Category Archives: Student Guide

Talking Cultures (EW334) workshops: Autumn term

Do you want to increase your knowledge of different cultures, further develop your intercultural communication skills and have the opportunity to meet students online from various cultural backgrounds?

If the answer is yes, the International Programmes Department is delivering a series of individual workshops this term called ‘Talking Cultures’ (EW334). These engaging and interactive workshops are open to all University of Kent students and have been in existence for the past six years due to popular student demand. There will be four two-hour workshops this term which will focus on the following themes:

– Week 3: Cultural Knowledge and Identity

– Week 5: Considerations of Intercultural Communication

– Week 6: Barriers to Intercultural Communication; Useful Tools and Strategies

– Week 9: Enhancing Cultural Awareness

To sign up for the workshops, go to the Student Data System (SDS), click on ‘Workshops’, then click on ‘Study Skills’. All workshops are free, non-credit bearing and will be delivered online. Students can receive 5 Employability Points for each workshop attended.

We look forward to ‘Talking Cultures’ with you.

Black Women in STEM

On Tuesday 27 October at 12:00 we are hosting an event about Black Women in STEM. This event is part of Black History Month and will feature a talk from exceptional Black women and students in STEM aka Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It will also address young Black women in academia, who want to pursue a career in the field.

Black women in the UK are among the most underrepresented groups in STEM, but according to research, they are more likely to feel like they belong in the field if they have access to black female role models.

There has been various initiatives set up to encourage Black women to get into this area, such as STEM Learning which is the largest provider of education and careers support. They are dedicated to raising young people’s engagement and achievement in STEM subjects and careers.

For more information, please head to GKSU’s website.

Launch of the Expect Respect module

Here at Kent, we want to make sure everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Therefore, we have taken a few proactive steps to ensure you are well informed and know about the support available. Next Monday we are launching the Expect Respect module.

The Expect Respect module is a compulsory module for all registered students at the University of Kent, regardless of what you are studying or whether you are an undergraduate and postgraduate student.

The module outlines the behaviours we expect of you whilst you are with us as well as what you can expect from both the University and Kent Union (your Student Union), and also digs deep into issues of racism, bias, sexual harassment and consent. It challenges you to think about your own behaviour, the way you interact with others and the impact this could be having on someone else’s experience.

The module will also make you aware of how to report any incidents to the University so that you, or the student affected can access the right support, and will also make you aware of the wide range of different support services available to you depending on your needs.

You can find the Expect Respect module on Moodle (code DP6636) – you should be automatically enrolled but if you have any issues please get in contact with Becky Lamyman on R.S.Lamyman@kent.ac.uk.

Graduate jobs – Down but not out

As part of the annual EmpFest activities, taking part on the 13 October, 17.30-18.30, our keynote speaker is ,Stephen Isherwood, CEO of the Institute of Student Employers who will talk through what is going on in the graduate labour market. The Institute of Student Employers, formerly the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), is the UK’s leading independent voice for student employers, representing the majority of major graduate recruiters in the UK.

There is no doubt the jobs market is tough and will remain so for at least another 12 months. But did you know that employers still filled over three quarters of their graduate vacancies in 2020? Stephen Isherwood, CEO of the Institute of Student Employers, will share his insights on how employers have responded to Covid-19 and the steps you take to make sure you have a good story to tell recruiters.

The event will be a short presentation, followed by a question and answer session, hosted by James Corbin, Head of Careers and Employability for the University of Kent. This is a great opportunity for students and staff alike to better understand the current graduate labour market.

To book, students should reserve a place on the Event webpage and staff should email careerhelp@kent.ac.uk

CanterBAME podcast series

CanterBAME is an award-winning podcast series hosted by four amazing, intelligent and opinionated Black and Asian women. Dammy, Nisha, Omolade and Blessing explore the student experience from a Black and Asian perspective. They cover topics such as SPAC, dating, relationships, marriage, sexuality and self love and self care.

You can revisit this podcast series for a fresh take on being a CanterBAME student.

Black History Month is a yearly event that celebrates the achievements of Black people in the UK. The university in conjunction with Kent Union are celebrating Black History Month by hosting various activities over October.

Black History Month reading list

Celebrate Black History Month by delving into the various reading lists that covers Black lives and the contribution Black people have made over the years.

Black History Month Reading List

A list of books compiled by Student Services, Information Services and Kent Union which includes classic and modern, fiction and non-fiction, from all over the world which explore what it means to be Black both historically and in the world today.

Decolonise Kent Reading List

This is a reading list by students from the Decolonise the Curriculum project who conducted research by engaging with the students from various schools around the campus.

Social Justice Reading List

A list of books that cover social justice.

Black Thought and Culture

This is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders, teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures – covering 250 years of history.

What’s on this week – w/c 5th October

To welcome you to Kent we have a wide range of events to help you settle into campus and your courses. These are the events taking place this week.

5 October

Wellbeing Cafe – Online – 15:30

Meet with other students online for mental health support, games and creative pursuits.

Social Run – Canterbury – 17:00

Kent Sport are leading runs across the campus.

6 October

Reading and note taking – Online – 13:00

A session that equips you with tips on how to take effective notes.

7 October

Critical Analysis – Online – 13:00

This session covers critical analysis

Study Plus – Dealing With Conflict – Online – 15:00

A session on how to deal with conflict.

8 October

Giving a presentation – Canterbury – 13:00

Tips on how to deliver great presentations

Social Run – Canterbury – 17:00

Kent Sport are leading runs across the campus.

9 October

Welcome Back student webchat – Online – 09:00

A webchat for all students offering held and guidance to ensure a smooth start at Kent.

Reading and note taking – Online – 13:00

A session that equips you with tips on how to take effective notes.

Student nominated for Outstanding Undergraduate Dissertation Prize

BA English & American Literature and English Language and Linguistics student, Dakarai Bonyongwe, has been nominated for the prestigious Linguistics Association of Great Britain Undergraduate Dissertation Prize.

Since 2017, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) has awarded three prizes annually for outstanding dissertations or long-form essays in any subfield of linguistics written by undergraduates.

The Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics said: “The prize is extremely competitive with an extraordinarily high standard of entries, and we were very proud to submit Dakarai’s excellent dissertation. It reflected a year of hard work and dedication to produce an original piece of work on the phonology of a less-studied language. We are deeply impressed with the quality of Dakarai’s work, and think [she] selected an exciting and relevant topic and implemented it with an impressive level of scientific maturity.”

Dakarai says: “My research is inspired by a childhood frustration of mine. I grew up with non-Shona speakers mispronouncing the alveolar implosive /ɗ/ at the start of my name as the alveolar plosive /d/. Shona, my native language, is tonal and the phonemes can be contrastive.” She goes on to say: “this study had its challenges, but was deeply fascinating and satisfying. I would love to expand on it in future, allowing for a deeper analysis of results…I want to thank SECL and the University of Kent for creating the platform to enable independent research.”

Find out more about undergraduate programmes in Linguistics.

Online launch for books by Kent academic and PhD alumna

A launch event for books authored by Kent international law expert Dr Emily Haslam and PhD law alumna Dr Serena Natile will be hosted online on Wednesday 18 November.

The Slave Trade Abolition and the Long History of International Criminal Law, by Dr Haslam, and The Exclusionary Politics of Digital Financial Inclusion, by Dr Natile, are both published by Routledge.

The event, from 16.00 – 18.00, will be hosted jointly by the Law School’s Centre for Sexuality, Race and Gender Justice (SeRGJ), the Centre for Critical International Law (CeCIL), and research group Social Critiques of Law (SoCriL).

Dr Haslam’s book will be introduced by Professor Michael Lobban (LSE) and Dr Christine Schwobel-Patel (University of Warwick), and Dr Natile’s book will be introduced by Dr Luis Eslava (Kent Law School) and Professor Kate Maclean (University of Northumbria).

Dr Haslam’s book offers a close and critical examination of litigation that arose from British efforts to capture slave ships in the nineteenth century. It shows how the slave trade and abolition has influenced (and continues to influence) international criminal law in multiple ways.

Dr Haslam is a Senior Lecturer at Kent Law School. Her research interests lie in the field of international criminal law, specifically the treatment of victims and the role of civil society, and in international legal history.

Dr Natile’s book (developed from her PhD thesis) focuses on Kenya’s path-breaking mobile money project M-Pesa to examine and critique the narratives and institutions of digital financial inclusion as a development strategy for gender equality. It argues for a politics of redistribution to guide future digital financial inclusion projects.

Dr Natile is Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick’s School of Law. She completed her PhD thesis at Kent in December 2016.

Please register on Eventbrite.

Virtual Exchange Opportunities at Kent

Would you like to develop a solution for a real-life problem alongside other students at the University of Calgary? Or maybe you would be interested in joining a common reading experience with students across the world at West Virginia University?

These are just a couple of the opportunities we have available for Kent students to engage with virtual activities at our partner universities across the world.

Virtual exchange allows students to engage in meaningful, cross-cultural experiences as part of your education. These projects are becoming ever more important in offering students an international learning experience. With recent events preventing traditional study abroad, these projects provide the framework for students to develop their cross-cultural attitudes, skills, and communication in addition to improving their digital literacy skills valued by employers.

For more information and to sign up, please visit the Global Education webpage.