SOCIO-LEGAL STUDIES PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP
 Keele
Law Lecturer Marie-Andrée Jacob has been awarded the 2010 Socio-Legal
Studies Association Article Prize for her article, "The shared history:
unknotting fictive kinship and legal process" (2009) 43 Law and Society
Review 95–126.
The SLSA article prize is awarded for the most
outstanding piece of socio-legal scholarship published in the award
year. She will receive her prize at the SLSA annual conference in
Bristol and take part in an author-meets-reader session at the
conference.
Marie is generally interested in how law, experts
and society interact in generating controversies and consensus on
issues pertaining to modern medicine. Her research and teaching
interests include: legal ethnography; kinship, bureaucracies, gift and
exchange; law, society and medicine. |
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KEELE AFRICAN STUDIES GROUP
 Staff
and students from various disciplines across the University, including
history, law, sociology, anthropology and economics, who are actively
engaged in research in/on Africa, have formed the Keele African Studies
Group, an interdisciplinary network of researchers:.
Collectively
their research interests examine the social history of religion in
Africa and African Christianity, colonial knowledge production, the
cultural, political, and social history of labour migration in central
and southern Africa, land reform, education and socio-legal status in
East Africa, West African witchcraft, gender and HIV in southern
Africa, finance and development, water and poverty in developing
countries, and other aspects of class, generation, ethnicity and race
across the continent in the colonial and post-colonial contexts.
Zoe Groves, a research student in African History,
said: "The aim is to promote African Studies and encourage
inter-disciplinary research. The group hopes to provide a supportive
and stimulating forum to discuss works in progress and other relevant
issues to Africanists. We welcome participation from anyone at the
University who might be interested."
The pictures shows some of the people Zoe met while conducting interviews in a village during a visit to Malawi. |
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MAKING RESEARCH COUNT
Making Research Count at the Research Institute of
Life Course Studies launched its 2010 series of events with a
presentation by Professor Richard Pugh, of the School of Public Policy
and Professional Practice.
The half day seminar entitled 'Problems and
Possibilities in Rural Practice' took place in Shrewsbury and provided
Social Work practitioners and managers with current information from
research relating to the challenges faced by Social Work staff living
and working in the communities they serve. The interactive session
addressed concepts of confidentiality, objectivity and neutrality and
provoked a lively and informed response from an audience comprised of
rural practitioners from our partner agencies in Shropshire,
Staffordshire and Cheshire. |
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MEDICAL INSTITUTE RESEARCH GRANT
 Dr
Paul Horrocks, Research Institute for Science, and
Technology in Medicine, pictured, and Professor Steve Allin,
Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and
Applied Mathematics, have been awarded £7,100 by the North
Staffordshire Medical Institute for a two year project entitled
"Synthesis and evaluation of buchtienine as a novel antimalarial
agent".
This multidisciplinary medicinal chemistry project
initially aims to provide a synthetic route to an alkaloid metabolite
with known anitparasitic properties from the Malaysian medicinal plant
Kopsia griffithii. Molecules synthesised in the chemistry laboratory
will then be evaluated for their ability to kill Plasmodium falciparum,
the aetiological agent of the most severe form of human malaria. As
well as initiating a trial of a much needed novel class of therapeutic
reagent for malarial parasites, this project offers support for a PhD
student in cross-disciplinary training in synthetic chemistry and life
sciences. |
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UNIVERSITY USERS GUIDE
 Keelelink,
the University's School and College Partnership Programme, hosted a
university skills transition event, entitled "University: A User's
Guide". The conference was co-ordinated for learners at Keelelink
schools and colleges by the Widening Participation and Lifelong
Learning Division.
The course was aimed at year 12 learners who are
applying to university and was designed to give learners the
opportunity to interact with academic staff, students and have a
genuine university experience.
The course was built around the learners' subject
interests and included a lecture on Climate Change and Sustainability
by Dr Zoe Robinson. Other aspects of the course included a session on
'surviving' lectures, which covered personal organisation, listening
skills and note taking, a session on seminar skills and library skills. |
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MEDICAL ACADEMIC FORUM MEETING
The Medical Academic Forum (MAF) held its February
meeting at Keele Hall last week. The meeting was well attended
and included presentations from Professor Gordon Ferns, Dr Alwyn
Ralphs, Professor Peter Crome, Mr Robert Kirby, Professor Valerie Wass
and Professor Peter Croft. Topics covered included the research
strategies for the two Medical School research institutes, the future
of health services research, medical postgraduate degrees, the life
research work of a medical professor, the new UGMS curriculum and
assessment in medical training. The meeting was followed by a
formal dinner, the first annual Medical Academic Forum Dinner, in the
Old Library.
MAF was established in 2009 to promote
collaboration, networking and information sharing between those
interested in clinical training and research from Keele University,
local NHS Trusts and the North Staffordshire Medical Institute. |
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PAPER AT EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE WORKSHOP
Dr Robert Ladrech, School of Politics, International Relations and
Philosophy (SPIRE), was invited to present a paper at a workshop hosted
by the Centre for European Governance at the University of Exeter last
week.
His paper, 'Defining Causality and Mechanisms of Chane in Party
Europeanisation Research', was discussed among participants from
universities in the UK as well as Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France
and Denmark. |
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KEELE ACADEMIC DEBATES LOCAL CUTS
Dr Philip Catney, a member of the Keele European Parties Research
Unit (SPIRE/ Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice),
participated in a BBC Radio Stoke debate on the impact of funding cuts
and job losses in the North Staffordshire region.
With projected job losses in Stoke-on-Trent City Council of over
1,000 (almost a quarter of its total staff) over the next few years,
Philip gave an overview of the factors that led to the current
financial crisis in local government funding, where the cuts will
possibly be felt deepest and debated alternative ways forward for local
authorities in the future, with a senior officer from Stoke-on-Trent
City Council and a representative from the trade union Unison.
NEW ISSUE OF PILGRIMAGES
The second issue of Pilgrimages: The Journal of Dorothy Richardson Studies, an e-journal edited and published in the School of Humanities has been published.
Edited by Professor Scott McCracken, English, Pilgrimages: A Journal of Dorothy Richardson Studies, Number 2 (2009), includes articles by Deborah Longworth, Bryony Randall, Juliet Yates, Rebecca Bowler and Joanne Winning.
NEW ACADEMIC STARTER
The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:
School of Pharmacy
Mrs Amanda Lovatt, Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, who was previously
an Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner - Cardiac Services, at the
University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
9 March 1977
A tree-planting scheme is to be launched to commemorate the
contribution to the life of Keele and the local community of Mrs
Katrina Hill, wife of Eric Hill, of the Classics Department, who died
recently.
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