Winter Newsletter Available

It's like this, but sickly yellow.

Tube strikes and gale force storms. Syrian negotiations and the Winter Olympics. Longer school days and higher/lower rates of tax. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Satya Nadella, Kevin Pietersen.

None of these feature in this term's newsletter. Call us narrow minded, blinkered and agenda-driven, but instead we're focusing on research-related issues relating to the University of Kent. So, for instance, we've got details of the new PVC Research & Enterprise, Prof Philippe De Wilde; we've got a full listing of awards over the last three months, with a breakdown by faculty and funder; we've got updates on Eastern ARC and the REF. We've got the latest from the world of ethics and governance. We've got notes from the visit of the Director of the Leverhulme Trust.

In fact, if you haven't received your copy and read it cover to cover, you'll be woefully ill-informed. Get in touch if there isn't a garish golden glow in your pigeon hole. Alternatively, a pdf of the latest edition, together with back copies, are available on the Research Services website.

PVC's Lunchtime Seminars: 'Violent & Nonviolent Protest'

The final PVC’s Lunchtime Research Seminar of the year is a change to that originally advertised, and will focus on ‘protest’:

'Violent & Nonviolent Protest’
Wednesday 11th May 2011 12.30pm-2pm
Cornwallis NW Seminar Room 5

Recently, heroic protests, both violent and non-violent, have achieved astonishing results in some countries in the Middle East. But there have also been protestations at some kinds of protest. The front cover of a recent Private Eye shows Colonel Gaddafi saying to a sidekick ‘What news of the rebels?’, and the sidekick replying ‘They’ve invaded Fortnum and Masons’. Great figures such as Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King have advocated nonviolence, and we tend to think of nonviolent protest as noble. Why? What happens when nonviolent protest is ineffectual? Under what circumstances, if any, is violent protest justified? These are some of the issues that will be debated in this session. The convenor is Laurence Goldstein (SECL) and the other speakers are Helen Frowe (Philosophy), Adrian Pabst (PolIR) , David Radlett (KLS) and William Rowlandson (Hispanic Studies).

A light lunch is available from 12:30pm, together with tea and coffee, and the Seminar itself will start around 1pm.

All are welcome, but do let me know if you would like to come so that I can get a sense of numbers.

PVC's Lunchtime Seminars: 'Risk & Uncertainty'

The first PVC’s Lunchtime Seminar of 2010-11 will be taking place in two weeks time on Wednesday 3rd November, and will focus on 'Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty: a View from across the Sciences'.

This seminar will try to explain how quantitative subjects measure and account for uncertainty in decision making. We will look at examples from monetary policy making, environmental conservation and extinction probabilities, evaluating probability of low frequency high impact events in finance e.g. house price crashes, and how we can deal with increasing life expectancies. The speakers (Prof Jagjit Chadha (Economics) and Dr David Roberts (DICE), Prof Radu Tunaru (KBS) and Prof Paul Sweeting (SMSAS)) will provide short intuitive outlines of their work, followed by a discussion of the issues raised.

Lunch will be available from 12:30pm, and the Seminar itself will start at 1pm. All are welcome, and the event will take place in Woolf Seminar Room 5. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you intend to come along so that I can book the food.

PVC's Lunchtime Seminars 2010-11 Programme Announced

Prof John Baldock, PVC Research at Kent, has announced the Lunchtime Seminars programme for 2010-11.

As in previous years, these are an opportunity for academics from across the University to get together to hear about work happening in other Schools, to share expertise, and identify areas of common interest that might lead to future collaboration, funding and publication.

This year we have asked staff to suggest topics, and the programme reflects a diverse range of people who volunteered to host a session.

Do come along if you are able. Lunch is available from 12:30, and the Seminars themselves begin at 1pm. The format is usually one where the panel make very short presentations of their work and arguments and then discussion amongst the panel and with the audience follows. The events end just before 2.00pm. Venues will be confirmed in due course. Please contact me if you would like to attend any or all of these events.

The Pro Vice Chancellor Research
presents
Lunchtime Research Seminars 2010-11

• 3 November 2010: ‘Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty: a View from across the Sciences’, hosted by Prof Jagjit Chadha (Economics) and Dr David Roberts (DICE)
• 1 December 2010: ‘Drama and Neuroscience', hosted by Fran Barbe (Arts)
• 2 February 2011: ‘Experiences of Working with Local Charities to Support Research', hosted by Profs Darren Griffin & Bill Gullick (Biosciences)
• 9 March 2011: 'What Does It Mean to Have a Vocation? Spiritual and Secular Perspectives', hosted by Dr Philip Boobbyer (History) and Dr Stefan Rossbach (Politics)
• 6 April 2011: 'Reworking Work’, hosted by Dr Tim Strangleman (SSPSSR)
• 11 May 2011: ‘Sub-conscious Aspects of Decision Making’, hosted by Prof Laurence Goldstein (SECL)
  

PVC's Lunchtime Seminars: 'Flesh and the Body'

Patricia Debney, a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing based in the School of English, will be taking the helm for the next PVC’s Lunchtime Seminars. She will be leading a discussion on ‘Flesh and the Body’, and in particular focusing on illness and ideas of 'normality': how do we understand and negotiate them in their social, cultural, artistic and medical contexts? She will also explore notions of physical 'difference' more generally, in both its visible and invisible forms. How do society, culture and individuals understand and incorporate ‘difference’?

As always, the panel and the audience will be made up of a wide range of academics from across all faculties who will be able to input into the discussion. All are welcome, but I’d appreciate letting me know if you intend to come so we can sort out the catering.

'In Our (Lunch) Time': PVC's Lunchtime Seminars 2009-10

For this year’s Lunchtime Seminars academics themselves are being given the chance to choose the topics and the participants for each event. The academic ‘host’ for each Seminar has chosen a topic that is rooted in their research, but has the potential to be of interest to (and informed by) other disciplines.
The 2009-10 series kicks off on 4 November with a Seminar hosted by Dr Charlotte Sleigh in History. It will focus on ‘the Face of the Expert’, and will explore issues around expertise, authority and communication. Who are (and were) experts? How do they get to be experts? Can they cease to be experts? What are their relationships with lay persons? How do these relationships structure knowledge and society? And as members of academia are we experts or not?
Dr Sleigh will be inviting a panel of academics from across the University to discuss the issue, in a format similar to that used on Radio 4’s ‘In Our Time’.
All are welcome. This year the Seminar itself will be first (at 12:30) with lunch – and further informal discussion – afterwards. Please let me know if you would like to attend, so that I can arrange the catering.

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The full list of Lunchtime Seminars 2009-10 is as follows:

• 4 November 2009 (Keynes Seminar Rm 14): 'The Face of the Expert'
  Hosted by Dr Charlotte Sleigh, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science (History).
• 9 December 2009 (Senate Chamber): 'Institutions: the New Economy of Knowledge and Power’
  Hosted by Prof Jeremy Carrette, Professor of Religion & Culture (Secl).
• 27 January 2010 (Keynes Seminar Rm 17): ‘Diagnosing Genetic Diseases in IVF Embryos: Could we? Should we?’
  Hosted by Prof Darren Griffin, Professor of Genetics (Biosciences).
• 10 March 2010 (Senate Chamber): ‘Flesh and the Body’
  Hosted by Patricia Debney, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (English).
• 7 April 2010 (Senate Chamber): Topic to be confirmed
  Hosted by Prof Mike Fairhurst, Professor of Computer Vision (Engineering & Digital Arts)
• 5 May 2010 (Senate Chamber): ‘Energy Security’
  Hosted by Dr Amelia Hadfield, Lecturer in European International Relations (Politics and International Relations).
• 2 June 2009 (Senate Chamber): ‘Utopias and Social Change’
  Hosted by Prof Davina Cooper, Professor of Law and Political Theory (Kent Law School).