LEAD AUTHOR ON GREEN MANIFESTO

Professor Andrew Dobson, School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy and the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, was the lead author on the Green Party's General Election Manifesto launched yesterday in Brighton.
 
The manifesto contains policies on jobs, equality, and trade union rights, and it steers away from the view that Greens are single-issue environmentalists.

Professor Dobson, pictured, said: "There has never been a Green MP but the party have a real chance in constituencies in Norwich, Lewisham and Brighton. Party leader Caroline Lucas heads the polls in Brighton Pavilion, so look out for a historic result there on 6 May."

UNDERSTANDING THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES

A group of PGCE History course students have visited Arran to develop an understanding of the constructed nature of the history of the islanders during the Highland Clearances. They were joined by Reveal Theatre, the Theatre Company in Residence and Maria Whatton, a story teller.

Author Alison Prince, of 'Trumpton' fame, who is now a writer of teenage fiction, visited the project and commented: "I joined a group of tutors who had brought 16 PGCE students from Keele to look at the way traditional story-telling could express human experience. Both staff and students wore blue sweatshirts lettered with the question, 'What's the point?' It was not a cynical inquiry, but a reminder to budding teachers that whatever they offer to their pupils has to have a real purpose. The students braved blizzards and icy winds to explore ruined clachans and sense for themselves the results of the Clearances."

KEELE HOSTS NATIONAL CONFERENCE

The Chancellor's Building complex was the venue for this year's Institute of Transactional Analysis (ITA) conference. The three-day event, which included about 60 workshops, attracted 250 delegates.

The ITA is the professional body and member organisation of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy that sets standards of competence for qualified and training transactional analysts. The Institute returned to Keele after a year's break and took the opportunity to utilise Keele's conference management service, which managed the delegates' bookings and assisted with the registration and delegate packs.

RESEARCH GRANTS

Dr Katie Szkornik, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has been awarded a Royal Society grant of £14,960 for a project titled "Holocene sea-level change in the Dyfi Estuary, west Wales".

Professor Mim Bernard, Research Institute for Life Course studies, with Professor Tom Scharf and Emma Head, has been awarded grants totalling £12,000 by Manchester City Council and the Beth Johnson Foundation for a project titled "Reconnecting the disconnected: Implementing Manchester City Council's strategic plan for developing intergenerational practice".

Dr Paul Horrocks, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, with Professor Steve Allin, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has been awarded £7,100 by the North Staffs Medical Institute for a project titled "Synthesis and evaluation of Buchtienine as a novel antimalarial agent".

BODY DONOR PROGRAMMES

Mike Mahon, Director of Anatomy, and Paul Clews, Anatomy Manager at Keele, attended a workshop in London called "The 21st Century Dissecting Room".

Mike, one of the co-organisers and an advisor to the Human Tissue Authority, presented a review and led a discussion on UK Body Donor Programmes for Anatomy.