Research to be undertaken between the University of Kent and Queen’s University of Belfast is set to investigate a ‘common’ library founded in the 1420s at London’s Guildhall.

The £367,000 project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will be led by Dr Ryan Perry, senior lecturer in the School of English and co-Director of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and will be co-investigated Dr Stephen Kelly in the School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University of Belfast.

The library was one of the charitable legacies from the estates of that famously wealthy and most storied London mayor, Richard ‘Dick’ Whittington (d. 1423). This chained library of religious manuscripts was built by Whittington’s innovative executor, the Guildhall clerk, John Carpenter, explicitly for the benefit of London’s citizens and for its poorer priests who could not afford their own books to aid them in their ministrations in the City.  The entire collection was sequestered by Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of England, in January 1549, to fill the shelves of his newly constructed library at Somerset house, and only two books from the library are now known to have survived.

The project aims to ‘reconstruct’ the collection through identifying clusters of Middle English texts that were being repeatedly copied by London scribes in an explosion of pastoral writing in the City that coincides with the foundation of Whittington’s library. It is the project team’s contention that this revolution in religio-literary culture was facilitated through the ‘common’ library.

The project, titled Whittington’s Gift: Reconstructing the Lost Common Library of London’s Guildhall, will produce an anthology of texts sourced from the library and a monograph length account of Middle English religious textual production in the City and beyond.

Following Tuesday’s email on changes to Organising for Success, we are pleased to confirm all final senior leadership appointments within academic divisions. Kerry Barber will be Director of Operations for the Division of Human and Social Sciences, working with Professor David Wilkinson as Director of Division. Amanda Ollier will be Director of Operations for the updated Division of Arts and Humanities, working with Professor Shane Weller and Professor Simon Kirchin as co-Directors.

This completes all senior leadership appointments within academic divisions, with the full list of divisions and their leadership now on the Organising for Success website.

A number of other areas of the site have also been updated to cover the recent changes, including:

• Project Timeline: With details of the next steps needed to make changes in professional service areas and launch new divisions by no later than 1 November
• FAQs: Including more information on the impact of Covid-19, along with explanation of some of the key stages on the timeline such as the ‘staff mapping’ process

As we head into the Easter Bank Holiday, I have been reflecting on the extraordinary events of the last few weeks. You will have seen from my update earlier this week the vast amount of work that has been carried out in such a short space of time, I thank everyone for the part they have played in enabling all these things to happen.

One of things I am immensely proud of is how staff and students are responding to the impact of COVID-19 on our local community and beyond. The link to the webpages shows some of the activity that is going on across all our schools, departments and professional services. A number of you are supporting the work of the Canterbury Foodbank and more than 30 academics, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in Biosciences have volunteered to help perform testing at hospitals across the county. Kent Hospitality has donated surplus stock to Dover Foodbank and we are working directly with the NHS across Kent and Medway to see how we can provide essential infrastructure support.

We are now all working in an adapted and dispersed way. In such an environment, it’s important to get our communications right and I am aware that, in recent weeks, I have been sending out a lot of emails to you all as well as communicating with TEAMS, Zoom and good old fashioned telephone! As we come back from the Easter break I want to ensure you have the right kind of opportunity to engage directly with me and colleagues across the senior team. We are currently looking at the best way to do this and will come back with further details.

I wish you and your families all the best for the Easter break, and look forward to working with you over the coming months as we all navigate our way through this unprecedented time.

Karen

Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

The Government has postponed the submission date for the Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF) to allow universities to support research into clinical and health-related fields.  While the new date has yet to be announced, it is likely that this will be in the not too distant future.

As a result, the University has paused all internal REF deadlines and will announce a revised deadline once the situation is clearer. Research Services will continue to support those who wish to continue with their REF preparations.  Work is also underway to adapt the Knowledge Exchange Framework submission.

It is worth remembering that the REF and KEF are only indicators of research and innovation. The main challenge is to keep research and innovation going in these difficult times and I know that many of you are currently juggling childcare and other domestic responsibilities with your work commitments. For those that are able to find the time, I would also remind you that gaining external funding for our research is still of paramount importance for the institution, and again, central support remains available for those wishing to apply for external funding.

I am keen to speak with you to hear how you are coping, and how the University can help. In 2015 I visited 650 academics, researchers and research professional staff for 20 minutes each.

I am keen to speak with all of those who are submitting to the REF and with those who are working to support them on this. From mid-April onwards, I will be setting up 10-minute ‘Teams’ meetings with each of you. It will be good to talk with you although I am fully expecting to also meet many pets, young children and others who are currently at home with you!

Philippe De Wilde | Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation

Simon Thompson, Professor of Logic and Computation retired from the School of Computing on Monday 6 April after more than 36 years at the University of Kent, having joined in 1983 .

Simon has had a distinguished academic career with his research mainly focusing on functional programming, most recently in designing tools to help people to write and test programs more effectively. In particular, together with Huiqing Li, Reuben Rowe and many others, he has been working on building refactoring tools for functional programs in Erlang, Haskell, and, most recently, OCaml, supported by EU and EPSRC funding.

He has also published many books on functional programming including Erlang Programming, Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programmimg and Type Theory and Functional Programming.

Professor Richard Jones said ‘Simon has made an enormous contribution to the School and the University. He was an inspirational Head of School for many years and transformed the School in often very difficult times. The continuing success of the Kent IT Consultancy is a tribute to him. He has also been a fabulous mentor to so many staff in the School.’

Simon said ‘it has been a pleasure to work with generations of students, researchers and academics at Kent, and I look forward to seeing the School of Computing flourish in the years to come’.

We wish Simon well for his retirement.

Kent Hospitality has donated over 500 items to Dover Foodbank amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

With only one of its ten catering outlets currently open on the Canterbury campus, Kent Hospitality decided to donate their surplus stock to Dover Foodbank to ensure the supplies went to those in need.

The team donated items including canned drinks, crisps, flapjacks and toilet rolls –all of which were gratefully received by the food bank volunteers during this current shortage.

Food banks across the county are still relying on donations from their local community. If you want to find out how you can also support them in this time of need visit the Trussell Trust website.

Due to current circumstances we are updating our 2nd Digital Accessibility Conference and inviting you to attend virtually wherever you are.

Last year, two of the Kent Connects partner organisations, University of Kent & Kent County Council, hosted the first Kent Digital Accessibility Conference to inform Public Sector organisations about digital accessibility and inclusion and the impact of the regulations.

Join us for the next virtual version Kent Digital Accessibility conference in June – there will be 2 morning sessions and 2 afternoon sessions each day for three days;

When:

Tuesday 9 June

Wednesday 10 June

Thursday 11 June.

Times:

10.00 – 11.00

11.30 – 12.30

14.00 – 15.00

15.30 – 16.30

With three months left before the regulations deadline, we have even more expert speakers and workshops to help you prepare, including the UK government, big name suppliers, NHS experts and a European perspective showing how other countries are handling new regulations. We will also have a brand new reveal on the work we are doing towards Kent’s accessible student experience, and a host of engaging practical workshops to help attendees grow the specialist skills required to deliver accessible services.

Please register your interest in attending virtually – full details of speakers and a meeting link will be confirmed to booked attendees nearer the time.

Book your free place now on the Eventbrite website

Everyone is welcome, please do share with colleagues in your networks who might find this of interest.

For any queries, please email AccessibilityEvents@kent.ac.uk