PROMOTIONS TO SENIOR LECTURESHIPS

The University Promotions Committee has agreed the following promotions which are, as always, subject to the formal ratification of Senate and Council.

FACULTY OF HEALTH

Anne O'Brien (School of Health and Rehabilitation)

Anne O'Brien has a strong profile both within the School of Health & Rehabilitation (SHAR) and the wider physiotherapy profession. She joined Keele in 1998 as one of the first physiotherapy Lecturer-Practitioners in the UK, working part-time at Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Anne completed her MPhil at Keele in 2002 and moved to a full time lectureship in SHAR in 2003. She has had leading roles in curriculum development, commissioned NHS projects and Continuing Professional Development activity with local and regional NHS partners.  She has undertaken programme leadership at UG level and is Co-director of the nationally endorsed rheumatology ASPIRE programme. With clinical and academic colleagues, Anne led the development and accreditation of this multi-professional specialist programme which, since 2002, has successfully recruited a range of health care professionals to post registration education. Anne has an active advisory role for Arthritis Research UK, the British Health Professionals in Rheumatology and the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society. She is the invited author of four chapters in rheumatology textbooks, sits on the editorial board of the Musculoskeletal Care Journal and is also author of peer reviewed papers covering professional practice, pedagogy and clinical research.

Dr Mark Porcheret (Primary Care Health Sciences)

Mark Porcheret came to the area in 1984 as a GP in Leek and started his academic career at Keele in 2001. As a GP he was actively involved with teaching, training, health service management and local medical politics. He set up the Warwick University Certificate in Diabetes Care locally and was instrumental in developing local primary care services for people with diabetes. His Leek practice was a founding member of the Keele GP Research Partnership, which led to Mark developing a research interest. After working one day a week in the newly formed Primary Care Sciences Centre he soon took sabbatical leave from the practice to undertake an MPhil. His research demonstrated that osteoarthritis (OA) was not being managed in the systematic way suggested by the guidelines which paved the way for further studies on how to better manage OA in primary care. He set up the Keele Evidence-Based Practice Workshops for local clinicians and now leads the EBP module on the MMedSci. His main research interest is how to enhance the care of OA in general practice and he leads on developing and implementing a new approach to OA management as part of a NIHR programme.  Mark also co-directs the Central England Primary Care Research Network and advises the Royal College of General Practitioners and Arthritis Research UK.

Dr Samantha Hider (Primary Care Health Sciences)

Dr Samantha Hider is a clinical academic and was appointed to Keele as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in 2007 having completed a PhD examining outcomes of methotrexate treatment in rheumatoid arthritis at the University of Manchester. She was also appointed as a Consultant Rheumatologist at the Haywood Hospital, Stoke on Trent in 2009 where she is the Rheumatology Lead for the multidisciplinary Back Pain Service.  Her clinical responsibilities complement her work within the Spinal Pain Programme in Primary Care in relation to the impact of sciatica. Her other research interests include the influence of co-morbidity on the management of common inflammatory conditions such as polymyalgia rheumatica and gout, which is supported by grants from the National School for Primary Care Research and the Royal College of General Practitioners. She also plays a key role in building the links between Primary Care Sciences and the Medical School via the Intercalated MPhil programme.  

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Dr Sally Findlow (School of Public Policy and Professional Practice and Research Institute for the Social Sciences) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in learning and teaching and in professional, organisational and managerial activities. Dr Findlow has a record of sustained leadership of the University-wide Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Programme (TLHEP). An outstanding teacher and trainer, she teaches across the range of levels, from the Education Studies undergraduate programme to the taught Doctorate in Education (where she also supervises PhD students), as well as on the TLHEP. Her commitment to a critical and reflective approach to teaching and learning has underpinned initiatives to develop undergraduate students' skills, as well as widely recognised research into teaching, learning and comparative higher education policy, where her special interest is in how higher education through various globalizing processes is shaping citizenship across national boundaries.

Dr Marie-Andrée Jacob (School of Law and Research Institute for the Social Sciences) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in research and enterprise and in learning and teaching. Dr Jacob works across legal anthropology, law and medicine, regulation and the relationship between experts and society. Her work to date has considered the roles of experts and the place of 'kinship' in organ donation; her forthcoming monograph Matching Organs With Donors: Legality and Kinship in Transplants will be a ground-breaking contribution to this field. The quality of Dr Jacob's research has been recognised by the Socio-Legal Studies Association, which in 2010 awarded her article in the Law and Society Review its prize for 'the most outstanding piece of scholarship in the year'. Dr Jacob's teaching, which spans the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula and professional training, combines a variety of pedagogical methods, and is highly driven and supported by her interdisciplinary research expertise. As well as diversifying assessment on Law modules, she has developed a second-year interdisciplinary elective 'Law, Science and Society', which is designed to strengthen the range of conceptual tools available to Law (and other) students and to enhance their employability through encouraging a critical awareness of the different scientific arenas within which legal work takes place.

Dr James Peacock (School of Humanities and Research Institute for the Humanities) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in learning and teaching and in research and enterprise. Since arriving at Keele in 2007, Dr Peacock has become a world-leading scholar of contemporary American fiction, especially the work of Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem. His 2010 book Understanding Paul Auster has been praised for its sensitivity to the complex range of genres and styles in Auster's work, and for its original and wide-ranging analysis of the poetry and screen-plays as well as the familiar New York Trilogy and other novels; its authoritative status is reflected in the fact that it has already been reprinted in paperback. Dr Peacock is the world's leading authority on Lethem, and his forthcoming book will be the first to be devoted to the writer. In 2009 he organised, with Dr Tim Lustig, an international symposium at Keele entitled The Syndrome Syndrome: Diseases and Disorders in Contemporary Fiction. In 2010 Dr Peacock received a Teaching Excellence Award. He has developed a range of exciting strategies for encouraging effective participation in seminars and other group situations, and he has explored, in great depth and with remarkable ingenuity, how worthwhile, timely feedback can be given to students. His many teaching initiatives have been widely disseminated: at Keele through personal mentoring, presentations at workshops and the provision of online resources, and across the sector through conference presentations.

Dr Nicholas Reyland (School of Humanities and Research Institute for the Humanities) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in research and enterprise and in learning and teaching since his appointment at Keele in 2005. The award of the Westrup Prize in 2007 for his first peer-reviewed article provided early recognition for the excellent quality of Dr Reyland's research. As a musicologist, his main research interests are recent Polish music and film, narrative theory, screen music, children's television and, more broadly, the theory, analysis and criticism of music since 1900.  He has established himself as one of the world's leading authorities on the twentieth-century Polish composer Witold Lutosùawski; completed a substantial monograph on Krzysztof Kieúlowski's Three Colours film trilogy and a jointly-edited collection on the interdisciplinary topic of music and narrative; and, together with Dr Alexandra Lamont (Psychology), embarked on externally-funded research on children and television. Research-led teaching is central to Dr Reyland's work across all levels of the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Music, Music Technology, Media, Communications and Culture, and Film Studies. His enthusiasm as a teacher and commitment to excellence in student learning is bolstered by his keen interest in theories of learning and teaching, reflected in his role as a full TLHEP tutor.

Dr James Tartaglia (School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy and Research Institute for the Social Sciences) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in learning and teaching and professional, organisational and managerial activities. A 2011 Keele Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning recognised the innovative nature of his approach to Philosophy teaching, notably the use of competition to increase student engagement with seminars, and a distinctive model for a first-year portfolio, which helps students to develop good habits from the outset, and seamlessly embeds study skills into the module. Innovation has also been the hallmark of Dr Tartaglia's work as programme director, and of his other contributions to the organisation of the Philosophy programme. In 2002, the year of his appointment, he established Keele's Royal Institute of Philosophy lectures, which he organised until 2008. Some of the UK's highest-profile philosophers have presented their latest work in a series that is one of the best-attended at Keele, and remains the principal social and research hub for the Philosophy programme. Dr Tartaglia is internationally recognised as an authority on the work of the philosopher Richard Rorty: his Rorty and the Mirror of Nature (2007) has received excellent reviews, and he was invited to edit a four-volume selection (2009) of the best scholarly literature on Rorty in Routledge's definitive Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers series.

Dr Anthony Wrigley (School of Law and Research Institute for the Social Sciences) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in recognition of excellence in research and enterprise and in learning and teaching. Dr Wrigley works in the field of applied philosophy and bioethics, publishing in leading philosophy and ethics journals. A number of his articles have become seminal reading, and have made such an impact that they have crossed the disciplinary boundaries between ethics and law, for example through their discussion in medical law textbooks. An example of his sustained activity in knowledge transfer is his responsibility for successfully overseeing the delivery of a large research ethics consultancy and training programme for the NHS and HEIs between 2006 and 2009. Teaching across an exceptionally broad range of programmes, Dr Wrigley has developed a strong track record as an innovator.  For example, as Director of the MA in the Ethics of Cancer and Palliative Care, he has strengthened links between clinicians and ethicists and has designed and/or delivered more genuinely interdisciplinary content.  For this and other programmes, he has also improved and expanded the range of online learning activities, and implemented improvements in assessment practices. His standing in his subject-community is evidenced, among other things, by his role in the €145,000 European Textbook of Ethics in Research project, led by his colleague Jonathan Hughes, which resulted in two co-authored books. He has also recently been appointed as joint-editor of the Ethics, Law and Society series, published by Ashgate.

FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Dr Ralf Gertisser (School of Physical and Geographical Sciences)

 Ralf Gertisser studied for his BSc degree in geology in Freiburg, Germany, before spending a year at the University of Oregon in the States on a prestigious Fulbright scholarship.  He then returned to Freiburg to undertake MSc and PhD studies, developing his continuing focus on volcanology and petrology. Between 2001 and 2005, Ralf undertook a number of postdoctoral research posts, before joining Keele University as a Lecturer in Mineralogy and Petrology in 2005. Since that time, he has won around 15 research grants, including two prestigious NERC grants, totalling over £200k, has been publishing at a rate of two papers per annum in top journals, and has been a regular speaker at universities and conferences. Recognition of his abilities includes his membership of a number of influential professional groups, including the Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group steering committee and the NERC Peer Review College. It is especially notable that Ralf has bridged thagap between scholarly papers and the popularisation of his subject, having published several popular science articles and presented a number of radio items, particularly concerning the prediction of volcanic eruptions. He is a popular and committed teacher, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and his enthusiastic approach is a big draw for potential students at Open and Visit Days.

Dr Barry Smalley (School of Physical and Geographical Sciences)

Barry Smalley has progressed to Senior Lecturer through a slightly non-conventional route. His BSc degree in Astronomy and Physics, and PhD in Astronomy, were both taken at University College London, where he remained as a postdoctoral researcher for a further two years until 1994. He then came to Keele University as the 'Starlink Computer Manager' for the next 14 years, where his combination of astrophysics and computer expertise proved invaluable to the Astrophysics Group. But it would be misleading to think of Barry as 'just' a computer manager – astronomical projects not only require computational skills, but an intimate understanding of the underlying physics in order to process the masses of complex data from the telescopes, and he is an expert in the study of the stellar atmospheres. His skills have been essential for the success of the highly acclaimed WASP project that detects planets that are orbiting stars in our galaxy; he is a fellow of Royal Astronomical Society, and he was part of the WASP team that received the society's Group Achievement Award in 2010. Barry is co-author on over research 100 papers, with over 2400 citations. Whilst continuing in his computing role, Barry transferred to a Lecturer post in 2008, and has been a popular and successful lecturer and project supervisor.

LEGAL OUTREACH NETWORK LAUNCHED

The School of Law has launched the Keele Legal Outreach Network, which formalises existing partnerships with a number of local community organisations, including Aspire, Brighter Futures, Savana, Voices of Experience with Arch, Stoke CAB, Embrace, Madeley High School, and affirmed new partnerships with Law at Newcastle-under-Lyme College, the Chief Inspector of Newcastle-under-Lyme Police, the office of Tristam Hunt MP, and a number of leading regional law firms.

The event was launched by Pro Vice-Chancellor, Marilyn Andrews, pictured, and is designed to enable Keele Law students to provide vital help and support to disadvantaged communities through legal research, policy work and community legal education, while further strengthening key employability skills.

The School of Law is committed to the delivery of high-quality, outward looking and distinctive legal education see [here], which equips our graduates with key attributes [see here], designed to enhance their future employability [see here].

For more information about the Keele Legal Outreach Network please contact Dr Jane Krishnadas [mail to: j.h.krishnadas@keele.ac.uk]".

GEOCONSERVATION OF IMPORTANT GEOLOGICAL EXPOSURES

GeoConservation Staffordshire committee members, Keele and Staffordshire University students, SCC Park Rangers and Apedale volunteers all came together on Mother's Day to re-expose a quarry face at Miry Quarry, Apedale. The Vanderbeckei marine band, which marks the boundary between the Lower and Middle Pennine Coal Measures, was uncovered for the first time in 15 years.

The event was organised by Dr Sarah L. Taylor (Keele) and Dr Patrick Cossey (Staffordshire University), and combined a mix of biodiversity and geodiversity experts, to ensure the restoration did not endanger Great Crested newts. Earlier Keele environmental science students had carried out an Ecological Impact Assessment of the activity and future student cohorts will monitor the restoration. This data will be used to aid management of the site.

The picture shows geoconservation volunteers by the newly exposed rock face at Miry Quarry.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE EUROPEAN PROJECT - INAUGURAL LECTURE

Professor Robert Ladrech, Professor of European Politics, pictured with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Rama Thirunamachandran, this week gave the latest lecture in the University's series of professorial Inaugural Lectures for 2011 – 2012.

In his lecture, "Political Parties and the European Project", he said mainstream political parties in Western Europe have supported membership in the European Union, as well as initiatives in further European integration, over the past several decades. However, these actions had not been complemented by a political discourse that justified this continuing support - including their party politicians' participation in EU decision-making - to their respective electorates. In other words, national party politicians participate in EU governance and implement the resulting legislation but do not articulate a reason for doing so to their national publics. When some EU proposed legislation proves unpopular, some national party politicians blame the EU by saying 'Brussels made me do it'. This silence or absence of a legitimising discourse has persisted despite a decline in public support for the EU in many member states, leading some commentators to suggest a growing legitimacy problem for the EU and even national government.

This lecture addressed the question of 'what prevents mainstream national political parties from developing a legitimising discourse for their support for the EU and integration initiatives'. It situated the answer within the dynamics of national competitive party systems, especially in light of the current financial crisis in the eurozone.

The other lectures in the series are:

Tuesday, 17 April, 2012, Professor Robin Jeffries, Astrophysics, "A star is born"; Tuesday, 8 May, 2012, Professor Carole Thornley, Management, "Why are the low-paid always with us?"; Monday, 11 June, 2012, Professor Andy Hassell, Medicine, "The patient with arthritis, the medical student and the rheumatologist: influencing tomorrow's doctors".

NATIONAL STUDENT MONEY WEEK

Keele last week took part, for the first time, in National Student Money Week - a series of events in universities across the UK designed to increase financial awareness amongst enrolled and prospective higher education students.

Events for Keele students included a budget cookery demonstration by CFM chefs and recipe card distribution; clothes swaps, and workshops run by the Citizens' Advice Bureau and staff from Student Support and Development Services and the Students' Union.

A version of Million Pound Drop was developed with a laptop, money related questions but far less prize money than the title would suggest. A student income and expenditure survey run during the week attracted over 220 responses. The responses will be used to inform future financial support for Keele students.

The success of the week in reaching students was encouraging, and the University intends to run a similar programme next year.

For information about student funding, please contact the Student Financial Support Office at studentmoney@ keele.ac.uk.

WORLD AFFAIRS GROUP CELEBRATES KEELE'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

The first of three key World Affairs Group lectures to celebrate 50 years of the University Charter
took place last night in the Westminster Theatre, enabling Keele to recognise the enormous contribution that the Group has made to the University since it was launched in 1981.

The keynote lecture, 'Surviving the Century', was given by Lord Rees of Ludlow, former President of the Royal Society, pictured above.

His lecture was based on his newly published book, From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons
[paperback Profile Books] ISBN 978 1 84668 503 3. 

The book explores all the material in his famous BBC Reith lecture series 2010, when he was President of the Royal Society.

Lord Rees is Master of Trinity College and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.  He is also Visiting Professor at Leicester University and Imperial College London. 

He was appointed Astronomer Royal
in 1995 and was nominated to the House of Lords in 2005 as a cross-bench peer.  He was appointed as a member of the Order
of Merit in 2007.

The evening was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett.

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY GRANT

Keele Astrophysics PhD student Mandy Bailey has won a grant from the Royal Astronomical Society worth £900, to support her attending the triennial General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, which takes place in Beijing in August.

She will present her thesis work on mapping the distribution of molecular gas in the diffuse interstellar medium.

MEDICAL INSTITUTE AWARD

Dr Sue Sherman, School of Psychology, pictured above, (together with Mr Charles Redman, UHNS, Prof Michael Murray, School of Psychology, Ms Philippa Pearmain, NHS, and Mrs Paula Hadden, UHNS) has been awarded £9,703 by the North Staffordshire Medical Institute to pilot a project entitled 'Identifying and promoting best practice in communicating to patients the results of cervical screening history reviews following diagnosis of cervical cancer'.

THE TRAFFIC IN THINGS

The Association of Southeast Asian Studies in the UK has awarded Dr Deirdre McKay (Geography) £2,500 to conduct field research in the Philippines.  Her project, 'The traffic in things', will explore how the 'stuff' sent home by migrants in the UK is used by its recipients to express their own thoughts on globalization.

The research will track the ways people on the margins of global migration use things like clothes, household goods, souvenirs and decorations to respond to the perceived rise of China as a regional power vis a vis their nation's longstanding ties to the English-speaking world.

LOW PAY COMMISSION RESEARCH TENDER

Professor Gauthier Lanot and Dr Panos Sounsounis, Keele Management School and Research Institute for Social Sciences, have been awarded a research tender by the Low Pay Commission.

The project, funded at just under £20,000, will enable Professor Lanot and Dr Sousounis to examine the effect of the National Minimum Wage on the allocation of labour between age groups with similar qualifications within sector and/or within firm.

FESTIVAL PLANNING WITH WP

The Widening Participation & Outreach team have hosted the second consecutive Ashfield Music Festival on campus this week.

Ashfield Music Festival is a one day activity in which students develop skills in enterprise and learn how physics applies in the context of setting up a music festival by taking on one of six roles: project manager, health and safety advisor, construction manager, electrical engineer, sound engineer or lighting engineer.

They are supported by real-life scientists – referred to as "experts" – and must use a mixture of physics-based knowledge, creativity and skills associated with enterprise in order to win the contract to build the main stage.

The young people, from Ormiston Horizon Academy, engaged in the event that was overseen by PhD student and Keelelink STEM Specialist, Scott Walker, and a team of Student Ambassadors.

ALUMNI REUNION IN SRI LANKA

A very successful alumni reunion was held in the Cinnamon Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka for 20 alumni hosted by Dr Annette Kratz, Head of Keele International.

This was the first time that alumni from different "batches" of the MSc in Information technology and Information Technology and Business IIT programme had had the chance to get together with Sri Lankan alumni who had studied at Keele.

The group were very positive about forming an alumni association to network and any Sri Lankans interested in joining should contact Kapila R Giragama on kapilag@ orientacademdy.lk

Dr Kratz also visited the University of Colombo, with whom discussions have been going on for a while to try and establish a student exchange programme, using CUSAC (Commonwealth Study Abroad Consortium) as a vehicle.

The biannual CUSAC meeting will be held at Keele from 25 to 28 April on the theme of "Evaluating Student mobility"

STEM STUDY VISIT

An enthusiastic group of teachers joined staff from the Science Learning Centre at Ogwen Cottage Outdoor Centre in Wales for a weekend STEM (science technology engineering and maths) study visit.

They learned how to use outdoor activities to apply STEM subjects in practical context to enrich the curriculum and enthuse pupils.

The trip was well received with excellent feedback: 'It was inspirational and exciting to find out all of the STEM links that could be made in the enjoyable outdoors'.

The next STEM study visit, in June, will be to the Ironbridge Gorge museums and surrounding historical and innovative architecture, where teachers will have the opportunity to draw upon the substantial expertise from curators, crafts people and Keele staff.

NEXT WEEK

Poet Allison McVety will be giving a reading of her work at Keele on Monday (26 March) as part of the University's Poetry Live! series.

Poetry Live! readings take place in the Chancellor's Building at 7pm. Tickets are £5 (concessions £2.50).

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Fifteen years ago –
 
Ways in which a knowledge of past climate changes and current processes on the earth's surface can help scientists to foresee the impact of future climate change were explained by Ian Fairchild, Professor of Earth Sciences, in his inaugural lecture on 26 March 1997.