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.

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. Each interviewee will have an illustration done by Jadine Ingram and the interview recording and/or transcript will be archived at The Templeman Library. We will be doing interviews on campus on 5, 6 and 12 June. If you’re interested in getting involved please email lgbtqbook @kent.ac.uk, or drop us a line if you’d like to know more.

The University Music department launches its annual Summer Music Week on Friday 31 May, a nine-day festival bidding a musical farewell to the end of the academic year at the University.

Showcasing many students and staff across the University, alumni and members of the local community, the celebrations kick off this Friday night as the University Chamber Choir and Consort performs in the historic and sonorous acoustics of the Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. The festival also sees the University Big Band playing at the Deal Memorial Bandstand on Sunday 2 June; the University Rock Choir in action on Monday 3 June; a recital by University Music Scholars; the usual farewell performances from the Concert and Big Bands; the premiere of a new work exploring the meeting-point between music and science, ‘Between Worlds,’ by composer/violinst Anna Phoebe written for the Chamber Choir and String Sinfonia; all culminating with the Chorus, Orchestra and Chamber Choir in ‘Music for a Summer’s Day’ on Saturday 8 June, complete with cream tea on the Registry lawn.

Find out about all that’s coming up, including many free events, online here and download the brochure. Come and be part of a final, musical farewell!

Ann-Christine Kinzer, PhD student in German and Comparative Literature, has been awarded the 2019 Graduate School Postgraduate Researcher Prize.

In 2018, the Graduate School introduced a series of annual prizes to recognise the excellence of its postgraduate researchers and the outstanding work carried out by academic and administrative staff members in support of postgraduate research and education. Ann is one of three prize winners in 2019 and will receive her award at a ceremony on 30 May.

Ann’s PhD thesis uses a comparative methodology to investigate the phenomenon of wandering in modern European literature. Defining wandering in Kantian terms as a kind of ‘purposiveness without purpose’ – as opposed to walking, which simply seeks to move from point a to point b – it argues that the practice arose in response to the Industrial Revolution, as writers and thinkers sought ways to resist the increasing instrumentalisation of time and space.

Over the last three years, Ann has made an exceptional contribution not only to the postgraduate culture of her discipline, but also to that of her School. She has contributed to numerous conferences and an exhibition, and has also been the leading influence behind the Skepsi group of postgraduates, selecting the topics for their conferences, organising the events themselves, and editing the subsequent proceedings. She has also been an invaluable assistant for the CHASE summer school, which ran successfully last year and is being repeated this summer. Ann’s most important contribution to our research culture, however, might well be her work on our impact case studies.

Professor Ben Hutchinson, School Director of Graduate Studies (Research) and Professor of European Literature, says: “Ann’s experience in helping to organise the event is proving invaluable as we prepare things again for this summer… She has engaged closely both with the individual case study leads (in UoA26) and with the central university REF team. Her efforts have been instrumental in improving both the quantity of the data and the quality of the narratives; one of the case studies on which she worked was even distributed across the university as a model of good practice… She is in many ways a model postgraduate student – industrious, ambitious, and resourceful – and I know that numerous colleagues could give glowing references about her contributions to their own activities”.

Following on from successfully organising the exhibition ‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’, students from the Department of the History of Art have won a Kent Arts Investment Fund award from Kent County Council.

‘The Female Nude’ was organised as part of the module ‘Print Collecting and Curating’, and the funds will contribute to the costs of hosting a series events associated with the exhibition, including special talks with artist Iwona Abrams and art historian and writer Frances Borzello. In addition, the extra funding will allow us to make a more substantial acquisition for the Kent Print Collection.

Rebecca Hardy, one of the co-organisers of the exhibition, said: ‘We feel very excited and proud at obtaining this funding. The module has been a brilliant practical learning experience, allowing us to gain a wide range of skills and implementing them into the ‘real-world’. We feel confident in entering a career in the arts considering all that we have achieved with this exhibition, which has been the product of just less than four months’ work.’

Rebecca is currently completing her final year on the BA (Hons) in Art History.

‘The Female Nude: Ways of Seeing’ closes this Friday, and an online gallery from the exhibition may be seen here.