KEELE STUDENT WINS PRIZE AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Emma-Louise Meredith, a third year Biomedical Science student, pictured, scooped a prize for her presentation of her undergraduate research project at the annual meeting of the British Society for Parasitology (BSP).

Her work on the antimalarial properties of synthetic indole alkaloids is part of a collaborative research effort between the research institutes of Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) and the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, and is funded by local medical charity, the North Staffordshire Medical Institute. As well as Emma-Louise, the poster's authors included three other undergraduate students from the schools of Medicine and Life Sciences.

The BSP meeting, at Nottingham University, was attended by 375 delegates from all over the world. Keele researchers from the Mosquito, Malaria, Man cluster in ISTM made a particularly strong showing, with presentations from eleven members, including one from a former President of BSP, Professor Hilary Hurd.

LOSING THE RACE

A new book by Dr Bill Dixon, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Head of the School of Sociology and Criminology, pictured, and David Gadd (now of the University of Manchester), has been very favourably reviewed in the Times Higher Education magazine.

Losing the Race, is based on a two-year research project on racially motivated offenders in North Staffordshire, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which explores why many of those involved in racially motivated crime seem to be struggling to cope with economic, cultural and emotional losses in their own lives.

Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with perpetrators of racist crimes and focus group discussions with ordinary people living in the same communities, the book explores why some people, and not others, feel inclined to attack immigrants and minority ethnic groups. The relationships between ordinary racism, racial harassment and the politics of the British National Party are also explored, as are the enduring impacts of deindustrialisation, economic failure and immigration on white working class communities.
Link: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=415788&c=2).

POSTGRADUATE TO PRESENT AT INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER MUSIC CONFERENCE

Jon Weinel, a Music postgraduate, has had a poster selected for inclusion at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2011).  The ICMC is one of the most prestigious conferences in the field of music technology, held last year in New York City where Jon performed a live electronic piece of music.  This year the conference is at the University of Huddersfield. 

Jon's poster, entitled 'Tiny Jungle: Psychedelic Techniques in Audio-Visual Composition',  has been presented as a paper/video previously at the University of Manchester and Staffordshire University.  The poster relates to a video piece from Jon's PhD work, and explores how altered states of consciousness can be used as an adaptive principle for the composition of electroacoustic music.

MUSIC AND THE MIND

Oxford University Press has recently published a book in honour of John Sloboda, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Keele.  The book, entitled 'Music and the Mind', celebrates the life and work of Professor Sloboda, whilst taking stock of where the field of music psychology stands 25 years after his ground breaking work on 'The Musical Mind' first appeared.

It reviews key areas of current research in the field, written by world-leading authors, each making a significant and original academic contribution. The contributors to 'Music and the Mind' also reflect on how the field has been significantly stimulated by the influential work of Professor Sloboda. The book is edited by Irène Deliège and Jane Davidson (Oxford University Press, 2011).

LIFE AS A MIGRANT NURSE IN THE UK

The Centre for Psychological Research is organising a stakeholder event to mark the completion of a research project that looks into the experiences of overseas nurses in the UK.  The project was led by Dr Emee Vida Estacio, pictured, and funded by the Richard Benjamin Memorial Grant. 

The event will take place on Thursday, 28 April, from 12 noon to 2pm at the North Staffordshire Medical Institute, Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-Trent. Food and drinks will be served.  Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information contact: Sirandou Saidy-Khan at u8m17@students.keele.ac.uk.

PLANET EARTH ARTICLE

Research by Keele scientist Dr Falko Drijfhout, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, pictured below, with Dr Stephen Martin of Sheffield University, has been published on the Natural Environment Research Council's research news website, Planet Earth Online.

The article, about a recently published Behavioural Ecology paper on nest mate recognition in ants (Genetic diversity, colony chemical phenotype, and nest mate recognition in the ant Formica fusca), can be seen here.

THE BEAT GOES ON - KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Dr Alexandra Lamont, pictured below, gave a keynote address to 180 delegates at the International Research in Music Education conference in Exeter. 

Dr Lamont's talk, entitled "The Beat Goes On: Music, Identity and Lifelong Learning", covered psychological approaches to identity across the lifespan and drew on several ongoing research projects on adult amateur music-making (and concluded with a short video performance by her string quartet, the Mars Quartet, including Keele students Becky Thumpston and Matt Dolman).

In addition, Geraldine Leighton and Jodie Underhill (both Research Institute for Social Sciences) both gave presentations on their research into music in schools.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Thirty-two years ago -

Sir Harold Wilson inaugurated the annual David Bruce Memorial Lecture Series at Keele, organised by the Bruce Centre of American Studies.

The subject of the lecture 'The Prime Minister and the Ambassador in the Conduct of Diplomacy' reflected the close relationship enjoyed by David Bruce and Harold Wilson. 26 April 1979.