May 2012 | issue 08 Following the launch of our Strategic Plan, City has set out how it will achieve the Vision for 2016 – our capital works projects are one visible example of activities already underway. This month’s City News also looks at how we’re forging closer links with business through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and this month’s Digital Shoreditch festival.
CIT Y NEWS
NEWS IN BRIEF Professor Peter Daniels It is with great sadness that we report Professor Peter Daniels, former Assistant Dean in the School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences, passed away last month. Professor Daniels served the University since joining as a Lecturer from University College London (UCL) in 1977.
Phil Harding to join UCL City’s Chief Finance Officer, Phil Harding, has been appointed Director of Finance and Business Affairs at UCL and will assume his new role in July. Phil joined City in 2009. Professor Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor commented: "Phil's strong background in higher education finance, his energy and his leadership experience will equip him very well indeed for this role."
Novel Studio City’s Novel Studio course (formerly the Certificate in Novel Writing) was launched last month and opens this autumn. It has strong links with the publishing industry and an impressive track record of publication by its students.
About City News City News is produced for University staff each month by Marketing and Communications. If you have any feedback on the magazine or suggestions for content in future issues, please email: christopher.leonard.1@city.ac.uk
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SU President’s blog Students’ Union President Rob Scully’s online blog continues to provide an insight for City staff into issues of concern to City’s student community. Rob is writing about the views and experiences of City students to raise awareness of such issues among academic staff and those providing services to students. The blog can be accessed on the My City portal: https://my.city.ac.uk/blogs/SU_Pres
Ties with St Petersburg Professor Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor and Professor Sanowar Khan, Deputy Dean of the School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences, visited St Petersburg State Polytechnic University (SPSPU) in Russia last month as part of a long-term collaborative partnership to build closer ties between the two universities.
April Graduations Our latest round of Graduations were held at the Barbican Centre on 23-24 April. Friends and families joined graduating students and had opportunities to meet staff. Our prestigious Honorary Graduand was Lionel Barber, Editor of the Financial Times since November 2005. He was worked for the Financial Times since 1985, having been the newspaper’s US Managing Editor and Editor of the continental European edition. He is also on the Board of Trustees at Tate and an Advisory Board member of the International Centre for Journalists.
Helping student finances
A highlight was the signing of a new co-operation agreement. This reaffirmed the universities’ commitment to strengthen their partnership in developing and implementing joint educational programmes, joint research (areas include materials science, applied mathematics, information technology and logistics) and on exchange programmes for staff and students. SPSPU is a strategic partner of City and member of the World Cities World Class (WC2) international network of leading universities. City has longstanding links with Russia; the first collaboration agreement with SPSPU was signed in 1994. There are over 100 Russian students studying at City, one of the largest groups of Russian students at any UK university.
City’s Student Centre recently hosted its first professional Money Management workshops to help students improve their financial management. The workshops were made possible by donations to the City Future Fund from alumni, staff and friends of the University. Financial education provider Black Bullion ran sessions covering budgeting, savings and debt avoidance. The Student Centre received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students who attended the sessions and there are plans to extend the workshops in 2012/13. For further information email the Student Centre: fundsservice@city.ac.uk
Strategic Plan 2012-2016 Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Curran and Professor Richard Verrall, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Strategy & Planning), have launched the University’s Strategic Plan for 2012-2016. Professor Curran explained how the Plan will ensure City achieves ‘steady growth to 2016 through investment in academic staff, systems and the University's estate’. He said: "The Plan is a route map to our Vision. Our focus now is implementation: taking the necessary steps to ensure we further strengthen ourselves academically while maintaining our hard-won reputation with business and the professions."
Focus on recruitment City’s current focus is on academic staff recruitment, enhancing information services and planning our estate upgrade (see pages 6-7). Regarding the former, City has confirmed its first Phase One professorial appointments.
Promoting our research at Digital Shoreditch City is promoting its digital research and services for businesses at the Digital Shoreditch festival starting on Monday 21st May. The festival celebrates outstanding creative, technical and entrepreneurial talent in East London and the Tech City area around Old Street. City is one of two academic sponsors for the festival (alongside Queen Mary, University of London). City was chosen ahead of the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and University College London. City’s participation will enhance its strong position in digital technology. City will host a full day of presentations and activities in collaboration with Queen Mary, focusing on research and services that City and other universities can offer businesses. City will also host workshop sessions and networking stands throughout the festival. City’s involvement is the result of collaboration between the School of Informatics, Cass Business School, the Department of Journalism and the Enterprise Office, including the London City Incubator.
NEWS IN BRIEF New Pro Vice-Chancellor joins from Leicester Professor John Fothergill will join City as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) in August, from the University of Leicester. John will visit City throughout the early summer and will be profiled in a forthcoming City News.
Complete University Guide In the latest The Complete University Guide 2013, City has risen three places to 38 (and sixth in London) compared to last year’s position. The Guide has published league tables online since 2007 to help students around the world research Universities and degree courses.
City launches LUIP
For more information, visit: www.digitalshoreditch.com
In September, Professor Markus Linckelmann and Professor Radha Kessar from the University of Aberdeen will join the School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences as Professors of Mathematics. Also in September, Professor Jean-Pascale Gond, currently at HEC Montreal, will join Cass as Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility. In January 2013 Professor Scott Shane, currently at Case Western Reserve University, will join Cass as Professor of Entrepreneurship. Schools and Professional Services are now meeting staff to discuss the Plan and its implications. You can read the Plan and view the video produced for our Council on our website.
Met Commissioner meets City students Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, visited City in March to meet students and local young people as part of a factfinding tour of London boroughs.
City has launched a partnership with 14 other London universities to promote the city internationally as the best in the world in which to study. London Universities International Partnership (LUIP) will work with other London agencies to showcase London to prospective international students, capitalising on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic and Paralympic games.
www.city.ac.uk/staff 3
NEWS IN BRIEF Psychology book Psychology Professor Carla Willig’s latest book, Qualitative Interpretation and Analysis in Psychology, is published this month by Open University Press.
SU election results In the recent Students’ Union elections, Giulio Folino was voted President for 2012/13. James Perkin was elected Vice-President Education and Helen Jayakumar Vice-President Activities & Development. They will assume their posts on Wednesday 1st August.
Good Food award City has received a special award for becoming a Sustainable Fish City signatory through its Sustainable Fish at City campaign. The award was presented as part of the Good Food on the Public Plate Awards, which recognise organisations serving healthy and sustainable food to London’s schoolchildren, students, and hospital patients.
Olympic Torch relay On Thursday 26th July, the Olympic Torch will pass through Islington as part of the national relay designed to take it to within 10 miles of 95% of the UK population. The provisional route for the procession is along Goswell Road, passing the Tait Building and on towards the City of London.
Law award students Two City Law School students won awards at this year’s The Times / One Essex Court Law Awards. Thomas Coates, studying the Graduate Diploma in Law, received second prize while fellow Diploma student Jamie Susskind received a runner-up prize. Both aspire to undertake Bar professional training next year.
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DARO new appointments
Student Impact Awards
The Development and Alumni Relations Office has recently made its second senior appointment. Sue Rees (left) joined City as Head of Alumni Relations, bringing over 20 years’ experience in higher education, having previously headed alumni relations at Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Ulster. Sue was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship in 2011 to study alumni programmes in the US. Sue is the second senior appointment in the team in 2012. Earlier this year, David Street (left) joined as Director of Development and Alumni Relations having previously held a similar role at the University of East Anglia. For more information about the team, visit our website: www.city.ac.uk/alumni
The Student Development and Outreach Team’s annual Student Impact Awards, recognised the contributions of student volunteers, Widening Participation ambassadors, professional mentors and mentees last month. The awards celebrate the success of City students in making a difference in the local community. Thirteen awards were handed out and each academic School was represented by at least one student winner.
HCID2012 success
Afghanistan service
The Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design (HCID) has held its most successful open day for students and digital professionals. Around 400 people registered and keynote presentations were fully booked.
Lenore Russell, Head of Marketing, is a member of the Honourable Artillery Company (TA) and has been called up for active service in Afghanistan, where she will be working alongside her counterparts in the regular Army. She leaves City in mid-May, deploying to Afghanistan in September after spending the summer training.
HCID2012 saw web designers, researchers and professionals in user experience, usability and web accessibility join City students for a series of talks and workshops on usability, user experience, web accessibility, mobile design, multi-touch technologies and ‘gamification’. Attendees were given tours of City’s state-of-the-art interaction laboratory.
She will return to City in a year following her tour. An interim Head of Marketing will be appointed by City.
Professor Neil Maiden, Head of the HCID, said: “One factor in the increasing success of these annual open days is the proximity of Tech City East and City's role in it as an academic partner.”
Tim Longden, Director of Marketing & Communications said: “I know you will join with me in wishing Lenore every success during her time away and we will look forward to her safe return to Marketing Communications at City in 2013.”
Enterprise at City Getting involved in KTPs At a recent Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) seminar organised by the Enterprise Office, representatives from Schools and Professional Services learnt about KTPs and discussed the ways in which they can support KTPs at City. Academics from Cass Business School, The City Law School and the Schools of Informatics, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences and Health Sciences attended the event together with representatives from the Development and Alumni Relations team, Property & Facilities and the Enterprise Office. The seminar involved three presentations. The first, by City’s KTP adviser Jan Stringer, introduced KTPs and their benefits for academics. This included two case studies which delegates described as useful in suggesting how they can support KTPs.
KTP case studies In the second presentation, Professor Robert Melville (below), from the Faculty of Management at Cass Business School, talked about his involvement in two KTP projects, both with non-governmental organisations, one of which resulted in the publication of academic papers. The third presentation was by David Hunstone, Director of Clerkenwell multimedia company Hub Productions, who recently embarked on a KTP with Dr Simone Stumpf and Dr George Buchanan from the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design. David talked delegates through the KTP application process and the importance of establishing a relationship with the academics involved. Feedback from delegates was universally positive. Around sixty per cent said the session was relevant to them personally and all agreed that it met their objectives. The delegates expressed a desire to seek new KTP opportunities by approaching
their existing business and industry contacts to discuss opportunities. Sue O’Hare (right), Director of Enterprise at City, said: “The popularity of KTPs can be attributed largely to the fact that they benefit all parties involved: the company has access to academic expertise and fresh thinking to address problems; academics can apply their research and realise social and economic impacts of their work; and graduates receive an excellent and challenging opportunity that often leads to permanent employment with the host company.”
City’s latest event to raise awareness of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships was a big success with staff
To find out more, visit: www.city.ac.uk/for-business/business-services
What is the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships scheme? Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) is a national scheme enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to use academic support to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance. Under a KTP, City recruits a high-calibre graduate (an ‘Associate’) to be supervised by an academic while they work with the organisation on its project. For academics, KTPs offer opportunities to: • Apply knowledge and expertise to problems facing businesses • Develop education and research material • Identify new research themes and projects • Publish high quality papers • Improve understanding of businesses • Contribute to City’s Research Excellence Framework • Collaborate with innovative businesses • Mentor City graduates working on business-based projects. More information is available on the KTP programme website: www.ktponline.org.uk
by Chris Leonard www.city.ac.uk/staff 5
Following the Strategic Plan’s launch, City is undertaking ambitious projects to improve facilities for students and staff
City on the move in 2012 This summer, City operations at Princess Alexandra House Whitechapel will cease after 18 years of nurse education. As this chapter in our history ends, another will begin as the University consolidates its presence around Northampton Square through occupation of premises on Myddelton Street. This move marks the commencement of a major reconfiguration of our estate and the start of a five-year investment in the campus totalling between £80M and £130M under the Strategic Plan 2012-2016. As outlined in the Plan, one enabling theme will be to provide ‘high quality, appropriate work space for our students and staff’. The foundation of this ambitious strategy lies in the £14M invested since 2011 in the Northampton Square estate, including the dedicated Graduate Centre study space, the new student common room in College Building (right) and new lecture and seminar rooms. This summer further substantial construction work will take place around the University. In preparation for the start of the 2012/13 academic year, we will relocate staff from the School of Health Sciences (SHS) currently based at Whitechapel, West Smithfield, Drysdale Building and The Health Building to the Myddelton Street building. These colleagues will be joined by a large number of Professional Services staff for whom Myddelton Street will also become a new home.
This activity will improve how SHS - and the wider University – interacts as an academic and professional community; it will bring academic staff closer together and enable collaboration and create a clearer, stronger University identity for staff and students. SHS students studying at Whitechapel and West Smithfield will benefit from improved accessibility to the Northampton Square Library, the Careers & Skills Development Service, the Students’ Union and other primary services for students, helping to foster a stronger sense of community. These changes will involve relocating hundreds of members of staff in a short space of time. In early June, Property & Facilities (PAF) will move to Myddelton Street from Goswell Place, quickly followed by Information Services, Human Resources and Finance from the Innovation Centre and SHS divisions. SHS staff from Whitechapel will move either to West Smithfield or Northampton Square and other departments currently housed in temporary accommodation – including Academic Services and the Learning Development Centre - will also move to new locations. These capital works and the relocation of staff and services are hugely complex. Unless managed carefully, they could cause serious disruption to University activities. To mitigate this risk, PAF has involved colleagues across the University to help co-ordinate activities.
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Francine Hill, Northampton Square Education Projects Decant Lead, says: “This summer we will complete office moves for hundreds of members of staff. It takes a lot of organisation but fortunately my move co-ordinators have been brilliantly helpful!”
Timeline
Locally, staff are engaged in project groups or decant working groups, helping to manage the delivery of move projects, while central staff are implementing communications strategies to keep colleagues and students updated with work that affects them.
• April 2012: Work began on a new Social Sciences building entrance (for a more open reception and waiting area) and new permanent School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences (SEMS) PhD student accommodation in Tait Building; Law Library moved temporarily to The Pool.
David Owens, Head of Projects explains: “These projects are very complex and contain many inter-dependencies. We appreciate the willingness of colleagues to engage with this work. Maintaining strong partnerships with Schools and Professional Services will help us avoid the problems organisations can face during large scale staff relocations and major capital improvement works.” This year will be quite a year for City’s estate. The culmination of the works outlined above will create a new landscape for the University and help it build towards achieving the Vision for 2016 with the ‘appropriate, attractive, high-quality’ estate envisioned in our Strategic Plan.
by Matt Shipton The main phases of work in 2012 are:
• June 2012: PAF will be the first department to move to Myddelton Street; SEMS PhD student accommodation completed. • June – August 2012: Professional Services (including HR, Finance and IS) and SHS staff will join PAF at Myddelton Street. • August 2012: Summer office moves (SHS) completed and new Social Science entrance unveiled; work will be completed on Northampton Square Library (refurbished Level Four and re-sequenced Level Five). • September 2012: Work will begin on the new home for the City Law School in the Innovation Centre. • January 2013: The City Law School (and Library) will move into the Innovation Centre. For the first time, Law students will be able to access academic and support staff, their subject Library and study and social facilities in one location.
Contacts • Northampton Square Education (NSQED) Projects Lead: David Owens (ext. 4192) • NSQED Decant Lead: Francine Hill (ext. 3225) • NSQED Communications: Matt Shipton (ext. 3150) • West Smithfield / Social Science Building works: Graham Wilson (ext. 8058) • Library / Innovation Centre works: Alex Smith (ext. 5573) • SEMS PhD area works: Cheryl Smitham (ext. 8824)
www.city.ac.uk/staff 7
Highlights of recent research at City University London
Research at City News personalisation Established news organisations’ websites could slow the decline in advertising revenues by adopting user personalisation technologies, according to new research by City academics.
“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
The findings, based on the results of three surveys by Neil Thurman (left), Senior Lecturer in Electronic Publishing and Professor Steve Schifferes, Director of the Financial Journalism MA, have been published in Journalism Studies.
But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don't know. ”
Despite established news organisations remaining responsible for the vast majority of original news reporting online, they face challenges from declining advertising revenues and consumers’ reluctance to pay for online content. Advertising revenues – the main means of support for online news publishers – are falling because advertisers can follow their target audiences around the internet, thus lessening their dependence on premium news websites as vehicles for advertising. In addition, companies collecting online user and behavioural data used to target advertising – and online delivery platforms like Google – are further squeezing publishers’ advertising margins. The City research suggests that content personalisation could slow this trend, based on the correlation it found between above-average deployment of user personalisation and a site’s ability to charge a subscription. Furthermore, personalisation technologies enable news providers to acquire and control data gathered about their audience, lessening their dependence on intermediaries. “Being in control of such [user] data will be vital as online advertising continues to become more dynamic, targeted and data-driven,” says Neil. “If personalisation can build audiences and shift revenues from search providers and content aggregators to the ‘content creators’, a diverse media sector may actually be better sustained.”
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The Rumsfeld Effect – the unknown unknown
The infamous quote from then US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (right) in 2002 (referring to Saddam Hussein’s rumoured weapons of mass destruction) has inspired City research that demonstrates important implications for measuring the reliability of people’s self-awareness of their knowledge. The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory & Cognition, tested whether people use self-awareness of their ignorance to give consistent responses to statements. A series of studies, led by Professor James Hampton of the School of Social Sciences (below), showed that if people are asked to judge the truth of general knowledge facts and are given an option of saying they are unsure, they were more consistent over two tests than control groups (which could answer only True or False). However, this consistency was not found when testing participants’ knowledge of more subjective concepts or statements. “Being consistent in judging that you don’t know something for sure appears to be largely restricted to factual kinds of knowledge,” explains James. “This demonstrates the limits of people’s self-awareness of – and confidence in – their knowledge. The result could have important implications for the reliability of eye-witness testimony and for marketing and polling research.”
Resolving coreference in clinical notes City research has proposed a new method for resolving coreference information in medical notes which could help medical professionals more easily and effectively understand multiple references to the same information. In linguistic terms, coreference describes when two or more expressions refer to the same external entity. However, in clinical notes it refers to multiple medical professionals’ references to the same information in a patient’s notes. For example: ‘... patient was admitted with a head wound laceration’; ‘...postoperatively, the scalp laceration was clean and dry’; or ‘...initially the patient refused a bronchoscopy but agreed to it later’. Resolving coreference is particularly important in clinical discharge summaries and progress notes because it can uncover implicit and contextual information, such as the actors involved and the temporal order of described events. Widely-used automated systems for coreference resolution, using machine-based learning approaches supervised by humans, have been criticised for considering each noun or pronoun mentioned in isolation but not a coreference’s wider context. Research student Philip Gooch (above) and Professor Abdul Roudsari from the Centre for Health Informatics have shown a new method of generating coreference chains in clinical notes that improves existing methods. The research was published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics. The new method automatically embeds computer-interpretable clinical knowledge and contextual cues into the text and generates coreference chains using progressively pruned linked lists to reduce search space. The method also facilitates evaluation by a wide range of metrics. “Our method performs at least as well as human annotators and provides greatly increased performance over general-purpose tools and previously reported clinical coreference systems,” says Philip.
Improving NHS maternity data
Research at City
When babies are born, birth and maternity data are recorded in three separate national data systems, each of which records different information. City research has developed techniques for linking these records to derive fuller information about how babies’ birth weights and preterm birth rates vary according to ethnicity and the mothers’ countries of birth. The research, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), was conducted by Professor Alison Macfarlane (above), Professor of Perinatal Health, Preeti Datta-Nemdharry, Epidemiologist and Nirupa Dattani, Senior Research Fellow (all from the School of Health Sciences). In an article in Health Statistics Quarterly, they describe how birth registration and NHS Numbers for Babies (NN4B) records were linked to Maternity Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) records for 2007 (using NHS numbers or other identifiers). Because of known problems with Maternity HES data quality, they assessed its quality and completeness in relation to birth registration or NN4B data. Although a high percentage of Maternity HES delivery and baby records could be linked to birth registration and NN4B data there were gaps in key data items. Nearly a third of linked Maternity HES records for singleton babies (i.e. those born alone and not in multiple births) had one or more data items missing; e.g. birth weight, gestational age, birth status, sex or date of birth. “Although this linkage would be more valuable if the quality and completeness of Maternity HES data were improved, we can use data from the other sources in our analyses,” says Alison. The project’s current phase has now ended and the researchers are seeking funding to extend the linkage and range of analyses that can be undertaken. The results are being presented at three conferences this year: the MRC’s Population Health – Methods and Challenges conference in Birmingham; an international meeting on preterm birth in Geneva; and the 13th World Congress of Public Health in Addis Ababa.
www.city.ac.uk/staff 9
A Journalism undergraduate on how a documentary’s success was overshadowed by post-release controversy
The message not the organisation March saw extensive media coverage given to the Kony 2012 documentary distributed online though Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks. The 29-minute film has been watched by over 80 million people and quickly became one of the most viewed online videos. Kony 2012 conveys the shocking actions of Joseph Kony, leader of Ugandan guerrilla group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and appeals to viewers to help children abducted by the LRA. However, the video’s cultural impact uncovered a darker side to this documentary. Following Kony 2012’s upload to YouTube, the cultural debate quickly moved on to related issues including American foreign policy and child abuse, rather than the documentary’s arguments. What can we learn from this episode and what does it show about modern society?
Kony 2012 was produced by the Invisible Children Association, a nonprofit organisation aiming to stop LRA violence and support children affected by war in eastern and central Africa. Kony 2012 demanded the arrest of Joseph Kony for his alleged abduction of up to 60,000 young children and it accused the LRA of turning girls into sex slaves and boys into child soldiers. The documentary’s power came from its highly emotive tone and it encouraged viewers to share its internet address with others. This conveyed a feeling in viewers of participating in a righteous mission and it is hard not to feel compelled to share the link after viewing the film – like me, millions did so. However, this feeling quickly dissipated. Immediately following the video’s release, media coverage prompted viewers to rethink the situation. Kony 2012’s critics argued that Joseph Kony and the LRA have fled into the Central African Republic and are no longer active in Uganda (as claimed in the video) and that the LRA’s threat is not as great as claimed. In addition, the Guardian newspaper reported that only 32% of the $8.6M spent by the Invisible Children Association in 2011 went on services helping children (its stated mission).
by Sílvia Amaro
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The organisation was also accused of manipulating facts in the documentary to achieve its goals. Foreign Affairs magazine reported:
"In their campaigns, organisations [like Invisible Children Association] have manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasising the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” Weeks later Jason Russell, co-founder of Invisible Children Association and director of Kony 2012, was detained by San Diego police for indecent public behaviour, at the time blamed on stress arising from the documentary’s controversy. It is a shame that with huge public awareness of the ideas raised in Kony 2012, other issues rose to prominence. Through Facebook and Twitter, so many people quickly became aware of Kony 2012 that it went viral: ‘Invisible Children’, ‘Uganda’ and #StopKony were worldwide trends on Twitter and Kony 2012 was quickly watched over 80 million times on YouTube. That so many people shared Kony 2012 online so quickly after release could indicate that we’re not living in a careless and selfish world; most of those sharing the video and getting involved with the cause were doing so because they wanted to make a difference.
Kony 2012 is more than simply a charity’s video production for generating publicity. It reflects opportunities from online connectivity to give everyone around the world the ability to get involved in a cause. As many Facebook and Twitter users expressed during the post-release controversy around Invisible Children Association and its motives: “It’s about the message not the organisation.” Even if this episode doesn’t directly help African children allegedly suffering under a regime of terror, Kony 2012 has shown a glimpse of the potential for people to be inspired to get involved in causes they believe in.
Meet your colleagues
Name and job title? Emily Allbon, Law Librarian
What do you do at City day to day? It is a varied role. Traditional elements include managing library collections for Law students on Academic Programmes, selecting materials to support courses and keeping them updated. Law libraries contain a wide variety of print and online materials and are even governed by national standards. With an office based in the library, I am available for students to ask me ad hoc questions or for more in-depth sessions. These cover anything from research skills to using online resources, mooting (see below), referencing or finding resources from all over the world. This information could be on any subject and is sometimes very loosely connected to law! Regular contact with students gives me lots of ideas for creating new online resources to help them.
Editor’s note: Emily was this year’s recipient of the Robert Kitchin Award, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Saddlers, which recognises a staff member’s contribution to City’s development (City News, April 2012).
I teach first-term undergraduates a Legal Method module alongside a Lecturer, as well as sharing the assessing and marking workload. Legal Method helps students to understand the legal system and its materials and helps them to learn new skills in legal writing, studying and mooting. I also run workshops for masters and PhD students. A big part of my role is our law portal, Lawbore [www.lawbore.net]. It has been going since 2003 and I work hard to keep it fresh by highlighting news and events of interest to law students and promoting websites and blogs. Future Lawyer is part of Lawbore focused on law careers, getting alumni and students involved via interviews and event reporting. I do a lot of 'keeping an ear to the ground' and investigative work, making connections and listening to what alumni are up to. It is great to give current students inspiration from those who have been through City previously. This year is exciting for Lawbore, thanks to some JISC funding. I'm working on an iPad app for the Learnmore part of Lawbore, in collaboration with Sanmeet Kaur Dua from The City Law School and Professor George Buchanan from the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design. Learnmore is multimedia resource collection for those new to law, compiled by myself and Sanmeet with students’ contributions.
What is your biggest challenge in your job? As for most people it is 'too many ideas not enough time', but finding the right partners to work with at City can also be difficult. There are
great people here who have helped bring my ideas to life, including Steve McCombe from The Mill and AV Technician Steve Parkes with assistance from Ben Chapman. This year, I took on the role of Mooting Co-ordinator, a big learning curve. Mooting involves students debating a fictitious case on points of law – usually an appeal – against opposing counsel and in front of a judge. I organise moots for City students to compete in (internally and externally), guiding them through what can be a scary activity. The role is a heady mix of administration, persuasion (securing judges is tough) and listening (acting as a sounding board or commiserating with students).
How do you overcome it? By using colleagues as sounding boards, working extra hours and saving any correspondence in the hope that next year it will be easier!
If you didn’t do your job what would you be doing? Something outdoors like gardening at a National Trust property or pursuing a career as a rally driver.
What do you do in your spare time and to relax? Hang out with my five-year-old daughter, visit new places and enjoy the opportunity to be silly with her.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party? Sir David Attenborough, David Beckham, Ewan McGregor, Bill Bailey and Freddie Mercury… should be an interesting evening!
Your favourite place in London? Probably the Natural History Museum – lots of happy visits there as a child myself and now with my own child. Alternatively any of London’s parks.
Favourite film? ET, The Shawshank Redemption or Carlito's Way.
Favourite book? Tough one for a librarian! Probably Iain Banks’ The Crow Road, followed by Annie Proulx' Accordion Crimes or David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars.
Favourite song/music? The Cure, Libertines, Biffy Clyro, Guillemots, Arcade Fire… anything from Motown to 1980s pop, but I am an ‘indie kid’ at heart – my last gig was Florence and the Machine.
www.city.ac.uk/staff 11
Dates for your diary
series, presented by Professor Anthony Elliott from Flinders University (Australia).
Balinese Gamelan
www.city.ac.uk/events
Javanese Gamelan
Played in London – charting the heritage of a city at play
19:00 - 20:30 Tuesday 15th May, Performance Space
The Balinese Gamelan, Gong Kebyar, played by City's Gamelan Ensemble with fast and dynamic music characterised by complex interlocking melodic and rhythmic patterns.
Until Thursday 31st May, The Gallery (77 Cowcross Street) Exhibition and events celebrating London's sporting heritage, featuring Dr Martin Polley, author of The British Olympics, Britain's Olympic Heritage 1612-2012 (City News, November 2011). Web: www.playedinbritain.co.uk
Transonic Transformations: Chips, Blossom and Hopscotch 19:00 - 20:30 Tuesday 8th May, Performance Space Part of the University’s City Lights concert series; a performance from Cathy Lane, Viv Corringham and Iris Garrelfs.
Networks of Reinvention 16:00 - 18:00 Thursday 10th May, D427 Social Sciences Bldg Part of the Sociology Department’s 2012 research seminar
City’s Gamelan Ensemble plays a traditional Indonesian percussion ensemble consisting primarily of tuned gongs and drums.
Charity Talk: Board Governance and Relationships with Staff 18:00-21:00 Wednesday 16th May, Cass Business School (Bunhill Row) Penultimate Cass Charity Talk for 2011/12, with speakers Jacqueline Williams (Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness) and Susan Daniels (National Deaf Children’s Society).
While in Russia: City University Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert
19:00 - 20:30 Tuesday 22nd May, Performance Space
From free market order to market fundamentalism: The fate of economics 17:00 - 18:20 Wednesday 6th June, D104 Social Sciences Bldg Dr William Dixon (London Metropolitan University Business School) gives a talk as part of the Department of Economics' spring 2012 research seminar series.
City Lights: Plus-Minus 19:00 - 20:30 Tuesday 12th June, Performance Space Part of City’s Concert Series. City's ensemble in residence will perform current postgraduate student compositions as well as their own repertoire.
19:30 - 21:30 Friday 18th May, LSO St Luke's (161 Old Street) An evening of Russian music by City University Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Weeden. Includes Soloist Tatjana Goldberg performing Wienawski's Violin Concerto No 2.
Staff Wellbeing Day Thursday 28th June, Great Hall, College Building
Staff training and development Risk Assessment (Academic Staff in School of Health Sciences)*
Risk Assessment (Academic Staff in Schools of Arts and Social Sciences)*
Thursday 10th May
Tuesday 22nd May
Mentoring Skills for Academic Staff
Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies Briefing
Tuesday 15th May
Thursday 24th May
Retirement Planning
Lunch and Learn: Arabic for beginners
Wednesday 16th May
Free taster session. Register: http://tinyurl.com/ccjm5os
Finance and Purchasing Training
Thursday 7th June
Wednesday 16th May
Lunch and Learn: Japanese for beginners
Risk Assessment (Academic Staff in Schools of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences and Informatics)*
Free taster session. Register: http://tinyurl.com/ccjm5os
Friday 18th May
Writing Grant Proposals Friday 18th May
Wellbeing day is back and, this year, is dedicated to boosting your physical and psychological wellbeing, highlighting heart health and your cancer prevention awareness. On the day you will be able to take a Health MOT, take part in fitness class demonstrations, get a free massage, have your bike repaired and attend workshops on financial and stress management. Look out for your personal invitation with your May pay slip.
Thursday 28th June * To be completed in conjunction with Cardinus online training, Effective Risk Management for Academic Staff on our Intranet (under Training and Development).
For information about staff training email: lsdu@city.ac.uk or visit: www.city.ac.uk/sd/index