Professor Twigg will discuss fashion and age at the Vice Chancellor’s Esteem Lecture on Wednesday 4 March at 6pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1.

Dress ‘particularly under the guise of fashion’ can seem a lightweight sort of topic, not deserving serious academic analysis, especially in the context of old age where frailty and decline may seem to present both society and individuals with more pressing concerns.

But the lecture will suggest that clothing and dress are highly relevant to the analysis of age, and that they intersect with some central issues in relation to later life and its cultural formation, opening up the complex ways in which ageing is both a bodily and a cultural phenomenon.

Throughout history certain forms and styles of dress have been deemed appropriate ‘or rather inappropriate’ for people as they age. Older women in particular have long been subject to pressures to tone down, to adopt self-effacing, covered up styles. More recently there have been signs of change. The lecture will explore the extent and significance of these.

For more details email hva@kent.ac.uk

Here’s just some of the ways we are celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight at Kent:

• Try delicious Fairtrade food for FREE at our taster day on Wednesday 4 March in Darwin Conference Suite, Canterbury campus, from 12noon.
• Catch-up with the Fairtrade roadshow touring the Canterbury campus this week. The roadshow will be at Templeman Library on Wednesday 4 March and Dolche Vita on Thursday 5 March.
• A selection of Fairtrade tea, coffee, hot chocolate and sugar are available at outlets across campus.
• Enjoy 10% off Fairtrade products at Woody’s.

Professor Nuria Triana-Toribio from the Hispanic Studies Department will give her KIASH Inaugural lecture , ‘Spanish Film Cultures’ on Friday 13 March at 6pm in Grimond lecture Theatre 2.

No film comes about without a film culture to sustain it. Film cultures are the institutions, legislation, working practices and cultural actors that encourage some kinds of film and prove fallow ground for others. In Spain during the long transition to democracy from Franco’s dictatorship (1968-1978) a new film culture was built that distanced itself from the old. However, the transition in film, like the transition in politics, was more easily imagined than achieved. Elements of the old film culture persisted, even among the progressives, while film historians, signed up to the project of the new film culture, have been reluctant to acknowledge these vestigial traces, which have become the ‘bad objects’ of Spanish film studies. But as Ezra Pound once said, ‘you can’t know an era merely by knowing its best’. This lecture will consider the development of Spain’s dominant film culture since 1968 by examining one such bad object, the popular f ilm magazine Nuevo Fotogramas, long considered too frivolous to have played any serious part in the transition, in spite of the cosmopolitan outlook of its writers and editors.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Grimond Foyer.

Further details cab be found on the SECL website.

Professor Quentin Skinner will be asking this question at our annual Renaissance Lecture on Tuesday, 24th March 2015 at 6pm in Lecture Theatre 1, Grimond Building. All are welcome to attend, and there will be a wine reception afterwards.

One of Machiavelli’s aims in The Prince is to persuade us that the truly virtuoso prince should follow the virtues so far as possible, but should be ready to abandon them when this alternative seems necessary for the maintenance of the state. This is certainly what Machiavelli appears to claim about the virtue of justice. But if we turn to his examination of the so-called ‘princely’ virtues, especially clemency and liberality, we encounter a very different argument. Machiavelli complains that, in our corrupt modern world, some actions regarded as virtuous may in fact be instances of vice, while other actions condemned as vices may in fact be virtues. The aim of the lecture is to disentangle Machiavelli’s complex views about the relationship between virtue and political success.

Professor Quentin Skinner is Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London. His research centres on early-modern Europe, and one of his principal interests lies in the Italian Renaissance. He has published books on Machiavelli, on early Renaissance political painting, on ideals of civic virtue, and has edited Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Join in the Canterbury Big Quiz at the University’s Sports Centre on Friday 24 April from 7pm.

Quiz organisers, the KM Group, are trying to recruit 50 teams to represent the University’s 50th anniversary. They’d love you to be part of it – and if you’re the top University team, you could win a special prize.

The KM Group is also offering University staff and students a special discount code, UKC50,  giving £10 off of team entry and free drink on arrival.  There will also be a bar provided by Barclay’s and a Ploughman’s supper to enjoy.

To book your table of eight, visit www.kmbigquiz.co.uk and select event booking, or click here.

On Tuesday 10 March, Jobshop will be hosting its annual Recruitment Fair in Darwin Conference Suite, from 12 noon to 3pm.

This year’s Recruitment Fair is even bigger with thirty exhibitors attending the event.  Students can come along to the event to meet a range of exhibitors including; Canterbury Historic River Tours, Charlton Athletic, RNLI, Holiday Extras, Saga Group and Kent Hospitality to name a few! The exhibitors are looking to recruit for part-time, temporary and seasonal staff, so there is something for everyone. For a full list of exhibitors please go to the kent union website.

As well as meeting a range of local and national organisations, students will also receive 5 Employability Points simply for attending the event!

To find out more, please go to the event’s Facebook page.

Our final SSPSSR Careers Insights day is all about our alumni. Join us to hear how their degrees with SSPSSR has helped them to get their dream jobs and get their top tips for getting those jobs!

Join us afterwards for drinks and nibbles.

Date: Wednesday 25 February

Presentations: 1 to  4pm in Darwin Conference Suite

Drinks reception: 4 to 7pm in Darwin Conference Suite

All welcome!

For more information or to book your space go to the alumni website.

Councillor Terry Westgate joined forces with Kent Union student volunteers and local residents to litter pick around the city. A group of eight Kent Union volunteer, six members of the community, including Councillor Terry Westgate battled the elements in a bid to tidy up the residential area at the bottom of Eliot footpath.

The volunteering project, organised by the Students’ Union at the University, was a great success with a grand total of 16 bags of rubbish collected! Tom Abbott Kent Union Volunteer Projects Coordinator: “The group has made a real and visible difference to the appearance of the area. Our volunteers are a real asset to the community and we really appreciate all the hard work they put in to keep the community clean, for all residents.”

Kent Union Volunteer Ryan Bates said: ‘It’s good to do something positive for the community, and it makes a nice break from working on a dissertation all day.” Kent Union Volunteer Leon Williams added: “It makes a nice break from working on a dissertation all day!’

More photographs of the volunteers at work can be seen on the Kent Union website.

Due to demand, we have increased the number of student places available on a Chaplaincy ‘Weekend Away’ at the Friars, Aylesford, a beautiful and historic place which has been described as the ‘Hogwarts’ of East Kent. You can use the time, from Friday evening 27 Feb until Sunday afternoon 1 March, as you wish or join in activities. Own room, food and transport to and from campus and all for just £35. Please contact the Anglican Chaplain, Revd Dr Stephen Laird, if you are interested.

Need advice, information or support regarding your drug or alcohol use?

Talk to Turning Point every Thursday 1.30pm to 5pm on the Canterbury campus.

You can either book or drop-in to a confidential session at The Wellbeing Service, Keynes College.

Contact the Wellbeing Team for further information.

• Call 01227 823206
• Email wellbeing@kent.ac.uk