PORTRAIT HUNG IN KEELE HALL

A portrait of the retiring Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch, unveiled at a cocktail party for staff last week, has been hung in Keele Hall.

The painting, by Stafford artist David Gleeson, is now included in a gallery of portraits of former Vice-Chancellors in Keele Hall.

Unveiling the painting at the cocktail party, attended by staff from across the University, members of Council and some former staff, the Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council, Ian Dudson, thanked the Vice-Chancellor for her service to the University and presented her with a print of the picture for herself.

The Vice-Chancellor, who retires today after 15 years at Keele, said she was delighted with the painting.

PROMOTION TO SENIOR LECTURESHIP

The Academic Promotions Committee has made the following promotion which is, as always, subject to the formal ratification of Senate and Council.

Tsachi Keren-Paz (Law)

Tsachi Keren-Paz has been promoted on the basis of excellence in Research and Enterprise, and Learning and Teaching.  Dr Keren-Paz works substantially in the field of private law theory. His 2007 book Torts, Egalitarianism and Distributive Justice is widely regarded as an extensive and groundbreaking theoretical defence of egalitarian tort law. He is also the author of fourteen articles in peer-reviewed journals (including the prestigious Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, and McGill Law Journal) and three contributions to edited collections.  In line with Dr Keren-Paz's notable research and publication achievements, he has made a distinctive contribution to the Law School's teaching. In addition to his contributions in the area of tort law (where he has designed an innovative new third-year elective, Critical Torts), he has contributed to the work of both the Contract and Medical Ethics and Law teaching teams.

NEW PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF GERONTOLOGY

Professor Miriam Bernard, Director of Keele's Centre for Social Gerontology, has taken up the role of President of the British Society of Gerontology, following the Society's 39th annual conference at Brunel University. Mim will lead the Society's work for the next two years.

The Society is now working to a five-year strategy under the title 'Raising the Profile of Ageing Research' and, whilst President-elect, Mim, pictured, was able to help develop and begin to see the strategy take shape. As part of the strategy, the BSG invited the Academy of Social Sciences and AgeUK to jointly produce an 'impact brochure' about ageing research. Launched last week in the House of Commons, copies of the 22-page booklet will be going to all MPs, as well as individuals and organisations addressing the challenges of our ageing society.

The conclusion of Mim's term of office will coincide with the Centre for Social Gerontology hosting the 41st annual BSG conference at Keele in 2012 - the fourth time the Keele team has hosted the conference. It will also be the 25th anniversary of the Centre for Social Gerontology; the conclusion of the national New Dynamics of Ageing Programme (under which Keele has two major research projects), and the 40th anniversary of the Beth Johnson Foundation, with whom members of the Centre have worked closely for many years. In addition, 2012 is to be designated 'European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity'.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON AGEING SOCIETIES
 
Professor Chris Phillipson has published (with Dale Dannefer of Case Western Reserve University) the Sage Handbook of Social Gerontology. The Handbook contains 50 chapters written by leading researchers in the field of ageing. The volume reflects the emergence of ageing as a global concern, with contributions drawn from Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America. The focus of the book concerns the social, economic, cultural and political challenges associated with ageing populations.

A major concern of the Handbook is to demonstrate the variety of experiences and responses to demographic change, and the implications of these for public policy. Contributors illustrate this by examining the impact of ageing on individuals, the communities in which they live and upon major social institutions.
 
The Handbook identifies new areas for research and policy development in the field of ageing, with extensive discussions around issues such as technology and ageing, ageing in urban environments, prospects for long-term care, and ethical issues in the care of older people. The Handbook will be launched next month at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Atlanta.

RAVEL'S PARIS WITH BARBARA KELLY

Professor Barbara Kelly, Music, has been invited to present a Radio 3 feature on Ravel during the Prom interval on Monday (2 August).  She was asked to design and present a programme on Ravel linked to Parisian places associated with the composer.  The programme consists of a tour of the 9th arrondissement, where Ravel lived for much or his childhood, where he attended the conservatoire, met Satie and stayed in the post-WW1 period.

Professor Kelly, pictured, carries out interviews in significant locations, beginning at the apartment of the pianist Roy Howat. They look at Ravel's first Parisian home, where Ravel moved at the age of three months.  She then interviews the renowned pianist Anne Queffelec in the concert hall of the old Conservatoire, before meeting the musicologist, Franҫois de Médicis at the Auberge du Clou, one of Ravel's haunts, where Satie played piano from 1891 and he met Debussy in 1893.  The final stop is at the Hôtel d'Athènes, where Ravel stayed whenever he was in Paris after the war.

 "Ravel's Paris" grows out of Professor Kelly's extensive research on Ravel, in particular, out of her publications on place and heritage in Ravel's work, his relationship to the avant-garde and his post-WW1 status.  The programme has a dual Keele connection in that the producer, Andy King, graduated from Keele in Electronic Music and Computer Science in 1997. The Proms concert starts at 7.30pm.

PLANET EARTH FEATURE

Research by Keele scientist Dr Falko Drijfhout, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, with Dr Stephen Martin of Sheffield University, was featured on the front page of the National Environment Research Council's online magazine, "Planet Earth".

Their work, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showed that it appears that the presence of parasites makes host ants better at recognising their own nest-mates, through the production of a greater number of 'chemical cues' (hydrocarbons), which vary in number and proportion between colonies but remain stable within colonies.

Ants can detect very small chemical differences, so ants from 'out of town' just don't 'smell' the same. Like cuckoos, some ants like to get others to bring up their young. Parasitic wood ants are particularly fond of replacing a host colony's queen with their own, so the host ants rear the parasitic young and are eventually replaced by them. So, having a diverse armoury of the chemical signals helps hosts to defend themselves against the parasites.

BLOOD, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE

Dr Beth Johnson, Lecturer in Film and English Studies, has returned from London where she was interviewed for a new film documentary on the 'Video Nasty Debate', called 'Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape', in association with Film4 and 'Frightfest'.

The world premiere of the film will be at The Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London on Monday, 30 August.  From director Jake West and producer Marc Morris, the documentary charts the Video Nasties phenomenon and sheds light on one of the most important and scandalous eras in British film history.

It takes in the explosion of home video, the erosion of civil liberties, the introduction of draconian censorship measures, hysterical press campaigns and the birth of many careers born in blood, lies and videotape, and also reflects on the influence this epoch still exerts on us today.

WIDENING PARTICIPATION

The Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning events team have rounded off another successful academic year of on-campus events for young people.  Following a three week residential period, when learners stayed on campus for up to three days, there were four major events last week. A magical mystery tour rolled onto campus with Year 7 students playing educational games and investigating campus, and a Uniworld 2010 event welcomed more than 200 Year 8 students from Stoke-on-Trent schools. There was a Sustainable Energy conference for 120 Year 9s and a Girls into Science event, where 75 young female learners tried forensics and examining mosquitoes. All events were supported by a team of Keele undergraduate mentors. The events team would like to thank all Keele colleagues for the time and effort they have invested over this last academic year. 

FROM THE ARCHIVES

24 July 1964

The University's intake of local day students is set to rise to 100 over the next four years. In a speech to the North Staffs Chamber of Commerce, Vice-Chancellor, Dr Harold Taylor, said he was "deeply grateful" for the support from the local community and hoped it would continue.