Ann-Christine Kinzer, PhD student in German and Comparative Literature, has been awarded the 2019 Graduate School Postgraduate Researcher Prize.

In 2018, the Graduate School introduced a series of annual prizes to recognise the excellence of its postgraduate researchers and the outstanding work carried out by academic and administrative staff members in support of postgraduate research and education. Ann is one of three prize winners in 2019 and will receive her award at a ceremony on 30 May.

Ann’s PhD thesis uses a comparative methodology to investigate the phenomenon of wandering in modern European literature. Defining wandering in Kantian terms as a kind of ‘purposiveness without purpose’ – as opposed to walking, which simply seeks to move from point a to point b – it argues that the practice arose in response to the Industrial Revolution, as writers and thinkers sought ways to resist the increasing instrumentalisation of time and space.

Over the last three years, Ann has made an exceptional contribution not only to the postgraduate culture of her discipline, but also to that of her School. She has contributed to numerous conferences and an exhibition, and has also been the leading influence behind the Skepsi group of postgraduates, selecting the topics for their conferences, organising the events themselves, and editing the subsequent proceedings. She has also been an invaluable assistant for the CHASE summer school, which ran successfully last year and is being repeated this summer. Ann’s most important contribution to our research culture, however, might well be her work on our impact case studies.

Professor Ben Hutchinson, School Director of Graduate Studies (Research) and Professor of European Literature, says: “Ann’s experience in helping to organise the event is proving invaluable as we prepare things again for this summer… She has engaged closely both with the individual case study leads (in UoA26) and with the central university REF team. Her efforts have been instrumental in improving both the quantity of the data and the quality of the narratives; one of the case studies on which she worked was even distributed across the university as a model of good practice… She is in many ways a model postgraduate student – industrious, ambitious, and resourceful – and I know that numerous colleagues could give glowing references about her contributions to their own activities”.

Following on from successfully organising the exhibition ‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’, students from the Department of the History of Art have won a Kent Arts Investment Fund award from Kent County Council.

‘The Female Nude’ was organised as part of the module ‘Print Collecting and Curating’, and the funds will contribute to the costs of hosting a series events associated with the exhibition, including special talks with artist Iwona Abrams and art historian and writer Frances Borzello. In addition, the extra funding will allow us to make a more substantial acquisition for the Kent Print Collection.

Rebecca Hardy, one of the co-organisers of the exhibition, said: ‘We feel very excited and proud at obtaining this funding. The module has been a brilliant practical learning experience, allowing us to gain a wide range of skills and implementing them into the ‘real-world’. We feel confident in entering a career in the arts considering all that we have achieved with this exhibition, which has been the product of just less than four months’ work.’

Rebecca is currently completing her final year on the BA (Hons) in Art History.

‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’ closes this Friday, and an online gallery from the exhibition may be seen here.

We are delighted to be hosting Prof Vladimir Jiranek, Head of the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide, for a one-day wine course on our Canterbury campus.

If you are keen to understand how the appearance, taste, aroma and flavour of your favourite wine are achieved then this is a course for you. Running on Fri 21 Jun 2019, the eve of the inaugural Canterbury Wine Festival, our Winemaking and Tasting crash course is designed for novices and wine enthusiasts and is hosted by Prof Vladimir Jiranek, a wine microbiologist ‘by trade’ with over 30 years’ experience in wine research and teaching on Adelaide’s Viticulture and Oenology programmes, which are ranked amongst the top few in the world.

The full-day all inclusive course aims to explain core concepts to demystify winemaking and wine tasting: which grapes are used, and how are they grown and harvested, how are grapes processed into red, white, sparkling and fortified wine styles; how do grape-growing and winemaking impact the finished wine; what are the basic appearances, tastes, aromas and flavours of wine and what do they tell you about the wine you’re drinking?

This course begins with introductory talks followed by a guided series of moderately-paced tastings (about 25 wines in total) that progressively build wine recognition and evaluation skills. By the end of the course attendees should be familiar with the key attributes of different varietals and styles of wine as well as recognise common faults, ready for the Canterbury Wine Festival the following day.

When: Friday 21 Jun 2019, 09.00 to 17.00

Where: Canterbury campus

Price: £118 including lunch, refreshments and all wine tasting

For further information, visit the website.

Recruiting and retaining mature students at Kent has become increasingly important in recent years so a new Kent web page, aimed at prospective and current mature students, has recently been launched.

Designed as a ‘one stop shop’ focused on the needs of mature learners, it contains information on applying, finance, support and how to gain the necessary entry qualifications by linking people to the University’s Access to HE Diploma Programme.

Demand for the page was identified by staff in the Access and Adult Learning unit of the Partnership Development Office who work with adult students on a daily basis. FE Development Officer, Ruth Westbury said, ‘The adult students that I work with in our local colleges all tend to have the same questions. They want to know if they can afford to go to university and how they can get in. We wanted to be able to direct them to one page on our website that would answer their questions.’

Kent students, including Ben Dawkins who runs the Mature Student Society for Kent Union, were involved in the design which includes videos of current mature students explaining their experiences at Kent.

You can find the page here. For more information about adult learning or the Access to HE Diploma programme contact Donna Coyte, d.l.coyte@kent.ac.uk