ALSS Newsletter April 2012

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The first annual conference of CoDE – Cultures of the Digital Economy– Research Institute was held in Cambridge on 27-28 March. A multidisciplinary initiative, CoDE invited participants from a range of scholarly disciplines to present research related to digital culture and the digital economy. What is CoDE? CoDE is a network of academics working across all aspects of media theory and network culture. Key emerging research areas for the Institute include social media and network politics, digital performance and production, digital humanities and play, and serious gaming. CoDE fosters a critical and experimental interdisciplinary research environment and - through projects, seminars and published research - aims to explore the role of current and emerging technologies in a creative context. Moreover, its location in Cambridge offers excellent opportunities for collaboration with entertainment, technological, scientific, arts and the heritage industries. Coming together On the eve of the conference delegates attended a performance which saw Anna Scott deliver a mesmerising recital of cello and voice with digital looping effects, as well as Julio d’Escrivan and the Mechanical and Electroacoustic Music Ensemble performing experimental and improvised sounds to create a live film soundtrack. The evening was rounded off by dinner and drinks, which enabled a social and informal approach to academic discussion and networking. continues on page 7 Arts, Law & Social Sciences Faculty of April 2012 • Edition 2 Welcome to our second biannual newsletter. As a Faculty we are shaped by our individual and collective successes and this newsletter aims to provide a round-up of some of the best or most unique. There are no prizes for the quiz but there might be a few surprises! Prof Derrik Ferney Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor First annual CoDE conference takes place The CoDE team, L-R: Leah Tether, Rob Toulson, Seb Franklin, Samantha Rayner, Michelle Lewis-King, Jason Slater

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News items from the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, April 2012

Transcript of ALSS Newsletter April 2012

Page 1: ALSS Newsletter April 2012

The first annual conference of CoDE – Cultures of the Digital Economy– Research Institute was held in Cambridge on 27-28 March.

A multidisciplinary initiative, CoDE invited participants from a range of scholarly disciplines to present research related to digital culture and the digital economy.

What is CoDE?

CoDE is a network of academics working across all aspects of media theory and network culture. Key emerging research areas for the Institute include social media and network politics, digital performance and production, digital humanities and play, and serious gaming. CoDE fosters a critical and experimental interdisciplinary research environment and - through projects, seminars and published research - aims to explore the role of current and emerging technologies in a creative context. Moreover, its location in Cambridge offers excellent opportunities for collaboration with entertainment, technological, scientific, arts and the heritage industries.

Coming together

On the eve of the conference delegates attended a performance which saw Anna Scott deliver a mesmerising recital of cello and voice with digital looping effects, as well as Julio d’Escrivan and the Mechanical and Electroacoustic Music Ensemble performing experimental and improvised sounds to create a live film soundtrack. The evening was rounded off by dinner and drinks, which enabled a social and informal approach to academic discussion and networking.

continues on page 7

Arts, Law & Social SciencesFaculty of

April 2012 • Edition 2

Welcome to our second biannual newsletter. As a Faculty we are shaped by our individual and collective successes and this newsletter aims to provide a round-up of some of the best or most unique.

There are no prizes for the quiz but there might be a few surprises!

Prof Derrik Ferney

Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor

First annual CoDE conference takes place

The CoDE team, L-R: Leah Tether, Rob Toulson, Seb Franklin, Samantha Rayner, Michelle Lewis-King, Jason Slater

Page 2: ALSS Newsletter April 2012

Kinections in gaming worldJames Avery is already making a name for himself in the gaming industry, despite being only two-thirds of the way through his BA (Hons) Computer Games and Visual Effects degree at Cambridge School of Art. Head-hunted by Cambridge-based gaming company Frontier Developments (www.frontier.co.uk) last year, James has seen the release of his first video game, Kinect Disneyland Adventures - a collaboration with Microsoft Game Studios and Disney. James describes how his dream career was launched, “I always attend the game jams that my tutor organises for us. Afterwards, industry professionals usually come and check out the results, and Frontier saw my work on display. Next thing I know, I’m opening up an email from Frontier’s Director of Production, and being offered an interview for the role of Visual Effects Artist within the company! I couldn’t believe my eyes!”

Kinect Disneyland Adventures is the first game featuring ‘open-world’ navigation on Kinect and features over 100 hours of game play. James’ role as Visual Effects Artist is to create all the elements that bring the game to life and add magic. The only visual effects artist working on the project, James’ flair for visual effects has secured him a promising future in the industry. As David Walsh, Managing Director at Frontier, explains, “Jay came to our attention through Brains Eden where his work was on display. Frontier is always looking for new, talented individuals who demonstrate particularly strong visual effects skills. Jay‘s skills in this area, as well as particle simulations and real-time lighting, really stood out. He has a great career ahead of him with us!”

In March 2012 Anglia Ruskin was pleased to support an NSPCC charity Fashion Show and Auction, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Childline. Organised by the NSPCC in conjunction with local fashion retailers, Dr Wendy Moody and students from the BA (Hons) Fashion Design pathway, all proceeds from the event went to the charity.

The event included a fashion and luxury prize auction with celebrity

auctioneer Will Axon; clothing from Cuckoo, Le Rêve Lingerie and Cambridge School of Art Fashion Design students; bespoke hats from milliner Abigail Crampton; and guest speaker Sue Minto, Head of Childline.

Cambridge School of Art

NEWS

For more Cambridge School of Art news: www.anglia.ac.uk/csanews

Charity Fashion Show comes to Anglia Ruskin

Two books on African Land Law, Essays in African Land Law and Local Case Studies in African Land Law edited by Rob Home, Professor of Land Management, have been published by Pretoria University Law Press. The volumes bring together contributions from 22 experts, including African and international academics and consultants. Many of the contributors are lawyers but also planners, land surveyors, geographers and social scientists.

Professor Rob Home was invited to edit these volumes by Pretoria University Law Press as part of a project on the rule of law, sponsored by the World Bank.

This year’s finals of the National Client Interviewing Competition were held at Sussex University on 3 March 2012. Having won their regional heat, Anglia Law School’s team of Lauren Norris and Craig Patterson were competing in the finals against eight other law schools from England and Wales.The competition was set in the context of Employers and

Employees, requiring each team of two students to interview three new “clients” to obtain information on their employment issue and then give appropriate advice. Lauren and Craig, who were coached in the run up to the competition by Michelle McCanna, were awarded the prize for the best Legal Practice Course/Bar Vocational Training Course team and were presented with a trophy in recognition.

solicitors’ firms and the Bar Council. LawCareers.Net, which is a comprehensive online resource for future lawyers and recruiters, were also present, as were our own LPC tutors to give advice to undergraduates wishing to qualify as solicitors. This was the first law fair held at Anglia Ruskin and a similar event is being planned for the Cambridge campus this year, with a view to holding an annual Law Fair on each campus.

Anglia Law School

NEWS

Understanding of International Law vital to our students

During March Anglia Law School was delighted to welcome back eminent lawyer Professor Ian Blackshaw who joined us to deliver an intensive programme of training in Alternative Dispute Resolution to our LLM International Business Law students.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is rapidly becoming a key focus of the international legal environment and continues to be a very important and popular part of our students’ LLM studies.

Students currently studying on the LLM come from not only the UK and the European Union but also such diverse legislative regimes as Nigeria, Cameroon, Jordan, UAE, Iran, Mexico, Paraguay, the USA and Vietnam enabling them to share experiences of ADR within their own jurisdictions.

For more Anglia Law School news:www.anglia.ac.uk/lawnews

On the afternoon of 13 February a very successful Law Fair was held on the Chelmsford campus organised by Sarah Kempster, Employability Coordinator in Student Services.

The Fair was attended by both LLB and Legal Practice Course students who were able to speak to, and gain valuable advice and information from, representatives from a number of prestigious

Creative Front Cambridgeshire, part of our university, lead the month-long Design Icons Festival in February of this year, as one of a series of programmes that shared in the Design Council’s £100,000 Design Fund for Growth initiative. Over 80 products were nominated as leading designs to come out of Cambridgeshire. A selection of panel industry experts shortlisted the best products which represented Cambridge design to appear in the exhibition, including the ‘People’s Choice’ as voted for by members of the public.

Chris Owen, Head of Cambridge School of Art, and chair of the panel of judges said “Cambridgeshire’s design technology is not just focused on Silicon Fen. As well as digital innovations, the county is also home to some of the most iconic modern product designs, from utilitarian household mops, to kettles, calculators, mobile phones, hi-fi systems and the very latest medical equipment.”

Some of the interesting products on show included the Vileda Magic Mop 2, developed by Origin Product Design, and the SureFlap cat flap which was developed by Cambridge Industrial Design.

Talented artists in the spotlight

Illustrators Heidi Deedman and Becky Palmer have been named as the inaugural winners of the Sebastian Walker Award, sponsored by leading children’s publisher Walker Books. The prize, for the most promising Anglia Ruskin University Children’s Book Illustration student of 2012, was made at Foyles Bookshop in London, where the course’s Graduation Exhibition is held annually.

The news comes as two of our recent graduates have been shortlisted for the prestigious Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2012. No! by Marta Altes and Nadia Shireen’s Good Little Wolf are in the six-strong Picture Books category.

Sebastian Walker Award winners Heidi Deedman and Becky Palmer share the £500 prize and will also have their MA project considered on a first-option basis by Walker Books.

Deirdre McDermott, Walker Books’ Picture Book Publisher, said: “The high standard of illustration from the Children’s Book Illustration MA students is recognised worldwide, and the students’ work this year is no exception.”

Visualise this!The Visualise public art programme has commissioned a range of contemporary artists and curators to work with our University to create exciting public art projects, exhibitions, workshops and events across Cambridge.

Rather than taking the traditional public art approach of sculptures in public spaces, Visualise is embracing our University’s areas of excellence in fine art, media arts and digital technologies to create projects that will enable us to explore the public spaces within Cambridge and our campus in new ways.

Spring 2012 sees three Visualise exhibitions at the Ruskin Gallery. These have already included N. Dust from Liliane Lijn, internationally renowned poet and visual artist, and the exhibition Between, featuring artists Susan Aldworth and Karen Ingham. Poetry, Language, Code and Games Artists Play focusing on the interrelationship of text code and visual image will be exhibited at the Ruskin Gallery in June.

Competition winners

Law Fair a huge success

Two members of Anglia Law School have delivered papers to the ALSS Research Seminar series this year. Tom Serby presented a paper entitled ‘It’s not cricket: matchfixing and the Law’. Tom discussed his research into this highly topical area and particularly looked at the issue in the context of the European Union’s newly acquired legal competence in the area of sport, online gambling legislation and the jail sentences recently handed down to international cricketers.

Julia Ramsay also delivered a paper in which she discussed the effectiveness of Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) which were introduced in 1986 to provide a statutory alternative to bankruptcy for insolvent debtors. Julia’s paper examined whether IVAs have successfully achieved their aim in light of the changing profile of debtors and shifting attitudes towards debt over the past 25 years.

It’s not cricket!

Susan Aldworth - Going Native

Below: Tom Serby and Julia Ramsay

African Land Law

Design Icons at the Ruskin Gallery

Two volumes on African Land Law edited by Robert Home

Nadia Shireen and Marta Altes Nadia Shireen’s The Good Little Wolf

Page 3: ALSS Newsletter April 2012

A new book co-edited and co-written by Dr David Skinner, Reader in Sociology, analyses the changing politics of race, racism and science. Published in December 2011, Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging (Berghahn) considers how and why racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in a variety of spheres including medicine, forensics, population genetics and popular genealogy. It explores the implications of these developments which together mean that ethnic and racial identities are more likely to be understood in biological terms.

Sahra Gibbon of University College London said,

“This is an important and extremely timely collection that will inform ongoing and evolving discussions within the social sciences and beyond about the changing relationship between identity and genomics. It captures and contributes to an emerging moment in social science engagement with genomics and issues of identity and the politics of difference.”

Dr Skinner’s own research focuses on race, racism and forensic DNA databases. He is co-founder of a new cross-European network of researchers into science and identity politics Technologies of Belonging.

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Academic Clarissa Campbell Orr has been appointed as the new President of The Society for Court Studies.

Campbell Orr, Reader in Enlightenment, Gender and Court Studies, follows historian David Starkey and most recently Simon Thurley CBE, the Chief Executive of English Heritage, in the role.

From the Pharaohs until the twentieth century, royal courts dominated politics, society and the arts, and The Society for Court Studies was founded to promote the study and understanding of courts across the world.

“They wanted someone in full-time academic life as they felt it would be useful to bring together the different disciplines,” said Campbell Orr. “The Society for

Court Studies has members ranging from social and cultural historians to people who specialise in the material culture of the past, such as buildings and costumes.”

Campbell Orr’s appointment is particularly timely, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June set to put the monarchy firmly in the spotlight. She added: “It’s going to be fascinating reflecting on the last 60 years, not least because so much has changed during her reign.

“There’s obviously going to be a great deal of media coverage of the royal family, but I think that’s important because if they are being supported through the public purse then the public wants to see how that money is being spent.”

Campbell Orr will be amongst the academics taking part in The Making of Monarchy for the Modern World conference from 6-8 June. The event will be held at Kensington Palace to mark its reopening following refurbishment.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

NEWS

For more HSS news:www.anglia.ac.uk/hssnews

On Tuesday 21 February, a panel of experts, including Booker Prize shortlisted author Jill Paton-Walsh, debated the latest hot topics in digital publishing - including the seemingly unstoppable rise of the ebook.

‘All the World’s a Page: Spreading the Word in the Digital Age,’ was sponsored by Anglia Ruskin’s Cultures of the Digital Economy (CoDE) Research Institute and chaired by Colin Walsh of Book Production Consultants and founder of the Publishing in Cambridge Association (PICA).

The Question Time-style event debated how best to disseminate digital information to different cultural and commercial sectors, an essential concept for writers, publishers, booksellers, entrepreneurs, academics or anyone interested in the latest technological advances.

Dr Samantha Rayner, Director of CoDE, said: “This event is all about creative communication; the ways we can connect with people through the internet and other digital formats.”

Our congratulations go to Juliet Binns and Julia Young, the first winners of the Cambridge University Press scholarship for our MA Publishing degree course.

This new bursary was offered to the authors of best blogs created to record the learning and experience gained from the MA course.

After receiving the scholarship,

Julia said: “May I take this opportunity to thank CUP for awarding me this bursary, which has given me a great confidence boost. I am grateful for this prize as it has further encouraged me to develop, and further improve upon, my online presence.”

The 2012 Cambridge University Press scholarship will provide £1200 towards tuition fees.

English, Communication, Film & Media

NEWS

For more ECFM news:www.anglia.ac.uk/ecfmnews

By Sally ClineThe police were out in droves searching every taxi and car that arrived with excited British writers who had been invited by Her Majesty The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens.

The reception was intended to recognise those involved in Dickensian heritage and scholarship as well as in the wider fields of literature and the theatre. As a biographer and Adviser to the Royal Literary Fund I fell into the wider field category and knew my place! That place involved being presented to both their Royal Highnesses and learning a great deal about Royal protocol and etiquette.

Many University colleagues began my training session for curtseying and learning the linguistic protocol of calling the Queen “Her Majesty” the first time I spoke and then “Ma’am” thereafter, and calling the Duke “His Royal Highness” the first time and “Sir” after that.

I can report from inside several reception rooms and galleries not usually open to the public that all that glitters is gold. And a great deal that does not glitter is also gold. The tapestries, paintings, chandeliers and hangings were beautiful but overwhelming in their ornateness. If you like spare lines, muted colours, sleek shapes these are not the rooms for you.

The equerries did a wonderful job of constantly moving on guests from one room to another until presentation time. Then each person’s name was called out twice and it was time for the correctly achieved curtsey. I did not make any mistakes. I remembered that the Queen was the Royal Literary Fund’s patron so she knew of our work and was obviously at ease making small talk with five hundred strangers. Her skin was as untouched by lines as it is possible for skin that has avoided the dreaded Botox to be. She is as tiny as one sees on TV and film, she has indomitable grace and resolution.

I felt as if I had been in a film, and was watching myself in a film. I was not a Royalist and am not now but as a writer it was an extraordinary and intriguing occasion in which to participate and on which to report.

• Elaine Bishop and Guin Glasfurd Brown have both received a prestigious Escalator Award. This year saw the highest number of applicants that the prize has so far received, and the organizers said the standard was the highest too, so this is a fantastic achievement. One of our BA (Hons) Writing and Drama graduates, Simon Coard, was also highly commended.Great success all round!

Further success for Creative Writing graduatesA number of our MA Creative Writing graduates have been in touch recently to tell us about their successes:• Penny Hancock’s book Tideline has been extensively well reviewed in various publications including Marie Claire, The Sun and The Daily Mail. There was also a very positive mention for the book in The Guardian’s crime round-up.• Kaddy Benyon has been shortlisted for the Salt Crashaw Prize for her collection of poetry.

A glimpse inside the palace

Spreading the word about the ebook revolution

On Wednesday 7 December, BA (Hons) Film Studies, in collaboration with Long Road and the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, welcomed director Richard Jobson to discuss his feature film The Somnambulists.Made as a response to the Iraq war, the film has been described as a ‘semi-documentary’, though Jobson does not see his film as a documentary.

Film Studies lecturer Neil Archer spoke to Jobson about his work and inspiration, with clips from Jobson’s past and forthcoming films screened as part of the event. The event was followed by a screening of the film at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, which our students were able to attend for free.

Director’s visit

MA Publishing hails first CUP scholarship winners

Launch event

Anglia Ruskin academic courted for new role

Criminology Open Lecture Series

Dr. Sally Cline

Screencap from The Somnambulists

Clarissa Campbell-Orr

On 8 February 2012, Anglia

Ruskin University, in partnership

with the Historical Association,

Cambridge, held a launch

event for Cambridge History

Enterprises. The initiative

pioneers new ways of using

media to communicate the past

to the people of Cambridge,

including a new, free history

magazine for Cambridge,

‘History Fix’, and a new history

radio show, ‘The Cambridge

Time Travellers’, to be broadcast

on Envision radio.

Dr Sean Lang, Senior Lecturer

in History and President of

the Cambridge Branch of the

Historical Association, organised

the launch, which included the

première of the documentary

film ‘The Church That Rose From

the Dead’, (made by Cambridge

Film in association with Anglia

Ruskin University).

A new collections of essays, co-edited by Professor John Shepherd, Dr Jonathan Davis (Anglia Ruskin University) and Professor Chris Wrigley (University of Nottingham), reappraises the history of Ramsay MacDonald’s second Labour government during the 1929-31 global financial crisis.

Published by Manchester University Press in January 2012, this book brings together valuable new research by leading historians from Britain and the USA.

In analysing the myths and realities of MacDonald’s minority administration, it sheds fresh light on Labour’s domestic policies, electoral and party matters, relations with the Soviet Union and ideological questions.

Fresh perspectives on Britain’s second Labour government

The Criminology Open Lecture Series has been a success with a variety of lectures taking place, culminating in a high-profile debate and Q&A session on Thursday 22 March.

The well-attended debate saw lively discussion take place between guest panelists Andy Hayman, Caroline Jaine and Ian Shields, with the chairing duties being handled expertly by Carina O’Reilly. Hayman, the retired police officer responsible for the investigation into the 7 July London bombings, joined Jaine who has taught strategy to senior UN Officials, and Shields who is a founder member of the UK Defence Staff’s Strategic Planning Forum, in this stimulating debate, which presented different but complementary perspectives on counter-terrorism and legitimacy. The chair, Carina O’Reilly, has worked as a freelance defence and security analyst, and chaired debates at Chatham House, so naturally her questions were perceptive and challenging, as were the questions from the audience.

The Criminology Open Lecture Series will continue in September when we aim to have an exciting range of topical and diverse speakers and seminar sessions at a regular time.

Exploring the politics

of race and genetics

This is an excerpt, to read the full story go to www.anglia.ac.uk/ecfmnews

Page 4: ALSS Newsletter April 2012

To submit items to be considered for the next ALSS newsletter please ensure you send regular news updates to the ALSS Marketing team.

Book CollaborationA new jointly edited book Music Therapy in Schools - Working with Children of All Ages in Mainstream and Special Education (published by Jessica Kingsley) shows how our Music Therapy department continues to lead the field. The book demonstrates the variety of work taking place in different educational settings across the UK.

The book has been edited by a lecturer, a graduate and a current student of Anglia Ruskin University; Amelia Oldfield, Jo Tomlinson and Philippa Derrington.

The foreword by former General Inspector for Music and Culture in Cambridgeshire, Dr. Frankie Williams, concluded: “I can recommend this book wholeheartedly; we can all learn from it - all who are connected with children and young people.”

Music & Performing Arts

NEWS

Digital Performance Laboratory inaugural residency and concertThe Digital Performance Laboratory (DPL) at the Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute (CoDE) held a concert in December to mark two events; the culmination of a two week inaugural residency by Dr Till Bovermann, a post-doctoral researcher on tangible and auditory interfaces at Media Lab Helsinki, and the public unveiling of the DPL’s innovative custom Headphone Concert System.

The concert, given by Dr Bovermann and Dr Tom Hall (Department of Music and Performing Arts), was entitled ‘Chip Interpretations’, and utilised both multichannel conventional speaker arrangement, as well as headphones for each audience member. The theme of the concert, and part of Dr Bovermann’s current research, questioned the notion of discrete information in relation to the very nature of digital material and its representation in sound.

Dr Bovermann said of his time in Cambridge: “The fortnight residency in the Digital Performance Laboratory was an invaluable opportunity to focus on my research in a lively research environment...and a highlight of my stay was combining these elements in a performance with Tom Hall in a concert at Anglia Ruskin. We hope to extend this research further in the near future.” Dr Bovermann’s residency was sponsored by the Media Lab Helsinki.

For more MPA news:www.anglia.ac.uk/mpanews

Band Showcase successIn December 2011, the Department of Music and Performing Arts engaged in a collaborative effort with the Audio Music Technology (AMT) society and the Students’ Union to host a band showcase night as part of our Music Performance Studies modules. The night was held in the Students’ Union Academy on campus, and featured seven bands made up of Music, Creative Music Technology, and Popular Music pathway students. There was a range of music on offer, from heavy metal versions of Adele hits, to Nikki Minaj, to large-scale original compositions.

The event was well attended, and there was also a live stream broadcasted worldwide through the ustream website (thanks to 3rd year Music student and performer Sarah Shek), and as the word got out on Facebook we had an audience from places such as Greece, Slovenia, Belgium, China, and even America.

Festival Week (28 May) will see a range of performances and collaborations in the department, as well as the week before (21 May) when we will be hosting Popular Music recitals in The Academy. Watch this space!

For most violinists the chance to play an original Stradivarius violin is something of a dream, but one which came true for final year music student Mateja Kaluza. She performed musical extracts from Bach and Lalo as part of an illustrated lecture on the great Italian instrument maker given by Anglia Ruskin honorary

doctorate Nigel Brown as part of the popular Friday Lunch-time Concert Series. Nigel has pioneered the use of syndicated trusts to fund instrument purchases; the Stradivari Trust has enabled talented young instrumentalists to also get their hands on these precious instruments. “This was

Performing on the world’s biggest stage

BA (Hons) Performing Arts student Alicia Morton is preparing to perform in front of 80,000 people - and an estimated world-wide television audience of over one billion - after being selected to take part in the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympic Games.

Alicia has secured a role as a dancer in “Isles of Wonder”. The London 2012 curtain-raiser will be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle and is inspired by a line in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. 20 year old Alicia won through two gruelling auditions to land the role, she said: “The biggest audience I have ever performed in front of is about 250, so the thought of 80,000 people and everyone watching on TV is a bit scary.”

Dr Gianna Bouchard, Programme Leader for Performing Arts, said: “We are very proud of Alicia. Her achievement in being selected for the opening celebrations is testament to her commitment and work over the last 3 years...We shall all be looking out for her on the night and supporting her.”

In Your Dreams...

Student Mateja Kaluza

L-R: Jo Tomlinson, Amelia Oldfield, Philippa Derrington

Student Alicia Morton

a fantastic experience for all, not least Mateja...” added concert series director Alan Rochford “...and I was so relieved she didn’t drop it!!”

CoDE conferencecontinued from Page 1

The conference itself embraced all aspects of the digital economy and utilised digital methods of communication and interaction. Jessica Thompson gave her paper presentation live from Toronto via Skype. A conference iPhone app was also made available, whilst delegates were kept up-to-date on presentations and research outputs through CoDE’s new Twitter feed, with over 150 tweets posted on the first day. Keynote speakers were Dr Jussi Parikka (Southampton University) and Dr Astrid Ensslin (Bangor University), whilst the main themes covered included ‘Materiality and Materialism’, ‘Performance, Production and Play’, and ‘Digital Humanities - Archives, Interfaces and Tools’.

The CoDE team were also extremely proud to see our very first CoDE research student Michelle Lewis-King present at the conference. Of her presentation Michelle said: “Never having presented at a conference before, I was really surprised to find that, after nervously writing my paper and fretting about how I’d come across on the day, it was actually an exhilarating experience.

“Not only did it give me the opportunity to connect with others working on similar research, it was fascinating to witness the emergence of certain themes arising from the other papers being presented, which spoke more about what is ‘in the air’ at the moment. Having the platform to present my research to such a wide range of academics and receive their diverse and insightful feedback has accelerated my learning, given opportunities to connect with other students and really lifted my confidence in putting my ideas ‘out there’.”

Beatrice Fazi, from the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths was also enthusiastic: “I am very happy that I had the chance to discuss part of my current research during CoDE 2012. My presentation concerned what we could call the ‘ontological foundations’ of computational aesthetics. I addressed the antithetical (but interrelated) idealist and materialist perspectives that, in my view, underpin some of the contemporary conceptions of the aesthetic within digital culture. It has been very useful to discuss my work with people who are actively engaged in interdisciplinary research, and I hope that this intellectual exchange will continue in the future.”

Dr Lorraine Warren of Southampton University summed up the two days by telling us: “It was a super event and really well organised.”

Dr Samantha Rayner, CoDE’s Director, commented:

“This conference absolutely delivered in terms of showing the range of research CoDE covers and the strength interdisciplinarity brings to projects. Talking to people who work in related – or even at first glance non-related – subject areas really can catalyse exciting work. I’ve loved the fact that the CoDE team have had such positive feedback, and that Anglia Ruskin is now beginning to be known internationally as a place where research on the digital economy, and creative communication in all its varieties, is happening. We are already looking forwards to next year!”

Thanks and feedback

A big thank you to the entire CoDE team who worked hard to make the conference a success. Thanks goes also to Estates, Catering and Digital Copy Services for their support.

Videos of performances and keynote presentations, as well as photographs and conference papers, will be available from the CoDE website (www.anglia.ac.uk/code) at the end of April.

Follow CoDE through Twitter via @CoDE_Research, or join our mailing list by emailing [email protected] for more information. We’re also to be found on Facebook - www.facebook.com/ARUCoDE.

Jason Slater, Project Co-ordinator

Page 5: ALSS Newsletter April 2012

Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences

www.anglia.ac.uk/alss

For more information about any of the stories in

this newsletter please contact:

Sarah Jones

Faculty Marketing and Recruitment Manager

[email protected]

0845 198 2981

1) Where did History rank in The Sunday Times University Guide 2012 for student satisfaction? 5th 11th 18th 22nd

2) In the last National Student Survey, what percentage was our overall satisfaction rating for ‘the teaching on my course’ for Fashion? 93% 95% 97% 100%

3) How old is the oldest printing press owned by Cambridge School of Art?57 years old 87 years old 107 years old 157 years old

4) The Ruskin Gallery is unique in the UK because?a) It has the world’s first Panasonic 103” 3D Full HD plasma screen and a state-of-the-art Bose audio systemb) It is the first gallery to incorporate traditional hanging and digital viewingc) It is the only gallery in the middle of an art school

5) Approximately how many EFL students do we have studying with us each year?100 250 400 500

6) Where did Film and Media rank in The Sunday Times University Guide 2012 for student satisfaction?3rd 9th 21st 28th

7) How many Anglia Ruskin students, out of 10, were Escalator Literature Novel Writing Competition Winners, 2011/12?1 2 3 4

8) BA (Hons) Sociology at Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge site is now ranked at what position in the UK, according to The Guardian’s University League Table 2012? 8th 10th 16th 20th

9) Our MA Publishing offers a scholarship through The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers each year. How much is it for?£1000 £3000 £6000 £10000

10) How many research students does ALSS have?70-80 80-90 90-100 100+

6) 9th7) 3 8) 16th9) £6000 10) 100+

1) 5th2) 100%3) 157 years old4) a, b and probably c!5) over 500

Answers

Do you know why the Ruskin Gallery is so unique or how many EFL students we have? Test your Faculty knowledge...

Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences

Quiz