LSE THANKYOU Current LSE students continue to set high standards in the sporting arena: in the past year, three were selected for the GB Olympic fencing squad, GB men’s under-23 rowing and senior squads, and the England under-20s rugby squad. Another trialled for the US women’s Olympic squad.
Sporting chance LSE has forged a reputation as a rich breeding ground for future leaders in business and governments, and premier social scientists. However, alumni such as Olympic marathon
runner Mara Yamauchi (née Myers, MSc Politics of the World Economy 1996) also demonstrate that sporting excellence and LSE are by no means strangers.
The LSE Student Ambassadors for Sport programme will ensure that elite athletes can combine their LSE education with the pursuit of their chosen sport. Through the initiative, athletes will share their achievements with fellow LSE students and demonstrate that involvement in sport need not compromise academic success – and can actually complement it. The project has been awarded £30,000 by the LSE Annual Fund to help with training, equipment, travel and registration costs over a two-year period.
Professor David Marsden endorsed the initiative’s application to the Annual Fund. Professor Marsden, who has taught at LSE since 1980 and is currently an associate in the Labour Markets Research Programme, is convinced that sporting activity can be a valuable part of the student experience at LSE and can do much to enrich students’ time at LSE. Having rowed with and coached the LSE Rowing Club, Professor Marsden commented: “For me this has been a form of participant observation: I was struck by the tremendous camaraderie among the students, quite distinct from that in the classroom, where relations can at times be quite competitive. In a boat, as in any team, people have to work with and support one other. The students also gently teased an ancient academic about his rowing
Mellon Fellowship Programme launched at LSE Cities Legacy
A gift that will cost you nothing during your lifetime Do you value the great work of LSE and want to see it perpetuated for future generations? Join us. A gift in your will, large or small, is simple to arrange and can have a positive long-term impact on generations of people at LSE and beyond. For more information please contact Viet-Anh Hua in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations on +44 (0)20 7852 3654 or at legacy@lse.ac.uk Developing curious minds • Discovering the causes of things • Leading the global debate 40 I LSE Connect I Summer 2013 I
A new initiative that puts humanists at the heart of the study of urban life was launched by LSE Cities in February 2013 thanks to a US$900,000 grant made by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. This major new initiative will run for approximately four years and comprises two parts: the Mellon Fellowship Programme at LSE in Cities and the Humanities, and the Urban Research Network. The intellectual objective core to both components is to connect humanities scholars from literature, philosophy, anthropology, film
studies, art and architectural history more closely to urban research and teaching at LSE. From autumn 2013, the first Mellon Fellow will spend nine months at LSE, where they will engage humanists in the study of urban life, as pursued by LSE Cities, and be involved in postgraduate teaching and research. The second strand of the initiative, the Urban Research Network, aims to create an international network of institutions embedded in cities in rapidly urbanising regions of the world, in particular in the US, Asia and