LAW GRADUATE OF THE YEAR

Law Graduate, Sophie Lake, has been awarded the 2010 Graduate 100 Law Graduate of the Year award.  Graduate 100 is an initiative, developed with leading employers and industry figures, that profiles and promotes Britain's highest achieving final and penultimate year students. Sophie has a training contract with DLA Piper to begin in 2011 and starts at the College of Law, Birmingham this month.

Sophie, who received her award, sponsored by Eversheds, at a ceremony in London, said: "Throughout my time at Keele I have been encouraged not only to get the most out of my subjects, but also to take a wider perspective on life and the world in general. All my lecturers gave me great support and inspiration. Without them I would not have been able to achieve a First Class Honours Degree in Law with Politics and certainly would not have achieved British Law Graduate of the Year 2010. I enjoyed every moment of my three years at Keele and I am sad that my time there has come to an end. However, the foundation that my experience at Keele has given me is invaluable and will stay with me throughout my career."

LANGUAGE LEARNING UNIT LAUNCH

Keele's new Language Learning Unit (LLU) was officially launched this week with a lunchtime event hosted by Professor David Shepherd, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. The LLU, located in Chancellor's Building B, brings together modern foreign languages and English (ELU) language tuition, resources and support.

Professor Shepherd, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, and the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Student Experience, Professor Marilyn Andrews, highlighted the importance of English and foreign language learning and support as integral to Keele's strategy of internationalisation and enhanced student experience. The Head of the LLU, Ms Martina Wallner, outlined the activities and services offered to students and staff by the LLU, both by modern foreign languages staff and the English Language Unit.

Further information and contact details can be found on the LLU web pages at http://www.keele.ac.uk/llu/

INTERNATIONAL PROTEIN STRUCTURE WORKSHOP AT KEELE

An international workshop focusing on protein structure and function and qualitative protein crystallography has been held at Keele.

The workshop, An essential guide to 3-dimensional protein structure and its determination, was attended by researchers from The Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Norway and Germany, as well as staff and postgraduate students from diverse research areas within the research institutes for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) and the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics.

It was organised by Dr Annette Shrive, Professor Trevor Greenhough and Professor Dave Hoole, in ISTM, as part of the Marie Curie ITN NEMO project, funded by the European Commission.

The workshop provided a practical working knowledge of many of the techniques of protein structure determination, along with an appreciation of how our understanding of biological function and the molecular basis of disease is enhanced and underpinned by detailed structural information.

TALKS IN U.S. ON LATEST BOOK

Professor Oliver Harris, American Studies, combined a research trip to New York with giving talks and interviews in New York and Philadelphia in relation to his latest book publication, the 25th anniversary edition of William Burroughs' early novel, Queer. In Philadelphia, he gave a talk, entitled "Sawing William Burroughs in Half: the Origins of Naked Lunch", to graduate students and faculty at Temple University, and as part of Columbia University's prestigious Book Colloquium series, he delivered a paper entitled "'Confusion's Masterpiece': Re-editing William Burroughs' First Trilogy," taking questions chaired by Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the celebrated Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Also while in New York, Professor Harris co-taught a class with the Jack Kerouac scholar, Regina Weinreich, at the School of Visual Arts, and gave interviews to Penguin Books and the Columbia University radio station, WKCR. The English edition of Professor Harris' edition of Queer will be published by Penguin UK this November.

MOTHERHOODS, MARKETS AND CONSUMPTION

The final seminar of the ESRC-funded seminar series Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption took place at Oxford's Said Business School last week on the theme of Intergenerational Perspectives: Mothers, Daughters, and the Feminine/Feminist. Dr Lydia Martens, Sociology, who has convened the seminar series, reports that the programme, which was organised by Professor Linda Scott and colleagues at Oxford, truly put into practice the aims of the series to develop multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural communication and engagement.

With speakers from across the social sciences, arts and humanities, the day addressed the intergenerational dimension of mothers and daughters, metaphorically, through the juxtaposition between the feminine and feminist subjects. Self-fashioning (the body, fashion, in comic books and photography) arose as a theme of tension between the feminine and feminist, mothers and daughters. One of the interesting aspects of this seminar was the age-diversity of the audience. Sixty participants signed up and the subject matter had drawn in the young, the old, and those in between. The seminar series was followed by a Postgraduate Colloquium, which offered postgraduate research students an opportunity to discuss their developing research. Altogether, these were an excellent set of days and a superb end to the discussions.

Work on Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption is set to continue in the future, with various writing projects and impact work in development. The website of the series will be reshaped to serve as a resource and archive for users in the coming months. Further details of the seminars, its speakers and organisers may be found at http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/mmc/index.htm.

FESTIVAL SUMMER FOR MAKEITMOLECULAR

The makeitmolecular team have had a busy summer.  Undergraduate intern, Scott Sneddon, with the help of Widening Participation, organised for the molecules trail and the makeitmolecular tent to be at the Greenman Festival in the Brecon Beacons.  Dr Graeme Jones then teamed up with chemistry sixth formers from St Joseph's College, Trent Vale, to attend Trentham Gardens' autumn Garden Festival.  Finally, the team attended the British Science Festival in Birmingham last weekend and as a result they have been invited to attend the 2011 Orkney International Science Festival.

If you want to see pictures of people with their molecules then go to the new Flickr site  http://www.flickr.com/photos/makeitmolecular.  If you know of any forthcoming events which you think would benefit from a makeitmolecular stand then please contact the team.

FENCING CLUB  EN GARDE FOR SHAKESPEARE 

Members of Keele's fencing club have been training the Trentham Shakespeare Company in the art of sword-fighting ahead of their production of Romeo and Juliet. For the past eight weeks, students have worked with cast members to ensure safe and realistic on-stage fights.

In return for the tuition, the Trentham Shakespeare Company has made a donation to the fencing club's chosen charity, the North Staffs Special Adventure Playground.

Emma Speers, of Keele Fencing Club, said: "This has been a great opportunity to forge lasting ties with the community, while representing the University, the Athletic Union and fencing itself, while raising awareness of the North Staffs Special Adventure Playground."

The production will be staged at the Repertory Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, from October 19 to 23.

KEELE CONFERENCES ORGANISE SOUTHAMPTON CONFERENCE

Keele's Conference Management Team has organised and administered a major national conference, which ran at the University of Southampton last week.

The team, Sharon Faulke, Lois Henney and Emma Woodcock, arranged the Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference from Keele and then administered the event at the University of Southampton.  The Conference Management Service organised delegate bookings, including financial management; exhibition management and gained sponsorship for the conference from a number of publishers, and provided on site registration and event support for the conference, which had the theme The Human Rights Act Ten Years On.

KEELE'S ILM CENTRE RE-ACCREDITED

The Centre for Professional Staff Development has been re-accredited to continue running Institute of Leadership and Management programmes. Re-accreditation is mandatory every four years to ensure the highest quality of programme delivery and assessment procedures.

The accreditation involved an extensive assessment of Keele's staff development and HR policies and practices, together with detailed analysis of all ILM programmes staged by the Centre. Re-accreditation was gained without being subject to any action points.

In the coming academic year the Centre will be staging ILM programmes at Level 2 in Team Leading and Level 3 in Leadership and Management, together with a new  leadership programme in Leading Professionals, which will carry the Institute's highest grade of Endorsed Programme. More information concerning this programme will be made available to staff later this month. A Level 3 programme in Workplace Coaching is being considered for next year. Last year 42 members of staff gained ILM awards through attending programmes staged by the Centre.

During a recent visit to the Centre, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, said effective leadership and management would be fundamental to the success of Keele's strategic plan during the difficult times ahead. Professor Foskett will be delivering a session on Leadership in Context during the Leading Professionals programme, which begins in January.

PROJECT GREEN HITS TARGET

Keele has hit its target of helping 140 graduates gain paid work experience in environmental and low carbon projects through the Project Green scheme.

The 140 graduates have been placed in 108 different organisations throughout the West Midlands, across 11 different sectors. Seventy-seven placements were with SMEs (55%) and 45% of placements were in the manufacturing, engineering and construction sectors. So far, 44 of the graduates have gone on to further workplace opportunities following their internship. Feedback from companies has been very positive, with reported energy and financial savings, CO2 reductions, ISO 14001 accreditations, new business opportunities, a boost to staff morale and new perspectives gained from the graduates.
 
The success of Project Green has led to a significant amount of recognition, and the team is now through to the final in the Open Collaboration category of the Lord Stafford Awards, which will be announced in November.

THINKING ALLOWED

Dr David Gadd, Criminology,  pictured below, participated in a Hate Crime Question Time Session at the British Society of Criminology, which was featured on Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme.

Presenter Laurie Taylor explored some of the latest ideas on crime when he visited the Conference in Leicester. Link here.

FT WARNING

In a letter published by the Financial Times, Professor Costas Milas, Keele Management School, pictured below, warns that new regulation rules put in place by the Basel III agreement pose a risk for weaker countries like Ireland and Greece.

This is because, in an attempt to calm financial markets, banks, most notably in Greece, will be under pressure to increase their reserves at a very fast rate. This will deprive the domestic market from credit to consumers and firms, therefore pushing the country into deeper recession and making debt restructuring even more likely.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

25 September 1987

A Keele lecture course aimed at undergraduates has been opened to the public. The course covers topics including the physical environment, evolution of man and society and world conflict. There will be two lectures each weekday morning, linked to a twice-weekly seminar.