’

Head of School, Professor Robbie Sutton said: ‘We have always had an outstanding international reputation for research in social psychology, which in recent years has only grown stronger with the recruitment of  supremely talented and energetic researchers who are publishing in the world’s leading journals, winning millions of pounds in research funding, and training the next generation of researchers with the skills and enthusiasm to address the UK’s, and the world’s, most urgent challenges.’

Read more about the awards on the Leverhulme Trust website.