KEELE PROJECT COMMENDED AT PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARDS

Keele's Estates team was among those shortlisted for a prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award, which were announced at a charity event at the London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane this week.

Hosted by Rory Bremner, the awards recognise the business and management skills of professional staff from estates through finance to human resources in the higher education sector. Some 111 institutions – two thirds of the entire sector – submitted more than 250 entries across 16 categories. Keele was shortlisted in the Outstanding Estates Initiative and commended for the infrastructure project on the new development site. The winner in this category was the University of Nottingham for its transformation of a brownfield factory site in to a modern, sustainable development.

Keele's submission set out the philosophy, approach, design and delivery of the onsite infrastructure for the expansion of the University and Science Park on the 70-acre site adjoining the existing campus. The development is a major driver of the project to become the 'Ultimate Campus University for the 21st Century' and the UK's leading open, integrated intellectual community.

EXPERIENCING MADNESS

An event jointly organised by the School of Humanities and the Medical School was held recently, funded by Mental Health in Higher Education, a branch of the Higher Education Academy.

More than twenty people, including consultant psychiatrists, academics specialising in public health, community psychiatric nurses and mental health service users, attended a workshop entitled 'Experiencing Madness', which focused on the ways in which the Humanities can enhance understanding of mental illness.

Participants, who came from as far afield as Dublin, enjoyed sessions on literature (run by Professor Susan Bruce), on the history of medicine (offered by Dr Alannah Tomkins) and on film (run by Dr Lisetta Lovett), as well as a stimulating presentation on the ethical role of narrative discourse by the visiting speaker, Disability Studies specialist Dr Lucy Burke, from Manchester Metropolitan University.   It is hoped that this will be the first of many such workshops.  A new MRes in Medical Humanities will begin in September of this year: anyone interested in that new degree programme can get further information by contacting Dr Tomkins (a.e.tomkins@keele.ac.uk) or Dr Lovett (l.lovett@hfac.keele.ac.uk).

THIRD ESRC SEMINAR SERIES AWARD

Dr Steve French, Research Institute for Public Policy and Management, has been successful in leading a bid to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a seminar series on 'the impact of migrant workers on the functioning of labour markets and industrial relations'.
 
The seminar series grant, worth £17,000, is the third for Keele and will fund six seminars across the country over two years. The focus of the series will be upon examining specific economic sectors such as construction and hospitality and themes such as migration and recession, health and safety, undocumented workers and trade union organising.

The seminars will also include discussion of methodological problems facing the study of migrant workers, drawing upon a range of (inter)disciplinary approaches.

It is intended that the series will establish a network of academic researchers and practitioners that will examine the latest research into migration and consider new methodological and theoretical approaches to address current weaknesses in existing research.

LITTER PICK FOR KEELE VOLUNTEERS

VE @ Keele volunteers worked together with CFM Estates to undertake a litter pick in Keele woods last week and collected a substantial amount of litter and rubbish from just a small section of the woodland area known as the lower campus walk around lake five. Amongst the litter collected were a large amount of cans, bottles, broken glass, plastic bags, cigarette packets and metal bottle tops.

Recently work has been undertaken on Keele's woodland areas to enhance the landscape and enable better accessibility, and it is disappointing that litter in the area is spoiling the environment and causing a real danger to wildlife.

If you would like to take part in future litter picks and Keele woodlands projects, please contact Becky Wardell at VE @ Keele at volunteering@kusu.keele.ac.uk

SHORT STORY COMPETITION WINNERS

Budding authors who took part in a new short story competition organised by Keele were presented with their prizes this week.

Prizes were up for grabs for short stories of up to 2,500 words and micro-stories of up to 250 words, as well as a school prize and a student prize. The competition was open to anyone living in Staffordshire, Cheshire or Shropshire and there were more than 300 entries.

The student prize went to  by Christopher Prendergast, of Keele, for his story 'Sunset'; the winner of the overall first prize of £300 was  Melissa Darlington, from Crewe, for her story 'Far from Us' and the schools' prize (young writers) went to Hannah Stubbs, of Stafford. The micro story winner was Rebecca Smith from Keele. The prizes were presented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, who praised the high standard of entries.
  
There were readings from the winning entries and a booklet containing the winning entries was available.

The picture shows Student Prize winner, Christopher Prendergast, receiving his award from Mark Hodgkinson, of Audley Removals, who sponsored the prize, Denise Hodgkinson and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

LECTURE ON ANNE FRANK'S DIARY

Keelelink, the University's School and College partnership programme, today hosted the fourth in a series of Children's Conferences on behalf of the Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning Division. More than 140 local young people were marking the 80th anniversary of Anne Frank's birth by attending a number of guest lectures and activities delving into her experiences and her famous diary.

Holocaust survivor, Susan Pollock, who delivered a talk, said: "I could have been stood next to Anne Frank, I wouldn't have known, we were numbers. Because I was there, I speak for those who can't, for the ones who died."

Dr Kate Cushing gave a lecture on Anne's Diary and the importance of it as an historical document, recounting the experiences of just one of the 11 million people who died during Hitler's Holocaust.  Events coordinator Charlotte Greenwood said: "I believe wholly in the importance of providing our youngsters with an opportunity to better their understanding of our history, hearing Susan will give the students that unique chance to see history brought to life."

BLOOMIN' MARVELLOUS

Keele hosted the prize-giving event for the local Britain in Bloom painting competition, with artists aged four to 15 being recognised for their creative prowess in this year's competition organised by Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council.

After enjoying a special tea, including pizza, chicken drumsticks, curly fries and sandwiches, followed by jellied fruit and cream, a total of 58 youngsters from across the borough received prizes and certificates from Newcastle Mayor, Marion Reddish, at a ceremony in the Chancellor's Building. The competition attracted 821 paintings from 28 schools.

TIMES GOOD UNIVERSITY GUIDE

Keele was placed 42nd in the Times Good University 2010, which was published last week.

The guide, which includes 114 institutions, looks at eight criteria, from student satisfaction to research quality and degree results.

In the subject tables Keele is placed 6th for Maths, 13th for Social Work, 13th  for Social Policy, 17th for American Studies and 19th for Medicine.

DISCUSSING UK POLICY ISSUES

Professor Costas Milas, Keele Management School, received a personal invitation from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to take part in the Monetary Policy Roundtable at the Bank of England on Monday. The aim of the event was to discuss current UK policy issues and the best way out of the ongoing recession.

MAKING RESEARCH COUNT

The national Making Research Count network, of which Keele is a partner, has been successful in gaining  a three- year contract from the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to provide mentoring for practitioner research projects. This follows on from a successful one-year contract in which Keele provided direct support for four regional projects.

CWDC are currently commissioning up to 60 Practitioner- Led research projects to explore existing and developing practice, and are inviting applications from people working with children and younger people.

RESEARCH GRANTS

Dr Sarah L. Taylor, Lecturer in Ecology from the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has been awarded £1,400 by the Royal Society to chair a session and give an oral presentation at the North American Forest Ecology Workshop at Utah in June 2009.

The talk, entitled "legacy of insect defoliators: increased wind-related mortality two decades after a spruce budworm outbreak", is based on an upcoming Forest Science publication that has been selected as a "research showcase" by the Journal of Forestry. This trip will help to maintain active research links with the North American forest ecology community following her recent appointment as Honorary Research Associate of the University of New Brunswick, Canada, in May.

First year PhD student Patricia Wood, of the Astrophysics group and also a member of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) group, has been awarded a £1,440 grant from the conference organisers to attend the Sagan workshop on exoplanetary atmospheres at Caltech, USA on 20-24 July 2009.

Last week she travelled to Chile to the VLT (very large telescope) for two nights of observing spectra of the planet WASP-17b.

FIRST BOOK FOR TOM

Keele staff member Tom Fallows, an assistant at the Health Library, has recently had his first book published. The book, co-authored by Curtis Owen, deals with the work of filmmaker George A. Romero, the horror auteur responsible for such classics as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.

The George A. Romero Pocket Essential (2008) offers both a historical and contextual analysis of Romero's work, cross referencing the strengths and weaknesses of each film with Romero's ever-present socio-political commentary. It is ideal for genre fans and students studying film and film production.

CIMA LONG SERVICE AWARD

Geoff Heath, Keele Management School, has been awarded a CIMA plaque for long service to the local branch of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

He is currently the treasurer of the North West Midlands branch, having been previously branch President, secretary and careers and education officer.

The award was made at a reception prior to the branch's annual dinner-dance, which took place at Keele Hall.