ROYAL VISITOR VIEWS KEELE ACTIVE AGEING PROJECT

His Royal Highness, The Earl of Wessex, KG GCVO, visited Keele this week to get an overview of the University and see a range of teaching and research activities designed to change social attitudes towards older people.

Accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire, The Earl was welcomed to Keele by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, who introduced him to the Pro-Chancellor, Mr Ian Dudson. The Prince is pictured above with the Vice-Chancellor and Professor Chris Phillipson.

The Vice-Chancellor gave Prince Edward an overview of Keele before introducing members of the Active Ageing project team, who gave a presentation on their work, with an outline of the project given by Professor Phillipson and Dr Mo Ray, pictured right.

The Vice-Chancellor then accompanied His Royal Highness around four groups covering the Active Ageing project and giving him the opportunity to meet those directly involved and hear about  their work. He is pictured below with Professor Miriam Bernard, who is introducing members of the Ages and Stages project team.

His Royal Highness also met Staffordshire Duke of Edinburgh Award co-ordinators and award winners in the Great Hall before departing for Kingsland Primary School in Bucknall, where a converted aeroplane is used as a classroom.

More pictures from the Royal visit can be found here:

INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA

Keele is marking the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia with a series of events exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans issues. A day of events, taking place on campus on Tuesday, 17 May, will include film screenings, stalls, a student discussion forum and speakers from a range of backgrounds. Keele academics Professor Alex Sharpe and Dr Dana Rosenfeld will look at trans awareness and insights from past generations of gay men and women.
 
The International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia commemorates the World Health Organisation's decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. The aim of the day is to coordinate international events to call for respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people worldwide.

Jenny Ratcliffe, the University's Equality and Diversity lead, said: "Keele strives to be a place where learning, living and working is a positive experience for all.  Our diverse base of staff and students – whatever their gender or sexual orientation – all have the right to study, work and live at Keele in an environment that is inclusive, respectful and free from victimisation and hate crime."

Sessions are free to attend but registration is required. To book your place please contact Craig Morris on 33407 or email r.c.morris@per.keele.ac.uk . For further information about the event see the website http://www.keele.ac.uk/hrss/equalitydiversity/idaho/

WHO–EUROPE MEETING

Professor Shaughn O'Brien, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, represented  the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists at the Regional Advisory Group for Research and Training in Reproductive Health at the WHO European Region meeting in Copenhagen last week. Observers, partners and representatives from WHO headquarters decided on further implementation of the WHO Global Reproductive Health Strategy (2004) and the WHO European Regional Strategy on Reproductive and Sexual Health (2001).

The development of the European Health Strategy "Health 2020", the Report on Social Determinants of Health and other priorities of the WHO/Europe were among the main topics discussed. Both members of the panel and partners expressed their readiness to participate in developing and discussing these important strategic documents to ensure that they meet the goals of the WHO Europe Member States in the area of sexual and reproductive health.

SUCCESSFUL BID ON HEALTH LITERACY AND DIABETES

NHS Stoke and Stoke City Council has awarded a £49,000 contract to a group of researchers from the Centre for Psychological Research to facilitate an action research project on health literacy.  The team will be led by Dr Emee Vida Estacio, pictured, with Professor Robert McKinley, Professor Michael Murray and Dr Sally Sargeant as co-investigators.

This project aims to develop and evaluate an intervention to help individuals in Stoke-in-Trent to better understand health information and to navigate the healthcare system more effectively. This project will initially focus on diabetes management, with an intention to transfer key learning to other long term health conditions. Two specific groups will be prioritised: 1) Young men under 25 years of age; and 2) South Asian men.  The project will involve mapping of existing services, assessment of current health literacy levels and community engagement exercises using Photovoice, the World Café and stakeholder events.  For more information, email e.v.g.estacio@psy.keele.ac.uk.

ASTRAZENECA DONATE EQUIPMENT

Drs Frank Rutten, research institutes for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics and Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) and Paul Roach (ISTM) have received a very generous donation of mass spectrometry equipment from Astra Zeneca, with a value of more than £20,000.

Together with £4,500 from the EPSRC-funded Keele 3ME initiative, this allows them to construct an exciting new PADI-MS ambient mass spectrometry facility in the Birchall Centre, with tremendous potential for a wide range of applications in, amongst others, drug manufacture and development, tissue engineering, materials science, archaeology and forensics.

The photograph shows Paul Davey (left) from AZ handing over the equipment to Frank.

SPIRE LECTURER SPEAKS ON POLITICAL ISLAM

SPIRE lecturer Naveed Sheikh, pictured, gave a two hour public lecture, entitled "Dissecting Political Islam: A New Taxonomy," at the University of Malta on Wednesday, covering the political and intellectual history of Islamism from the late-colonial period to Bin Laden. He is lecturing in Malta this week in an effort to promote further international ties.

In addition to university staff and students, his lectures were attended by diplomats, religious dignitaries, businessmen and interested members of the public.

INVITED LECTURES AT Go8

Dr Sally Sargeant, School of Psychology, pictured below, has returned from a visit to Australia where she delivered two invited lectures at the Group of Eight coalition of leading Australian universities.

The first was about adjustment to chronic illness, at Monash University in Melbourne, which contributed towards a programme of study for first year undergraduates. The second talk was for the University of Adelaide School of Psychology seminar programme, for which Sally presented "The Method for the Madness: the use of narrative in primary care mental health".

INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER MUSIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

Music postgraduate, Robert Ratcliffe, has had a paper accepted to the International Computer Music Conference, which is one of the most important events in the field of electronic music ( see here).

His long paper, 'New Forms of Hybrid Musical Discourse: an Exploration of Stylistic and Procedural Cross-fertilisation between Contemporary Art Music and Electronic Dance Music' will be published in the conference proceedings, and presented by Robert at the conference - hosted this year by the University of Huddersfield.

Robert's paper discusses the construction and design of selected musical works from his PhD portfolio, which explores the hybridisation of art music and electronic dance music.

Working versions of the paper have previously been presented at the Royal Musical Association (Kings College), FIMPaC (Leeds College of Music), the International Symposium on Experimental Music (Coventry University), and Anglia Ruskin University (invited speaker).

TOP MANAGEMENT STUDENT

Keele student Alyson Bird, second year Business Management and Psychology, was among 10 finalists in the management category of the TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year awards.
Although she did not win the award, she so impressed the category sponsor, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, that they offered her a summer placement.

The TARGETjobs Awards attracted nearly 4,000 entrants across the 12 categories and prizes were presented by the Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, at a ceremony in London.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Twenty-nine years ago -
 
Some 1,300 competitors, representing eight area teams across the county, took part in the first Staffordshire Games on the 2 May, 1982. The University was the nerve centre for the day-long programme and competitors were involved in 18 sports ranging from athletics to volleyball.