SECL are delighted to announce the opening of the exhibition for the Eastern Academic Research Consortium (Eastern ARC) project, ‘Dust to Dust: Redesigning Urban Life in Healthy Soils‘. The project took the form of an urban design competition in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which include zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. Held in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, the exhibition will showcase winning proposals from the competition that took place earlier this year.

Currently 98% of cultivable land on earth is being farmed and two thirds of the world’s soils are suffering degradation. The continued encroachment onto, and transformation of, soils resulting from urban sprawl will significantly impact the sustainability and resilience of urban life. Ideas were invited for urban designs, planning approaches, and tangible interventions that could be implemented in real-life cases of urban planning and development with successful designs promoting a close relationship between urban life and soil ecosystem services.

Six teams were selected and took part in a charrette at The Prince’s Foundation in London to cross-fertilise ideas and refine designs to prepare museum exhibits. Teams comprised people from various countries, taking on cases from cities in Europe and the Americas. These teams included representatives from NGOs, city government, design and engineering firms, consultancy, and academics.

The project was organised by Dr Benjamin Vis, Eastern ARC Research Fellow (Digital Humanities) in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies. Dr Vis said of the project: ‘This exhibition goes beyond simply learning from the past. It is fantastic to see how cross-disciplinary engagement with the archaeology of tropical Maya cities has highlighted a relationship between soil health and urban life that can be translated into sustainable improvements through contemporary urban design.’

The exhibition takes place from 30 November 2018 – 17 February 2019 at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia. There will be a formal opening on Friday 30 November; for details of this event, email secl@kent.ac.uk.

The Medway Collaborative Projects Initiative provides funding for staff of the three Universities at Medway to collaborate on projects that will benefit all Medway students.

A total project fund of £2000 is available. Individuals or teams from the three universities and their partner colleges can apply for amounts up to this maximum to support collaborative projects that aim to enhance the experience of students at Medway and beyond. It is anticipated that individual project applications will normally be in the region of £500 – £1000.

The submission deadline for applications is Friday 1st February 2019.

Please see here for the guidelines for applicants and the application form.

A two-month visit to Kent Law School proved “crucial” for doctoral legal scholar Natalia Torres Zuniga who found the exposure to critical theory and socio-legal studies to be pivotal for the development of her thesis.

Natalia spent two months at Kent as a PhD Visiting Student. Originally from Peru, Natalia is studying her PhD at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo.

Natalia said: ‘The period in Kent was crucial for my thesis. This is the first time that I have been in real contact with academics working with critical theory and socio-legal studies. During my stay, I attended the PhD study group and discovered new literature and new topics of interest. Participating in the Marxist reading group was also a great experience because I realised that “academia” at Kent means plurality. Here I could see that there is a joint dialogue driven by academics using different critical approaches, regardless of the differences in their thought.’

To help tackle the internal structure of her thesis, Natalia prepared an abstract comprising the core elements of the project. This became a route map for writing her final draft and the two chapters that she wrote at Kent were well received by her supervisors in Oslo.

Natalia also enjoyed the diversity of the student body at Kent, meeting PhD students from Zimbabwe, Bulgaria, Thailand, Russia, Australia, Israel and the USA among others: ‘I am impressed by their research topics and I am looking forward to seeing their contributions in the future.’

Natalia has now returned to Oslo and hopes to complete her thesis in February 2019. She has no hesitation in recommending Kent to other PhD scholars and hopes to return to be able to present the outcome of her research.

Dr Edward Kanterian, Reader in Department of Philosophy, has had his latest monograph ‘Kant, God and metaphysics: the secret thorn’ (Abingdon, Routledge, 2017) reviewed by The British Journal for the History of Philosophy.

‘In Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn, [Edward Kanterian] examines Kant’s early work, up to around 1770, to demonstrate that Kant was firmly embedded in the eighteenth century, and especially in the German, broadly Protestant, philosophy of that age” the review states, “Kanterian challenges the common assumption that Kant is closer to us than to his own age’.

Todd Mei, Head of the Department of Philosophy, writes: ‘I have always had the suspicion that the intriguing yet problematic role of God in Kant’s philosophy is tied up with how Kant’s metaphysics can be understood as either dualistic or not. Edward’s book is a hugely significant achievement in the area of Kant scholarship, and what I find most impressive is his ability to engage with both the analytic and continental traditions of philosophy. What more could you ask for when investigating the thought of a monumental figure in the history of philosophy?’

The full review is available via Taylor & Francis online.

The Centre for English and World Languages (CEWL) is offering Individual Speaking Tutorials to give you the opportunity to to refine your spoken accuracy, fluency and pronunciation for seminars and presentations with an academic member of staff, who will give you advice and feedback on your speaking.

Individual sessions last 45 minutes each.and are free of charge.

To make an appointment, please email us at cewl@kent.ac.uk

The Centre for English and World Languages (CEWL) is offering Individual Writing Tutorials to give you the opportunity to discuss your academic writing with a member of staff from CEWL. Advice will be given on your language and the structure, coherence and cohesion of your work. Individual sessions last 20-30 minutes each and are free of charge.

Tutorials are available all year. To make an appointment, please email us at cewl@kent.ac.uk

Please note that this is not a proof-eading service.

Learning and Organisational Development’s full catalogue of courses is now viewable via Staff Connect. We still have places available on our Leading and Managing through Change training session, running on the 7th December, 9.30am-4.30pm.  Please use Staff Connect to see further information and to book a place.

We are running a number of drop in sessions to demonstrate the training and appraisal modules, and dates can be found on our website.

Colleagues are invited to attend a super-book launch, co-hosted by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) and the Visual and Sensory Research Cluster, on Monday 26 November,15.00-18.00 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.

The event brings together five Kent authors, who will collaboratively introduce their newly published books. The five authors will offer brief reflections about the arguments and insights of their books and discuss questions from an open audience.

The event aims to celebrate the contribution of CSHE, CER and the Visual and Sensory Research Cluster (based at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research) to emerging research across theory and practice.

See the event programme here.

Please confirm your attendance by completing the online booking form.