Everyone welcome to the Guinness World Record Attempt – FREE – Book now!

Sport and Exercise Students are attempting to achieve a Guinness World Record right here in Medway. All are welcome to the FREE event on Saturday 9 February.

From over 40 different groups, thousands of people have been involved across the universities, campus, and local community to create over 50,000 origami hearts, which will be displayed as a walk-through model of a heart. The project has taken about a year from start to finish and the main record breaking event is taking place here, in under two weeks.

Book your FREE ticket:  or it’s 4 clicks to book on Facebook.

The University of Kent’s LGBT+ Staff Network is looking to publish Gay as in Happy, a collection of interviews and personal stories that focus on LGBTQ+ members of staff, students, and the wider community. Gay as in Happy will be published as a book and excerpts will be featured on social media platforms.

We want to provide a positive outlook on coming out and on being queer in a predominantly straight world. Why? Because it is crucial to live in hope and to know that a fulfilled life as a queer person is possible (and, dare we say it, desirable). Sharing positive stories gives us hope and allows us to imagine happy endings for ourselves and for our loved ones. Thus, hope becomes a radical act. Because to imagine a better life is an important step towards creating a better life.

In order to make this happen, come and speak to us! We are looking for contributors who want to share their positive experiences about coming out and being out. If you would like to get involved, or to simply find out more, please email lgbtqbook@kent.ac.uk . You can find out more and get involved at the Researching The Rainbow Conference, Grimond Building on 16th Feb 2019.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, interviews the University of Kent’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Karen Cox.

Karen talks about her background in nursing, and having very strong early childhood memories of Christmas. Karen also describes how she looked up to Margot Fonteyn, and recounts other memories of growing up. These include: recording the charts on a Sunday; who her ‘nursing hero’ is; the eclectic nature of today’s politics; her reaction to the result of the 1979 General Election; who her favourite radio presenter is; why radio is a ‘security blanket’ and how she still has dreams and takes comfort from thinking about what might be around the corner.

Kent will be the first university in England and Wales to hold a paperless moot after being given access to CaseLines, a computerised evidence and courtroom presentation system.

CaseLines helps eliminate paper in courtrooms and gives lawyers, court staff and judges access to legal evidence bundles (including multimedia evidence). It has been used by the UK’s Supreme Court since 2014 and was chosen by the UK Government to digitise all of the criminal courts in England and Wales in 2015. The CaseLines Crown Court Digital Case System is used in all the Crown Courts (and some Civil Courts) in England and Wales.

Kent Law School will use the digital bundling software at its first paperless moot on Wednesday 27 March. The moot is being held to mark the naming of the Law School’s Moot Court in honour of Dr Kennedy Wong, a major benefactor of the Kent Law Campaign. The Kent Law Campaign raised £5m for the construction of the Wigoder Law Building, the building in which the Moot Court is housed.

Four Kent Law School alumni will be returning for the special show moot to act as the advocates for the appellant and for the Crown in a case that involves a threat to the Prime Minister at a party conference.

Joe Chambers, Samuel Davis, Cara Hall and Guevara Leacock will present their arguments before a Court of Appeal panel comprising: barrister Richard Honey (from Francis Taylor Building); the Rt Hon Lord Justice Mummery; Judge Andrew Patience QC; Law School Lecturer (and criminal barrister) Darren Weir; and Her Honour Judge Adele Williams.

The evidence bundles will be available to view by everyone in the Moot Court, including members of the audience with access to a mobile device.

The Department of Philosophy is organising its annual Philosophy Reading Weekend, which this year takes place on 23-24 February for a trip to the coast, featuring philosophical talks by fellow students, as well as walks, games, and an evening at the local pub.

This is a great opportunity to relax mid-semester and talk philosophy with other students and staff in an informal setting, spend time doing non-philosophy outdoor activities, and read or chat in the common room.

Tickets are £30. Limited places are available; for further information and to book tickets, visit the Philosophy events page

Throughout February we will be observing LGBTQ+ history, and the history of gay rights and related civil rights movement.

The University of Kent, LGBT Staff Network, Kent Union, LGBT Student Network and the Gulbenkian Theatre have brought together a range of events throughout February to celebrate and commemorate LGBTQ+ individuals and history.

Find the full programme of month-long events here.

The next Kent Q-Step pubTALK on Palliative Care – Not Just for Cancer? will be given by Professor David Oliver, Tizard Centre, on Monday 11 February.

The talk will take place from 19.00 for 19.30 at The Old Buttermarket, 39 Burgate, Canterbury CT1 2HW. Entry is free.

Palliative care is the active support of people with life threatening illness, considering all aspects of care – physical, psychological, social and spiritual. It is often associated with the care of people with advanced cancer, although when St Christopher’s Hospice was opened in 1967 by Dame Cicely Saunders, patients with other diagnoses were admitted.

Professor David Oliver’s interest has been in the development of palliative care of people with neurological disease and his research and publications have been on this developing field, particularly for people with motor neurone disease. This pubTALK will look at this area and how palliative care, in hospices, hospitals and the community, is developing to care for people with any disease.

Professor Aylish Wood and Dr Kaitlyn Regehr from the departments of Film and Media  at the School of Arts have organised an event entitled Diversity and Disruption: An Intersectional Valentine on behalf of the School of Arts’ Film, Media and Culture Research Cluster and the Identity, Politics and the Arts Research Cluster. The event will take place at the School of Arts on Thursday 14 February 2019, from 10.00 to 16.00.

Opening dialogues around the challenges diversity offers to theories and practices in visual and online cultures, this event combines short interdisciplinary and interactive workshops to provoke questions on the diversity of images, diversity in themes and the making of visual and online cultures. Taking place on 14 February, Diversity and Disruption is positioned as an alternative love event, which additionally considers connectivity, digital intimacy, intersectionality and representation in the post-digital age.

There are a variety of sessions to attend throughout the day, run by Dr Kaitlyn Regehr (Kent), Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Kent), Shiva Zarabadi (UCL), Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL), Amelia Jenkinson (Sexplain), Dr Christina Kim (Kent), Dr Sara de Bendictus (Brunel University), Mojisola Adebayo, and Dr Helen Brooks (Kent).

The available sessions include a craft workshop drawn from a Mayor of London commissioned project which explores gender and advertising,  workshops on the perception of diversity, 3D modelling as a form of communication, a Q&A session with actor and director Mojisola Adebayo, and a badge-making workshop on the subject of period poverty.

Please click on our School of Arts webpages to view a full schedule of events, and to book your free tickets for Diversity and Disruption.

Sadly, Ann Hadaway passed away on 3 January this year after a short battle with Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s.

Ann worked at the University from 1986 until she retired in 2010. She started as an Office Manager in Kent Business School and then moved to Politics and International Relations in 2000 as a Clerical Officer.

Ann was a much loved member of staff and will be sadly missed by her friends and colleagues.

Her funeral will be held on Wednesday, 30 January at 11.20 at Barham Crematorium. A wake will follow at The Castle pub, Oare. The Registry flag will stand at half mast on Wednesday in honour of Ann.

A Just Giving page has been set up in memory of Ann to support the research of the Lewy Body Society.