One year after winning a £100k Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law, Kent Law School Professor Emily Grabham has received her award at an event in London.

Delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic, the prizes for 2020 recipients were presented by Sir Keith Thomas CH FBA, at the Philip Leverhulme Prize Gala Dinner held in Plaisterer’s Hall on 21 September.

Philip Leverhulme Prizes are awarded to researchers whose work has had international impact and whose future research career is exceptionally promising.

Professor Grabham has achieved international recognition for her research over the last ten years, attracting numerous competitive grants, and gaining multiple national prizes. Her work champions an influential emerging field of scholarship on the relationship between law and time. She argues that paying attention to how people think about, and experience, time is crucial to understanding how equality laws work.

Since completing her work on the Future of Legal Gender, an ambitious project on the legal regulation of sex and gender in England & Wales, Professor Grabham is working on A Day at a Time, a project which explores the everyday experience of time in the Coronavirus pandemic.

It’s one of two ambitious empirical studies that the Leverhulme prize money has enabled Professor Grabham to undertake and which she hopes will reach a wide public audience.

The second, on ‘Legislative Drafting’, builds on her work on the Future of Legal Gender project. For this, Professor Grabham will conduct a multi-sited ethnographic study applying insights from legislative drafting to key debates in legal theory.

Last week, Professor Grabham’s most recent book, Women, Precarious Work and Care: The Failure of Family-friendly Rights, was published by Bristol University Press. Drawing on interviews with women in precarious work, the book exposes the everyday problems faced by workers balancing work and care.

One of our first Signature Research Themes, Migration and Movement has unveiled an exciting programme of research and public engagement events this Autumn.

Designed to showcase outstanding work across the theme and to stimulate new interdisciplinary conversations, the events are open to all Kent colleagues, as well as members of the public.

Dates for your diary include:

Wednesday 13 October – Launch: Countering Hostile Environments’
From 15.00-17.00, School of Arts, Jarman 1, followed by a drinks reception from 17.00-18.00 in Jarman Foyer – 13 October.

To launch the Migration and Movement SRT, and in preparation for the visit of The Walk, Dr Rachel Gregory Fox, Dr Bahriye Kemal, and Dr Jonathan Rock Rokem will discuss their current research projects, each of which considers hostile asylum and immigration regimes and how they can be countered. Chaired by Professor David Herd, this session will address the implications of the new Nationality and Borders Bill and how a politics of expulsion can be resisted through research.

Following the panel, Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin will lead an open discussion on the question: ‘What does Migration Mean to You?’ designed to help SRT members start shaping the Theme’s work.

The event is free but please book your place via Eventbrite. It will be live-streamed for those unable to make it in person.

Thursday 21 October – The Walk: Welcoming Amal to the University of Kent
Procession from Canterbury Cathedral to our campus from 12–14.00 and Refugee Tales welcome event from 19.00-20.30 in Gulbenkian Theatre.

In collaboration with Refugee Tales and the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries, the Migration and Movement SRT is delighted to welcome Amal and The Walk (see image below) to the University of Kent. Find out more about joining the procession and/or our evening welcome event in our Staff News story.

Book your tickets now for our Refugee Tales Welcomes Amal event on the Gulbenkian webpages.

 Various dates in October – Just An Other Crossing

You may have noticed a sea container outside Gulbenkian this week – this is a new instillation by Local Foreigner. In this immersive installation you find yourself on a boat travelling the channel through virtual reality film and the live amplification of your heart beat.

Its free! You can just turn up on specific dates in October – details can be found on the Gulbenkian website.

Friday 12 November – Suppliant Women by The Foreign Office
Pre-show drinks from 18.00-19.30 in Gulbenkian Café and post-show talk from 21.15 in Gulbenkian Theatre.

Centring on a community chorus of women fleeing Egypt and seeking refuge in Argos to escape forced marriage, Suppliant Women is one of the oldest surviving Greek plays. This captivating production by The Foreign Office revives a remarkably contemporary tragedy about migration and the ethical dilemma of hospitality, blending music, dance and drama in a distinctive stage language that will strike audiences as both strange and familiar. It is an opportunity to engage with themes of migration in ancient Greece and its present-day resonances. Book your tickets now on the Gulbenkian webpages.

Wednesday 17 November – Head2Head: Migration and the non-human: Thinking about symbiotic assemblages of movement
From 15.00-17.00 online.

Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin chairs this dynamic session, which steps away from traditional academic presentation formats and embraces the “Head2Head” approach highlighting the importance of rapid fire, synergies-in-action discussion. Being truly inter-disciplinary can be difficult and using H2H enables blue sky thinking by decoupling ideas from disciplinary confines. Migration has often been linked to human movement, but what about non-human agents such as migration of blood and tissue, knowledge systems and curating of migrant spaces?

Using Joanne Latimer’s concept of post-human assemblages, we pay attention to the migration of objects, bodily and fleshy parts, memories and curated objects, as a way of making sense of the political assemblage of migrant subjectivities. Speakers will include: Dr Matt Whittle (School of English) Dr Jill Shepherd (School of Biosciences) and Dr Sukvinder Bhamra (Medway School of Pharmacy). A registration link will be circulated nearer the time.

Wednesday 8 December – ‘Migration and Creative Practice’
From 15.00-17.00 in the Dockyard Church at Medway campus.

This final Migration and Movement SRT event of the Autumn term explores different ways in which notions of cultural intimacy, hybridity and appropriation are perceived in the fields of poetry, theatre and music. Three practice-based researchers – Minna Jeffery, Drama by Practice as Research PhD candidate in the School of Arts; Winsome Monica Minott, a poet and Creative Practice PHD candidate in the School of English; and Richard Lightman, record producer, composer, musician and Head of the Centre for Music and Audio Technology at Kent – will present and discuss their ongoing creative projects. A booking link will be circulated nearer the time and the event will be live-streamed.

SHARE YOUR VIEWS

We look forward to you joining us to help shape the work of the Migration and Movement SRT. Please feel free to get in touch with us at: srt-mm-lead@kent.ac.uk.

Professor David Herd (School of English), Dr Margherita Laera (School of Arts, Drama), Dr Tom Parkinson (Centre for the Study of Higher Education) and Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin (School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research)

We are currently putting together our schedule for Staff Webchats over the Autumn term, ensuring everyone has a chance to hear directly from those working on the University’s key initiatives and can put their questions across. 

Topics planned so far include: 

• USS pensions – reflecting on recent changes and open to all but targeted towards colleagues who are members of the scheme. This webchat will take place on Wednesday 13 October, 12.00-13.00. Find out more and register to join the session on Teams. 
• Sustainability – highlighting events around Climate Action Week, COP26 and the launch of the University Sustainability Strategy in late October. 
• KentVision – updating on latest developments and upcoming changes based on staff and student feedback. 
• University finances – talking through our annual accounts when they are published later in the year 

Got an idea for other topics you’d like to know more about and/or have your say on? Let us know by emailing the Communications team and help us shape the schedule through the year! 

Sunday 10 October 2021 is World Mental Health Day.

If we all do one thing, we can change everything – World Mental Health Day | Mind, the mental health charity – help for mental health problems.

Mental health is often determined by where we live or who we are.

This Mental health day, do one thing:

• Add your voice – start a conversation about Mental Health
• Learn about Mental Health and its inequality
• Ask for and access information and support if you need it.

At Kent, we have a number of resources for all staff to access:

• Employee Assistance Programme
• Psychotherapy available through OH
• Health and Wellbeing Yammer channel
• Health and Wellbeing Strategy Statement and Psychological Wellbeing Standard
• Mental Health ‘One Stop Shop’
• Online Moodle training packages for staff on wellbeing and mental health
• Manager Mental Health @ Work training sessions through T&OD
• Inclusion Passport and Manager Guidance
• Reasonable Adjustments e-learning via Staff Moodle.

Over the next year, we are also planning to provide further support – look out for:

• the introduction of Mental Health Allies
• a number of training sessions via Mind – three sessions of each across the academic year (one per term) in different formats – virtual, on campus and at the Mind facilities in Folkestone. Topics will include:

– Understanding Stress and Anxiety 90 Minutes
– Understanding depression– 90 minutes
– Mental Health Awareness – 90 minutes
– Introduction to workplace Mental health and wellbeing – 120 minutes.

Sixty-seven academic colleagues are celebrating their promotion to professor, reader, senior lecturer or senior research fellow in the 2020-21 academic year.

The new professors are:

Division of Arts and Humanities

Shona Illingworth (Arts)

Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Mark Batty (Computing)

Division of Human and Social Sciences

Robert Fish (Anthropology and Conservation)

Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice

Heejung Chung and Carolyn Pedwell (Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research)

Professor Heejung Chung

Division of Natural Sciences

Glen Davison (Sport and Exercise Sciences), Simon Holder (Chemistry & Forensic Science), Neil Kad and Mark Wass (Biosciences)

Professor Glen Davison

Martin Atkinson, Director of HR and Organisational Development, said: ‘The career development, personal growth and excellence of our academic staff are vital to the continuing success of the University. Congratulations to all those promoted this year in the most challenging circumstances. And, at a time when the contribution of the nation’s essential workers has been recognised and celebrated, I am sure that those colleagues would fully acknowledge that their achievements would not have been possible without the support of other academic colleagues and the professional services staff working behind the scenes.’

You can see the full list of Academic promotions 2020-21 here.

[Main picture shows newly promoted Professor Neil Kad from the School of Biosciences]

One of our first three Signature Research Themes – Future Human – is inviting applications from staff for our Vice-Chancellor PhD Studentship selection process, as well as ideas for cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovative research.

The Future Human theme explores the use of science and technology to improve human performance either temporarily or permanently. Its transdisciplinary approach will help us understand the opportunities, limits, challenges and risks of using scientific and technological advancement to restore or improve performance and to overcome current limits of body and mind.

Theme co-lead, Dr Lex Mauger says: ‘Future Human is much more wide-ranging than many might think. By focusing on four sub-themes – Healthy Human, Everyday Human, Working Human and Super Human – our aim is to go much further than just understanding the science and technology. We want to know how enhancing human capability cuts across different fields from business and commercial to ethical and legal.’

You can find out more about Future Human on the Signature Research Theme web page.

PhD Studentships available

As part of its start-up resourcing, the Future Human Signature Research Theme is offering two Vice-Chancellor PhD Studentships for the 2022-23 academic year. The studentships will be allocated to named supervisory teams running a pre-determined project.

To select these supervisory teams and projects, the Future Human leadership team is running a Sandpit event, which will involve 20-30 academics from a range of disciplines and result in up to 15 project proposals. From these project ideas, two supervisory teams will be awarded the PhD studentships, and a further three project teams will be awarded seed-corn funding of £1500 for further development of their idea.

Staff will need to apply for one of the limited places on the Sandpit event, which will be held on 9 and 10 November 2021. More information on the Sandpit sessions, including an application for attendance to be completed by 17.00 on Friday 15 October 2021, is available here.

Share your views

The Future Human leadership team – comprising Dr Lex Mauger, Dr Sarah Hotham and Professor Aylish Wood – is committed to offering opportunities and activities to promote transdisciplinary collaborations and development of innovative research bids. They’re keen to hear from colleagues across the University about current and future plans for providing this. Complete the 10-minute survey to tell the team what you think.

Signature Research Themes

Signature Research Themes are a key part of the University’s strategy to further develop its global research profile. The themes bring together a wide range of ideas and approaches through cross-disciplinary collaboration, and they enhance the excellent practices and activities, highlighting the cutting-edge and innovative research that goes on at Kent.

It is with great sadness that we inform colleagues of the death of Geoffrey Stephenson (1939-2021).

Geoffrey established the Social Psychology Research Unit and the Board of Studies in Social Psychology at the University of Kent in 1978, and created its pathway to become the Institute of Social and Applied Psychology and ultimately both the School of Psychology and Tizard Centre.

Geoffrey was one of the UK’s foremost social psychologists in the 1970s and 80s and a leading figure in the formation and growth of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, being elected its President from 1984-7. Following his retirement from Kent in 1998, he continued to be very active in research and teaching for a further decade.

A full obituary will be prepared in due course. Those wishing to convey messages of condolence and remembrance to his wife Astrid and children Lawrence, Kate and David are welcome to contact Professor Dominic Abrams: D.Abrams@kent.ac.uk

In memory of Geoffrey, his family invite donations to be made in aid of Age UK Faversham and Sittingbourne via  https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DavidStephenson28/1

Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura | Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance

We were saddened to hear that Ivan Wills passed away after a long battle with illness.

Ivan worked for over 13 years as a Security Officer for the University and was a member of the Congregation Team for the majority of that time, a role which he particularly enjoyed. He pointed out on many occasions that watching the students graduate was what it was all about.

Ivan was a keen fisherman, a very proud grandfather and just a real character, who will be missed by all who knew him.

Campus Security Team