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Welcome to our weekly in Focus update...... |
Past Issues << | Issue 77: Tuesday 6 November 2007 |
Corinne Squire (pictured), Professor of Social Sciences and Co-director of our internationally-renowned Centre for Narrative Research, recently conducted a three-year interview study of 37 ordinary people infected or affected by HIV in South Africa.
Her resulting book, HIV in South Africa, offers an overview of the country’s epidemic within the context of the global HIV pandemic, as well as a review of the controversial history of HIV and responses to it in South Africa.
Professor Squire said: “The main focus of my book is how people live with the HIV virus: how they find and use conventional and traditional medical treatments; how they deal with issues about their partners’ and children’s HIV status; and how they talk to their family and friends about the disease.
“Currently, we are experiencing a period in which universal HIV treatment and prevention are medically and socially possible, and politically endorsed, yet remain poorly implemented. The South African epidemic provides key insights into numerous HIV issues affecting both developed and developing countries.
“By examining the close relationship between personal accounts of living with HIV and the wider medical, religious and political representations of HIV, my book aims to shed light on the significance of class, race and gender for different individuals' experiences."
HIV in South Africa is published by Routledge and available in all good bookshops, as well as at amazon.co.uk and other book-selling websites (ISBN: 978-0-415-37210-7).
Our Charter Mark assessor, Paul Harrington, returns on Thursday 29 November to check on our success in maintaining the Charter Mark standard for customer service excellence, and to see what action we have taken in response to the suggested areas of improvement when we were successfully awarded our Charter Mark in November, 2006.
Secretary and Registrar, Alan Ingle, will be leading a tour of new facilities, which have become available since Paul's last visit as well as improvements we've made to existing ones. These include: the Student Village and new residences, the Student Services accommodation, possibly a visit to the Barking Learning Centre, as well as our student helpdesks.
A reas that we were asked to look at are: better management of our noticeboards (an important source of information for students and staff) ; more consistent methods of collecting student feedback at our helpdesks; wider use of the Two Ticks logo and what it stands for ; more publicity for how well we are meeting our Student Charter commitments ; and improved room utilisation.
Alan Ingle said: " I am grateful for the hard work put in by the Charter Mark project team and indeed by many other colleagues. We've made improvements in each of the areas we were asked to review to improve our student focus and our commitment to customer care. If the assessor is satisfied with these improvements and with our record in maintaining the standard he will no longer need to visit us on an annual basis until the automatic three -year review of our Charter Mark status comes up."
Pictured: Alan Ingle receives the Charter Mark award from Paul Harrington at our Semester B Freshers' Fayre, February 2007. Salsa dancers participating in the Fayre share their enthusiasm! Charter Mark is a government award for excellence in customer service. For more information about Charter Mark , visit: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/chartermark.aspx
Academic Integrity Week (AIW), starts Monday 12 November!.
Recent press coverage has suggested that maintaining rigour in academic integrity and "cheating" are significant problems for universities.
In practice, we realise that the concepts of academic integrity and plagiarism are not as widely understood as they once were, and we cannot assume that our students know what these terms mean.
To address this we are taking positive steps to ensure that our students understand what is expected of them, and the consequences of any breaches of assessment regulations.
Academic Integrity Week is one of these positive steps. During the Week, we will highlight our new Academic Integrity Policy, drawing attention to the standards of academic practice that we expect of all members of our community.
Posters, a leaflet and the plasma screens will promote our policies and procedures, such as: the PLATO guidance on acknowledging references, and our new UEL Plus academic integrity site.. This site will contain our new policy and revised regulations, a student guide to academic integrity and host a number of resources to help students improve their academic writing skills.
We would like you to:
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tell your students that it is Academic Integrity Week
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use our new policy when discussing academic integrity
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draw our students’ attention to the sites mentioned below
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get involved and help make sure that Academic Integrity Week is a success!
You can fond our new Academic Integrity Policy at http://www.uel.ac.uk/qa/documents/AcademicIntegrityPolicy.doc
For PLATO guidance on referencing visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/lls/index.htm
The clocks have gone back, winter’s here (today anyway!), and the long dark nights are drawing in – so right now, global warming might seem a million miles away! But, even in the depths of an East London winter, there are things we can all do to help protect not just the planet, but our own environment here at UEL – and help us save money at the same time!
So, here are In Focus’s Top Tips to help make UEL a truly green university, reduce costs and carbon emissions, save money, and give ourselves a nice warm glow inside this winter!
1 Last one out switch off the lights…
With dark winter days, we need lights on to help us work, but it’s too easy to leave them after we’ve finished. A recent survey in the City of London showed that businesses are literally burning money, adding £17 MILLION a year to their energy bills by leaving lights on in empty rooms – and that’s just in the Square Mile! Meanwhile, the 200,000 tonnes of extra carbon dioxide created is equivalent to a whopping 346,000 flights from London to New York.
So, if you see an empty room with the lights on, or if you’re leaving a room that’s going to be unused, turn off the lights and stop that energy going to waste! Make sure that nice warm glow is inside you, not an empty room!
2 Switch off equipment
Similarly, hundreds of computers, projectors, printers, etc are left on in empty lecture rooms or offices overnight. Again, switching them off could make huge savings in emissions and costs.
3 Close the window!
If your meeting or class has finished, making sure any open windows are closed will ensure the heat stays in the building, and the cold stays out!
We can also help our campus environment in other ways too, keeping it as a beautiful place in which to work and study:
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Use the litter bins, both inside rooms and outside, and keep our campuses litter free
- Report maintenance faults to our Facilities Helpdesk on Ext: 2000
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When putting posters, flip-chart pages, etc on walls, make sure you use Blu-tak rather than tape or pins, and remove them again when you’ve finished with them
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If you need to move furniture within a classroom, make sure it’s put back afterwards!
Of course, we can’t promise that doing this will stop Antarctica from becoming the new Costa del Sol, or even the new Southend-on-Sea for that matter, but as they say…every little helps!
Chris Norman, Docklands Campus Manager would like to create a Keep our campuses beautiful code of conduct which can be displayed in our teaching rooms and public spaces. He would also like to hear your suggestions as to what we can include, so if you want to help reduce our energy consumption and improve the look and feel of our shared spaces get in touch with Chris; Email: c.norman@uel.ac.uk
Narrative Research and the Challenge of Accumulating Knowledge (Weds 14 Nov 5pm refreshments, lecture 5:30- 7:00 pm; King's College) by Professor Ruthellen Josselson. This is the third, annual, Public Lecture co-organised by our Centre for Narrative Research and King's College's Centre for Language, Discourse, and Communication.
Our Centre for Narrative Research, also, has an exciting programme of forthcoming research seminars. For more details visit:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/events/graduate.htm
For more information and for details of the Prof Ruthellen Josselson public lecture, please contact Dr Molly Andrews on Email: m.andrews@uel.ac.uk
Separations of soul: the solitary self in history (Thursday 15 Nov Light refreshments at 5.30 pm. The lecture is followed by a wine reception 6 - 7.30 pm West Building Lecture Theatre, Docklands Campus) Inaugural Lecture by Professor Barbara Taylor. Introduction by Professor Sally Alexander of Goldsmiths College.
In this lecture, Barbara Taylor follows Mary Wollstonecraft on her Scandinavian journey, using her experiences and reflections on solitude as a route into an investigation of the complex relationships between self, psyche and history. Barbara Taylor is an intellectual and cultural historian, author of Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the 19th Century (Virago 1983), which won the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize, and Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination (Cambridge UP, 2003). She is an editor of History Workshop Journal, and co-director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre (UEL). Between 1998 and 2001 Barbara directed a Leverhulme-funded international research project on gender and Enlightenment (Women, Gender and Enlightenment, co-eds Knott and Taylor, Palgrave 2005). Barbara has held many research awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Barbara is currently writing a history of solitude in Enlightenment Britain.
How the white working class became ‘chav’: formations of class and race in Essex further education colleges ( Weds 21 Nov 6pm Lecture Theatre 300LT, Stratford Campus) by Dr John Preston, School of Education. The term ‘chav’ recently entered the Oxford English Dictionary. Like its American equivalent, ‘white trash’, ‘chav’ is generally used as a term of abuse, identifying its subject with bad taste, low education and anti-social behavioural patterns. Little consideration has as yet been given to how real people are affected by the use of this derogatory stereotype.
Through an in depth study of white, working class students studying vocational subjects in Essex, Dr John Preston, Senior Lecturer in Citizenship and Education, has uncovered lecturer discourses and college practices that parody students as vulgar, over-consuming and over-sexualised stereotypes. Dr Preston's most recent book, ‘Whiteness and class in education’ (Springer, 2007), investigates the idea that the white working class is being ‘re-racialised’ – differentiated from the white middle and ruling classes. In his UEL public lecture, Dr Preston will examine this development and explain how its implications affect the practices of everyone employed in education.
If you would like to register for one of the Public Lectures, please contact Franc Gooding 020 8223 2884 or email: f.gooding@uel.ac.uk
For full listings check:
Events webpages: http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/events/index.htm
Public Lectures webpages: http://www.uel.ac.uk/lectureseries/
Wednesday 7 November, Docklands campus.
This one-day conference explores how we can use the one-off opportunity of the London 2012 Games to create both quick wins and sustainable gains in public health, regeneration, sustainable place-making, individual and community well-being and quality of life.
This conference is a chance to create new coalitions for change and explore more effective ways of working together. Join participants including Richard Budgett (Chief Medical Officer, London 2012), Sarah Ebanja (London Development Agency), Nic Marks (New Economics Foundation), government, NHS, voluntary sector staff, policy and development professionals, practitioners and researchers.
For more information and to book your place online visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/health2012/
Thursday 8 November, Docklands Campus.
Come along to a special one-day conference, Positive Psychology, Well-being and Business, featuring a keynote speech from world-renowned psychologist Professor Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology.
For more details and to register, visit www.uel.ac.uk/positiveconference or contact Sue Meade on 020 8223 4428.
School of Education - Thursday 8 November - 2pm
This year our honorary graduates at the School of Education Graduation Ceremony are
Rolf Harris (pictured left at the Royal Opening of our Business School in February), headteacher John D’Abbro and Councillor Balvinder Kaur Saund JP
Honoraries to come, include: actress, Tamzin Outhwaite; architect, David Adjaye, former Chair of Governors, Dr Marie Stewart and George Iacobescu CBE, CEO of Canary Wharf Group
For more details about our graduation ceremonies, visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/graduation
David Woodhouse has provided a series of links so that we can access information and news from our Academic Board, Governing Body and Corporate Management Team.
Please see the following links:
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!
DISCOUNTS AND COMPETITION TO THE COLLINS STEWART LONDON BOAT SHOW AS IT CELEBRATES ITS 54TH YEAR 11 – 20 JANUARY 2008
We have five pairs of tickets up for grabs for the Collins Stewart London Boat Show.
London’s largest annual event, the Collins Stewart London Boat Show, will take place at ExCeL - the heart of London’s entertainment district - from 11-20 January 2008. Now in its 54th year the Show promises to offer something for all – from seasoned enthusiasts to boat novices simply interested to discover what all the excitement is about.
The Collins Stewart London Boat Show will welcome some 140,000 people, encouraging visitors to take to the waters sailing, boating and to partake in activities both on and under the water.
To enter the competition click here http://www.londonboatshow.com/features/competitions/competition1/
Competition closes on 18 November 2008.
If you are not lucky winner of one of the five pairs of tickets, then why not purchase your tickets in advance and receive £4 off your ticket when booking in advance by calling 0870 060 0246 or booking online at www.londonboatshow.com and Quote ‘UELStaff’
Terms & Conditions: This offer excludes Press & Preview day (11th Jan). Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Available weekdays only between 14 – 18 January 2008. For full terms and conditions visit www.londonboatshow.com.
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
Simply click here for the dates for Staff Development courses:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/staff-development/documents/ForthcomingStaffDevelopmentCoursesOct-NOv07.doc
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
..and our exciting series of workshops, public lectures and exhibitions have all come to a close - with the exception an exhibition of some our black and minority ethnic alumni, entitled; Where are they now.
Curated by our Development and Alumni Officer, Emma Cale the exhibition remains in the Docklands Atrium until Weds (7 Nov). So, hurry to catch it!
Keeping the peace?
Over a hundred people joined us last Wednesday (31 October) to take part inan exciting panel debate about gang culture, and a series of poetry readings.
Poets Michelle Marie, Morgan Dalphinis, and shortMAN (pictured) performed their acclaimed work and were then joined on stage by local magistrate Justin Moore MBE, youth advisor Belinda Creary, and Education and Community Development lecturer, Lionel McCalman, for a debate entitled Keeping the peace? Gangs, culture and identity.
Morgan Dalphinis, resident poet and senior faculty manager at Newham College, said: “The key to addressing contemporary problems is reflecting on our history of resistance, revolt and revolution.
"These themes must be readapted and channelled towards building a positive black identity, working diligently to gain a good education and competing effectively to secure worthwhile employment.”
The lively debate explored a wide range of issues, including the role of the media, the rise of gun crime, and the changing relationship between children and adults. Panellists and audience members expressed a variety of ideas and opinions on everything from youth clubs to recent school exclusion statistics.
shortMAN, one of the most sought-after performers on the UK poetry circuit, said: “Gangs aren’t necessarily a bad thing – if anything, we should be encouraging young people to come together in groups. What’s crucial is that we ensure they have something enjoyable and constructive to do when they meet.”
Belinda Creary, who works for the Connexions youth support service, agreed that attitudes towards young people have become skewed by negativity. Belinda said: “Far too much emphasis is put on what’s going wrong – what we really need to do is focus on what’s going right! The vast majority of young people I come across are positive and well-mannered; unfortunately, it’s the minority who steal all the headlines.”
Belinda’s daughter Carla Harris (11), a student at Bishop Chanellor’s School in Tower Hamlets, concluded the event by reading a poem that she had written specially for the occasion.
Please send comments or contributions for in Focus Update to: infocus@uel.ac.uk
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© 2007
