Dr Patty Baker, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classical and Archaeological studies, has been awarded TESSA funding to host an online conference/workshop entitled ‘Overcoming Challenges in the Development of Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity Initiatives in Higher Education’ on 8 July 2019.

TESSAs (Teaching Enhancement Small Support Awards) are grants to support the enhancement of teaching, learning and the student experience, and Patty’s event brings together American and UK deans and chief diversity officers to discuss the problems and solutions they faced when setting up their EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity) programmes.

The project is specifically about sharing knowledge with various groups at the University of Kent, such as the Decolonising the Curriculum Committee and Student Success Project, working towards the development of a cohesive EDI plan. Patty commented: “This is a significant workshop that will help to build the University’s EDI training and plans.”

This workshop developed out of an INSIGHTS (Senior Women’s Leadership Training Group) project Patty developed when asked to suggest an area for University development. She recognised the need for staff training to encourage difficult classroom discussions, inclusive seminars, and microaggressions, for example. She researched how EDI training is undertaken elsewhere, and contacted EDI Deans/Chief Diversity Officers in universities and liberal arts colleges in the United States to discuss their programmes. July’s event is building on this network.

To reserve your place for this conference, visit the Eventbrite page.

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Keynes College has commissioned a series of photographic portraits showcasing the diversity of staff and students comprising the Keynes community during 2018-2019. The portraits are on display in Keynes Atrium throughout June and July.

Photographer Daniel Denise and artist Rémi Malingrëy conceived the portraits. Each sitter talked about something that defined them or was important to them and Rémi captured this in the emblematic cartoon that each of them is holding for the camera.

Why not pop down to the Atrium and see if you can spot a few familiar faces?

The ‘We are Keynes’ exhibition will be on in the Atrium until the end of July, followed by a permanent display in the corridor upstairs next to the Teaching Foyer.

This exhibition is alongside a display of the shortlisted entries to our ‘Life in Keynes’ photo competition which is also part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Keynes College opened its doors to its first cohort of students in September 1968, the third
college to do so.

Fifty years later, the college welcomes over 600 students living in college accommodation and
a further 500 in the additional student residences built in the Parkwood development. It has
also become home to the School of Psychology, the School of Economics and most of Student
Services and houses the popular Dolche Vitae and KBar venues.

Chloé Gallien, Master of Keynes and Bethany Chater, Master’s Office and College Support Coordinator

From 24 June to 19 July, the main entrance to the Templeman Library will be closed. This is to enable essential building work to improve lighting and environmental issues.

The Library will remain open and fully accessible via the three remaining entrances: Library Road, Terrace and Grimond. Library users will still need to use their KentOne cards to access the building.

Welcome Desk services and staff will temporarily move to Block B on the ground floor close to the Café entry gates during the week beginning 17 June and remain there until 19 July. All Library services and facilities will be available during the building works except for the ‘Forgotten Card’ kiosk.

Support for visitors will be available from the Welcome Desk at the Café entrance.

We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Dr Dieter Declercq, Assistant Lecturer in Film and Media in the School of Arts, has secured funding from the British Society of Aesthetics to organise a conference which aims to stimulate interdisciplinary exchanges between analytic aesthetics and health/medical humanities. The conference, entitled ‘British Society of Aesthetics Conference: Art, Aesthetics and the Medical and Health Humanities’, will take place from Thursday 6 February to Saturday 8 February 2020, at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus.

The conference will be co-organised by Dieter, Dr Michael Newall, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, and Professor Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance in the Department of Drama and Theatre. The conference will explore the contributions of art and aesthetics to medicine, medical education and health care in all its aspects.

The keynote talks will be delivered by Professor Rita Charon (Columbia University), Professor Paul Crawford (University of Nottingham), and Professor Sheila Lintott (Bucknell University), alongside confirmed papers from Dr Julie Anderson (University of Kent), Dr Stella Bolaki (University of Kent) and Dr Eileen John (University of Warwick).

Dieter says: ‘We are very excited and grateful to the BSA for funding the first conference designed to bring together philosophers of art and scholars in the health/medical humanities. We are very proud to have such an amazing line-up of world-leading scholars in both fields and we are certain that this event will foster many rewarding exchanges’.

More details, including a call for papers, will be distributed soon. In the meantime, contact Dieter for further information here.

Cosmopolitanism in an age of global challenges

University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies

20 June 2019 10.00-14.00

Some have claimed that a citizen of the world is a citizen from nowhere. Apart from other problems with this claim, humanity faces a number of challenges today that do not stop at any one’s nation borders. These include the rise of artificial intelligence, global economic crises, and, as the most terrible threat of all, climate change. To develop appropriate responses, we need new political concepts, which go beyond the nation-centric ones still (or again) in fashion, concepts that help us understand these threats from a wider and deeper point of view. Kant’s cosmopolitan idea of a ‘citizenship of the earth’ is such a concept, based on what he viewed as our common human morality. Similar cosmopolitan views have been developed by other thinkers as well, e.g. by Hannah Arendt and Hans Kelsen.

To explore their and related ideas, this workshop aims to bring together philosophers, policy makers and any concerned citizens (be they from nowhere or from somewhere), to discuss novel ways of responding to globalised challenges.

Roundtable participants:

• Sorin Baiasu (Department of Philosophy, Keele University)
• Jan de Ceuster (Sociologist and political activist, Open VLD, Brussels)
• Eleanor Curran (Legal philosopher, University of Kent)
• Nicole Dewandre (Advisor in the European Commission and philosopher)
• Namita Kambli (Research manager, The Democratic Society, Brussels)
• Edward Kanterian (Department of Philosophy, University of Kent)

10.00-11.45 First session: Cosmopolitanism – defining the concept
11.45-12.15 Coffee break
12.15-14.00 Second session: Cosmopolitanism – practical applications
14.00-15.00 Lunch reception (please RSVP)

Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent
2A Boulevard Louis Schmidt
1040 Etterbeek

To register your attendance, please book online.

The Centre for Language and Linguistics and the Department of English Language and Linguistics are organising a Research Day on Friday 14 June 2019. During this annual event, members of staff and postgraduate students will present their work in progress projects.

The event will be an opportunity for speakers to receive feedback from experts in all different branches of linguistics and related disciplines, as well as testing new ideas and discussing new collaborations. The event also includes an invited speaker, Dr Jonathan Kasstan, who graduated with a BA in French in 2009 and a PhD in Linguistics in 2017, and is currently a lecturer and Leverhulme-funded researcher at the University of Westminster.

The full programme is below:

10.00 – 11.00: Jonathan Kasstan (Westminster): On the systematicity of variability in language obsolescence

11.00 – 11.30: Break

11.30 – 12.00: David Hornsby: When is a language not a language? The case of Picard

12.00 – 12.30: Heidi Colthup: Walking Simulator Video Games – A New Digital Storytelling Artefact – Transportation, not flow

12:30 – 13:00: Tamara Rathcke: When language hits the beat

13.00 – 14.30: Lunch

14.30 – 15.00: Isabella Reichl: Dissecting conflict: a multi-level approach to refusal negotiations

15.00 – 15.30: Dan Wang: Culture-specific metaphors in the Chinese housing crisis discourse

15.30 – 16.00: Eleni Kapogianni: The pragmatics of deception

Rudimental (Sound System) with special guests Example and Mahalia will be performing on Wednesday, 10 July at the Rochester #CastleConcerts.

Rudimental will be performing a DJ set with live vocals and brass with:

• Mark Crown playing the trumpet
• Taurean Antonie Chagar playing the saxophone
• Morgan Connie Smith and Bridget Amofah on vocals

Tickets are just £35 (down from £48.50).  Whether you’re a full or part-time student, or member of staff, simply select the student option at the checkout!  And please tell your friends.

Get your tickets now via Medway Tickets Live.

For more information, see the Castle Concerts webpages.