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Welcome to our weekly in Focus update...... |
Past Issues << | Issue 81: Wednesday 5 December 2007 |
Two students have scooped a prestigious British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) Award for their innovative interactive online comic, Dead on Arrival.
Geoff Gaviria and Matt Gibson (pictured left courtesy: Grethe Mitchell) topped a talented field to win the BIMA student prize, at the Awards Gala Evening held at the Truman Galleries in Spitalfields last Thursday (29 November).
The students created the comic, inspired by the 1950 film noir D.O.A. (Dead on arrival), at our Docklands campus as a final-year project on their Interactive Media degree. Matt has since graduated with first class honours, and Geoff is due to complete his studies in January.
Geoff and Matt are still coming to terms with their success. Matt, who now works for a leading multimedia design agency, said: “It was a great evening and a great honour to be sitting next to creative directors and designers from big names within the digital and interactive industry. To be completely honest, we were happy just to be there, let alone to be picking up an award."
Matt said: “Our tutors, and in particular our project supervisors Tony Sampson and Grethe Mitchell, deserve a special mention for the support and inspiration they provided throughout the project's development. The photographic comic was mostly shot in and around UEL's Docklands campus and 'starred' both staff and students from the university."
The comic's tricky storyline follows the fictional character David Warrington, a university lecturer who has been fatally poisoned and is now slowly dying. David isn't short of enemies, and the comic’s readers/users must help him uncover the true identity of his murderer before his impending demise. The character is in no way based on the popular multimedia and computer games design lecturer David Dorrington.
To experience Matt and Geoff’s comic, visit www.dead-on-arrival.co.uk. The British Interactive Media Association Awards celebrate creative excellence and best practice in interactive design. Full details of the awards and the winners are on www.bima.co.uk.
For the full release visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/index.htm
Our Charter Mark assessor, Paul Harrington, was so impressed with our performance and provision relating to customer focus at his visit last Thursday (29 Nov) that he will no longer need to visit us again, until our accreditation runs out in two years' time. This was the best of all the outcomes we could have achieved.
Paul met many of our colleagues; from those involved in running student help desks and information points to residential services staff, student services staff, and academic staff and students involved with the EMPOWER project for women entrepreneurs from minority ethnic communities. Paul was fully satisfied with the actions we have taken in response to last year's assessment and the small number of areas for improvement his report described.
Secretary and Registrar Alan Ingle (pictured left with some of the project team), who has been steering the project through said of our staff: "I know I can count on you to work towards ever greater levels of excellence in customer service. Thank you to you all."
For more information on Charter Mark please visit: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/chartermark/
Our colleagues excitedly awaited the thrilling and what was clearly to be very close result at a gala awards dinners, held in Grosvenor House last week (29 Nov). Our SMARTlab Digital Media Institute, shortlisted for a prestigious Times Higher Education Award, scooped Highly commended at the ceremony for their groundbreaking and innovative work, which positively engages communities including people with disabilities, in interactive media and education.
Director of SMARTlab, Professor Lizbeth Goodman, said: "It was a wonderful evening. The organisers and judges graciously explained how hard a decision it had been for them to make and how close we'd come to the top spot. There's always next year!"
For more information visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/latest_news/stories/smartlab-thes.htm
Schools of Law and Psychology
Friday 7 December - 11am
Honoraries on Friday are:
Jenny Watson, who is a former Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission and a current Director of Global Partners and Associates, established in 2005 to promote good governance and effective democratic practice in countries around the world.
Dr Marie Stewart, who is the Director of Taylor-Stewart Associates Limited. She is a leading education and management consultant, specialising in areas of equality and diversity, and served as Chair of the UEL Board of Governors from 2005 until earlier this year.
School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies
Wednesday 12 December - 2pm
Pictured: Architect, David Adjaye receiving his honorary award from Lord Rix at last week's graduation ceremony.
For more details about our graduation ceremonies, visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/graduation
Promising East London playwrights will offer insights into issues including friendship, fathers and sons, domestic violence, rape and regeneration, in a one-off performance at Stratford Circus on Saturday 8 December
Real EastEnders features nine, five-minute plays, written and performed by final-year students from our Creative Writing degree programme.
Mark O’Thomas, Director of our Institute for Performing Arts, said: “The writers have each taken on the psyche of East London in new and thought-provoking ways with surprising and stimulating results.”
Real EastEnders is part of Theatre Venture's BUYA! Theatre Festival, which aims to celebrate East London's next generation of theatre talent.
For further information, visit www.stratford-circus.com or call the box office on 020 8279 1015.
Narrative, Discourse, Representation and Social Change
A Day Workshop
Monday 10 December, 10am-4.30pm
BPS Office, Room 10, 30 Tabernacle Street, London
This day workshop offers an opportunity to address, theoretically and methodologically, some of the questions that arise around the relationship between representations and social change, such as:
-Do narratives, discourses and social representations offer a window onto social change?
-Do language structures inflect our telling of social change, and if so how?
-Under what conditions might narrative, discourse or social representations impel or support social change, and at what levels? -Do personal stories have to be working together with more general social cultural and political representations in order for social change to occur?
-Is representational change itself social change?
-What theoretical formulations of social change are appropriate within this debate?
-What are possible and useful theoretical frameworks, within which personal narratives and social change may be brought together?
Presenters: Molly Andrews,UEL; Caroline Howarth, LSE; Ann Phoenix, Thomas Coram Institute; Cathy Riessman, Boston College and UEL; Mark Rapley, UEL; Stephanie Taylor, Open University
Registration: £40. Section members and graduate students: £20.
Registration includes coffee, tea, and lunchtime sandwiches
To join the BPS Social Psychology Section, please go to: http://www.bps.org.uk/socpsy/how_join/how_join_home.cfm
For further details, please contact Cigdem Esin c.esin@uel.ac.uk or Professor Corinne Squire c.squire@uel.ac.uk
East London 2012: Towards a new (h)ostpolitics Tuesday 22 January 2008, 6pm, West Building Lecture Theatre, WB.G.02
Professor Phil Cohen, London East Research Institute.
East London has long been a focus of debate about the state of the nation, and especially about those at its real and imagined margins: the poor, the deviant, the immigrant, the radical and the dispossessed. It has been characterised as a dangerous but exotic 'internal orient' , and a 'pretty terrible part of town'.
But with the advent of London 2012 and the Thames Gateway, is this political and cultural geography shifting? If London is the whole world in a city, what does it mean to host a global event like the Olympics? And what does it now mean to be an 'East Ender'?
To address these questions, Professor Cohen will draw on his 25 years of field research in East London, and on his current research with workers in the Olympic Park and communities in Stratford.
Phil Cohen is Professor of Urban Cultural Studies and the founder of the London East Research Institute. He is the co-editor with Mike Rustin of London's Turning: Prospects and legacy of Thames Gateway, published by Ashgate, which will be launched after the lecture. He is currently involved in a number of research projects related to the Olympics and has just published a working paper, also launched here, on New Directions in Olympic Cultural Studies.
All welcome - admission free.
For further details, contact Franc Gooding on 020 8223 2884 or f.gooding@uel.ac.uk, or visit www.uel.ac.uk/lectureseries.
For travel information to our Docklands Campus see: http://www.uel.ac.uk/about_uel/why_uel/docklands.htm
For full listings check:
Events webpages: http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/events/index.htm
Public Lectures webpages: http://www.uel.ac.uk/lectureseries/
Academic Board: http://www.uel.ac.uk/qa/committees/acaboard.htm
Board of Governors: http://www.uel.ac.uk/governors/board.htm
Good news from the CMT: http://www.uel.ac.uk/vcg/news/index.htm
To conduct a search of current funding opportunities , including all the major competitions , or to set up email alerts specific to your interests, visit www.researchresearch.com.
If you intend to submit an application for funding please contact Tim Brooks (Acting Research Funding Officer) in the Graduate School. Tim is retaining his other responsibilities within the Graduate School so the more notice you can give, the better!
These workshops are aimed both at people with an interest in the history of the communities surrounding the Royal Docks as well as those who would like to develop more general knowledge or skills in historical trail making and multimedia. All sessions are informal, free and open to all.
Sound editing: Wednesday 5 December (5.30 pm, UEL). This session will explain the techniques of editing sound and interviews, using computers. The session will include handouts and software that can be used on computers at home, to allow participants to create their own sound tracks/edited recordings that can be posted online or sent to friends.
Online publishing: Tuesday 11 December (5.30pm, UEL). This session will explain the techniques of posting stories, recordings and pictures online for a worldwide audience. It will include public access sites such as Google Earth and community mapping as well as the project website.
Xmas celebration: Thursday 20 December (time TBA , UEL). Participants are invited to drinks at the London East Research Institute.
Tour guide training: (spring 2008, dates TBA). Organised groups of walkers will be taken on the Ports of Call trails. This workshop is aimed at those interested in learning the techniques of tour guiding. It is hoped that participants will wish to practice the techniques by co-leading the organised walks; as much of the content will be on mobile players the pressure on the ‘trainee' guide should be greatly reduced. The guiding programme will be delivered by professional tour guides and include examples and practical exercises to allow participants to learn the fundamental skills of public speaking and delivering interesting information in an engaging way.
Unless otherwise noted, seminars will take place at 5.30pm at the UEL, Docklands Campus, East Building room EB.3.13A (third floor). The schedule may change; please check this web page or call Toby Butler on 0795 729 4907 for latest information. Walk sessions must be booked so equipment can be supplied. To book email tobybutler@boltblue.com
Friday 7 December, 6-10pm, West building, 3rd floor.
Christmas buffet and drinks provided.
FREE to staff.
Our Development and Alumni Office would like our staff to come along to the Alumni Network Christmas Party; giving you and our past students a chance to catch up in convivial surroundings.
Our alumni are always keen to meet up with their former lecturers, and you can find out about the many successes they have gone on to achieve.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Martin Everett will open the evening and welcome staff and students to the gathering. You will also get the opportunity to meet our Development and Alumni team (Head of Development and Alumni, Fariba Salehi-Kellaway and Development and Alumni Officer, Emma Cale) who will be able to show you the very valuable work alumni carry out in supporting their university.
If you have any information or news from your School which you would like to let our graduates know about - from postgraduate programmes, to work experience opportunities, or if you would like to make a presentation about the work of your School and your alumni, please let us know.
This year's party follows on from the success of our first ever last year which was attended by over a hundred of our alumni. We hope to see as many of our staff as possible attend this year.
Please RSVP to Emma Cale Email: e.cale@uel.ac.uk or Tel: 020 8223 2222
Brush up your IT skills and get an internationally recognised qualification online. Contact Greg Price, Organisational Development Manager on ext 4361 or email g.price@uel.ac.uk
To register for a range of FREE business support workshops from Business Planning to Protecting Your Ideas and E-Business Planning this Autumn get in touch with Sujata Vaishnav Tel: 020 8 223 7286/3301, Email: s.vaishnav@uel.ac.uk
To find out more about the wide range of E-Learning applications available to us in our everyday work, visit:
UEL Plus info: http://www.uel.ac.uk/uelplus/index.htm
SDEL staff development: http://www.uel.ac.uk/sdel/staff_development/index.htm
E-Learning Resources: http://www.uel.ac.uk/sdel/e_learning/resources.htm
Please send comments or contributions for in Focus Update to: infocus@uel.ac.uk
Please print off a copy of In Focus Update for those of your colleagues who may not have easy access to email.
© 2007
