The University of Kent’s LGBT+ Staff Network is pleased to open the call for papers for the third annual Researching the Rainbow Conference on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 February 2019 on the Canterbury campus.

The conference, which takes part during LGBT History Month, is to showcase the vast array of excellent research being done on or related to LGBT+ people and issues, and to encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration and networking.

Previous topics have included gay and lesbian representation in the media, transgender issues within mental health care and parenting law, British colonial laws on sodomy, homosexual WWII clandestine operatives, and queer exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Papers are welcome from academics at any stage of their career, students or professionals.

Research posters from any discipline are also welcomed for display. If you would like to do a talk (15 or 30 minutes) or display a poster, please email lgbtstaffnetwork@kent.ac.uk by Friday 4 January 2019.

The conference is free and open to all.

Dear Staff and Students!

We are attempting to break a Guinness World Record for the largest display of origami hearts. We would love for you to be part of this achievement.

The heart is an anatomical and physiological symbol of health and vitality, and also of compassion. This shared project has spanned the Medway and Kent community and as each heart is simple to fold, people of all ages and backgrounds from around 35 different groups have been involved.

We are on track for our exhibition and record attempt in the spring term at The Deep End on the Medway Universities’ Campus. We are raising money for Molly McLaren Foundation and Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) too.

The record attempt will be open to the public, although it will be ticketed. Follow the record attempt here.

We have some drop in sessions starting this week, we would love you to be part of this record attempt:

Location: GKU Social Space
Dates and time: 15 November, 29 November, 6 December at 11.00-14.00

At the University’s Career Fair, graduate recruiters put communication skills top of the list. Sadly for them, about 20 per cent of graduates’ English skills are not up to scratch for the workplace.

This free practical workshop course will help you make your words count. We’ll pin down the function of different kinds of writing. We’ll identify who we’re writing for. We’ll learn about tone, content and structure. We’ll include a scattering of grammar and punctuation so you’ll avoid the worst pitfalls. We’ll examine exactly what will make an employer love your CV. Above all, we’ll write. Bring a pen and paper or a laptop and be ready to try out all kinds of writing.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Understand what writing skills employers look for
• Be ready to write clearly, accurately and effectively in a professional context
• Have a toolkit for approaching any piece of writing, from emailing the CEO to writing a press release
• Be ready to write a persuasive and effective CV

Course details:
Dates: Wednesday 14 November and Wednesday 28 November 2018
Time: 13:00-16:00
Location: This will be confirmed once you have booked your place in SDS
Cost: FREE

If you have any questions about this workshop, please feel free to contact us.

For more information, please visit the Study Plus website.

The Centre for Professional Practice cordially invites you to a free presentation on How insects are used to investigate and solve crime / Unlocking the secrets of forensic entomology by Dr Samantha Pickles.

Date: Tuesday 27 November 2018
Time: 19.00-21.00
Venue: The Ship Inn, Court Lodge Road, Gillingham ME7 2QX

Dr Samantha Pickles is an expert case investigator and works for Arrogen Forensics (incorporating Manlove Forensics where she first worked). She also has a research career in the area of myiasis.  The event is a Café Scientifique style session  on the evening of Tuesday 27 November and will be open to university and public alike as part of the Centre for Professional Practice public engagement work.

Book you free place by emailing: cppmedway@kent.ac.uk

You and your colleagues are most welcome. Please forward this invitation to your colleagues and friends.

Although it is a free event open to all we are asking for people to pre-register, so that we have an idea of numbers for seating and other logistics.

What is Dr Bike?

Get your bike checked and adjusted for free by ‘Dr Bike’. The Dr Bike service is provided by Chris and his team at ByCycle, working with the Transport Team, Estates department. Additional work will be quoted individually but will always be at a special reduced rate.

Canterbury campus:

You can find Dr Bike at the Cycle Hub by the Pavilion on Park Wood road every Wednesday during term time 08.30-15.30.

Medway Campus:

Dr Bike visits Medway campus on a monthly basis during term-time. Dr Bike will next be at Medway campus Thursday 15 November 2018. Find Dr Bike outside the Student Hub 11.30-14.30 for your free bike check-up. The service is available to University of Greenwich and University of Kent students and staff.

More information here.

The School of Politics and International Relations and the Conflict Analysis Research Centre (CARC) is delighted to invite you to the 2018 John Burton Lecture. Details on the speaker, date, times and venue can be found below.

This year’s speaker will be Professor Marie-Joëlle Zahar, Department of Political Science, University of Montreal. Marie-Joelle has written widely on the dynamics of political violence, mediation and institution building after violence across a range of cases, including Lebanon and the Balkans. Marie-Joëlle has crossed over between academia and practitioner activity in peacebuilding efforts, and from 2013-2015 served as Senior Expert on Power Sharing on the Standby Team of Mediation Experts at the UN Department of Political Affairs. The title of Marie-Joëlle’s lecture is ‘The (in)efficiency of mediation in contemporary conflicts: A question of design?’

Te details of this years John Burton Lecture are below:

‘The (in)efficiency of mediation in contemporary conflicts: A question of design?’ – Professor Marie-Joëlle Zahar, Thursday 15 November 2018 6.00 -7.30pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 2 (GLT2), University of Kent (drinks reception afterwards in Aphra Foyer).

All University staff and students and the general public are welcome to attend, no booking is necessary.

The lecture will be live streamed and can be watched by University staff and students (must have a University IT account) here.

The Pint of Science festival is an international public engagement festival taking place over 3 days each May. In 2018, nearly 300 cities globally took part. In 2019, 35 UK cities will hold ~500 events including Kent, now in its third year. Over 1000 scientists will have the opportunity to explain their research in an accessible form to the general public – mainly in bars and pubs.

The idea is to provide a platform which allows researchers to share their research with the public. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage the public with Kent research.

Call for expressions of interest

In 2019, we will again be holding Pint of Science events in Kent in three locations: Canterbury, Medway and Tonbridge. We have selected a number of pubs and are looking for expressions of interest from speakers, particularly Early Career Researchers and final year PhD students looking to develop their skills and experience in talking about their research.

If you are interested, please email us at pintofscience@kent.ac.uk with the following details by 23.59 on Sunday 13th January:

1. Your name and school
2. A summary of your research (max 100 words)
3. Your plan for an interactive session of 20-30 minutes (max 100 words)
4. An explanation of how you will make it engaging for the public audience – an important interactive component (max 100 words).

The Kent team plan to contact everyone by the end of January with the outcome.

Please direct any queries to the team at pintofscience@kent.ac.uk

Good luck!