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ACADEMIC PROMOTIONS October 2012

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INTRODUCTION Dear colleagues, This booklet provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our academic colleagues whose work has been recognised this year through the promotions process. As the Chair of the University Promotions Committee, I very much value the diversity of activity in which staff are engaged. Excellence in these activities is underpinned by the peer review process involved and I think this demonstrates what a successful university we are. Over the past few years, a lot of work has gone into changing and improving the criteria for promotion â€“ making it broader so we can recognise and reward this diverse contribution in terms of teaching, research, innovation, practice as research and leadership across all subject areas. We now provide briefings to help staff understand more about these changes in order to help them make their application for promotion and in addition, we brief Heads of School about feedback and key learning points from each promotions round. It is important to the growth of the University that all staff plan for their future careers and receive regular feedback on their career development. We are working with colleagues in HR to develop a new annual review process which we hope will be launched in the spring to help staff have good conversations on this. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have been promoted this year. I look forward to hearing more about your achievements in the future. Professor Dame Julia M Goodfellow DBE, CBE Vice-Chancellor I would very much echo Juliaâ€™s comments on the work that has been done to help ensure we are recognising and rewarding staff appropriately through the promotions process. We will be continuing with further briefings this year and HR is working on a number of projects in partnership with colleagues across the University to improve career development opportunities. Margaret Ayers Director of Human Resources

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NEW PROFESSORS Anneli Albi (Kent Law School)

Over the next five years, I will be working on â€˜The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governanceâ€™, a project funded by a 1.2 million euro grant from the European Research Council. While national constitutions have often been seen as somewhat old-fashioned bulwarks of sovereignty, this project will focus on other constitutional values that seem to have a continued importance in the contemporary globalising world, such as the protection of constitutional rights, the rule of law, legitimacy and democratic checks and balances. Concerns have increasingly been voiced with regard to a certain degree of erosion of classic constitutional safeguards in European and global governance. For example, the study hopes to explore defence rights in the European Arrest Warrant system, and issues around democracy and legitimacy in the policy responses to the global financial crisis.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Lorenzo Chiesa (School of European Culture and Languages (SECL))

My main research interests are in continental philosophy (especially French and Italian), psychoanalytic theory, and biopolitics. Recently, I have published one monograph, two edited collections, and a major translation in these areas. Two further volumes are forthcoming in 2012-13. I am currently supervising eight PhD students, seven of whom have obtained either internal or external funding. Over the past academic year, I have initiated a new interdisciplinary research seminars series in Italian Studies, organised an international conference in Berlin, as well as launched a new Interfaculty Platform in the Theoretical Humanities and Social Sciences together with colleagues from Law and Politics, which we hope will be turned into a research centre before the end of 2013.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Theresa A Gannon (CORE-FP School of Psychology)

I am Director of the newly established Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology (CORE-FP). As a registered Forensic Practitioner, my research interests focus on the treatment needs of offenders. I am currently examing the psychological characteristics of offenders who deliberately set fires (firesetters). Furthermore, I have begun leading the implementation and evaluation of a new intervention for imprisoned firesetters due for completion in January 2014. Recently, I completed a large Ministry of Justice-funded project with colleagues examining the polygraph as a supervision aid for sexual offenders. The results of this project have prompted government plans for national sexual offender polygraph testing. I have just taken over as Editor of Psychology Crime and Law, and continue to act as Associate Editor for the Journal of Sexual Aggression.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Jim Griffin (School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science (SMSAS))

I am a Bayesian statistician. My theoretical work has concentrated on flexibly modelling dependence in data, regression modelling with a large number of variables and the development of efficient algorithms for Bayesian inference. I have worked on applications of Bayesian statistics to many problems including forecasting inflation (economics), analysing stock prices (finance) and identifying cancer subtypes (systems biology). I am currently part of a ÂŁ1.4 million EPSRC-funded crossdisciplinary project with Cambridge, Warwick and Sussex. My current research projects include the use of multi- and many-core computing in statistical algorithms and predictive modelling with the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust Renal Unit.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Ben Hutchinson (SECL)

My research ranges broadly across modern European literature, revolving principally around questions of style. Publications in numerous languages include the monographs Rilkeâ€™s Poetics of Becoming, W.G. Sebald. Die dialektische Imagination, and Modernism and Style. At Kent, I am Head of German and Co-Founder of the Centre for Modern European Literature; elsewhere, I have lectured at institutions across Europe, including Oxford, Heidelberg, DLA Marbach, and the ENS Paris. I am also a literary critic, writing for the Times Literary Supplement and The Observer. In 2011, I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in recognition of my work. I am spending 2012-13 as a Visiting Research Fellow at the UniversitĂŠ de Montpellier III, where I will be writing a book provisionally entitled After Effects: Constructions of Lateness in Modern European Literature.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Donald McGillivray (Kent Law School)

My academic work is mainly in environmental law. My recent work looks at the steps taken to mitigate or compensate for environmental harm, by techniques such as impact assessment and biodiversity offsets. I try to make connections between the protection of the environment and its wider, shared enjoyment in places like village greens. In the last year, I was lucky enough to be part of a team which won the award for â€˜Best New Student Pro Bono Activityâ€™ at the Attorney General Student Awards for work on public access to land in conjunction with the wonderful Kent Law Clinic. Nearly all my work is collaborative, both within Kent and with colleagues at other institutions, and I have been hugely fortunate to have enjoyed such creative and fruitful working relationships.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Nicola Shaughnessy (School of Arts)

Since my appointment in 1999 as a lecturer in Drama, I have developed research and teaching specialisms in contemporary performance and applied theatre. I am currently Principal Investigator for an interdisciplinary AHRC-funded project: ‘Imagining Autism’, a collaboration between researchers in Drama, the Tizard Centre and Psychology. We create multi-sensory environments using puppetry and interactive performance technologies to facilitate communication, social interaction and imagination. My interests in interdisciplinary research and pedagogic practice in the areas of cognition and performance have led to my latest book: Applying Performance: Live Art, Socially Engaged Theatre and Affective Practice (Palgrave, 2012). I am also co-founder and Director of the Research Centre for Cognition, Kinesthetics and Performance. My future plans include an edited collection on Affective Science and Performance, a joint book publication emerging from my ‘Performing Lives’ module, and continuing my work on the autism project.

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NEW PROFESSORS (CONT) Peter Stanfield (School of Arts)

I have been at Kent since 2004, having previously taught at institutes in Southampton and Bournemouth. I was Director of Film Studies between 2009-11 and am now the School Director of Research. In 2010, I helped establish the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Film and the Moving Image. My own research interest is the cultural history of American film, with a twin focus on cycles of formulaic movies and the synergy between cinema and other forms of popular culture, particularly music. I’m the author of two studies of the Western, and a singular study of America’s gutter songs and the movies. My most recent book is Maximum Movies – Pulp Fictions: Film Culture and the Worlds of Samuel Fuller, Mickey Spillane, and Jim Thompson (2011).

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NEW READERS Glenn Bowman (School of Anthropology and Conservation) My research in former Yugoslavia and Israel/Palestine focuses on contexts that promote, and those that disallow, contacts and convivialities across ethnic and religious divides. From my early work on pilgrims and locals in the Holy Land to my present investigations of inter-communal relations in shared shrines and the impact of walling on divided communities, my concern is how groups which identify themselves as distinct interact with other groups and how contexts shape that interaction. Over the next year, I am planning to extend my work on formerly and currently shared shrines in Macedonia, Kosova and Bosnia Hercegovina, and research into syncretic shrines in Cuba and multiple community shrines in India.

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Christopher Deacy (SECL) My main research focus is on religion and film, and I was delighted when I had a monograph as well as an edited book published in November 2011 on the afterlife in theology and cinema. I am currently investigating the extent to which Christmas films may be construed as sites of religious activity. Last year, I was Director of Learning and Teaching for SECL. Two particular highlights this year, besides the birth of my baby daughter, were being nominated by my students for the second year running for a Kent Union Teaching Award and being invited by the Vatican to give a talk on my research at an international seminar in Rome.

Fragkiskos Filippaios (Kent Business School) My current research covers two main streams of the international economics and business literature â€“ the political economy of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the behaviour of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). On the first theme, I have published papers investigating the role of economic, political as well as institutional location factors on the attraction of FDI. This work contributes to the development of a new agenda in International Economics and Business related with institutional aspects and their effect on international investorsâ€™ decisions. My second contribution focuses on the strategic internationalisation of MNEs, including performance issues, research and development activities and cultural activities.

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NEW READERS (CONT) Rachel Forrester-Jones (Tizard Centre) My research spans issues for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), mental health issues and dementia with a specialist interest in social networks. Last year, I presented five papers at three international conferences including the World Congress International Association for Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability, Halifax, Nova Scotia. I also co-edited a special issue on Death and Dying for the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. This year will be spent working on research from recent successful grant applications including chronic fatigue syndrome and social care support for ex-offenders with intellectual disabilities. In 2011, I completed nine years of a 0.5fte secondment as Master of Rutherford College.

Jim Groombridge (School of Anthropology and Conservation) My research group focuses on restoring populations of endangered species, particularly species endemic to islands, and applying conservation genetic and evolutionary approaches to help recover the surviving populations. Our group has long-term collaborative research programmes on endangered populations of birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals in Hawaii, Mauritius and the Seychelles, as well as the UK. I have recently expanded our activities to include genetic and ecological work on invasive species, with a current focus on parrots across Europe. This year, I intend to consolidate the groupâ€™s work tackling invasive species issues and to develop new long-term collaborations on endangered species programmes worldwide.

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Peter Klappa (School of Biosciences) The focus of my professional interests has changed somewhat over the last two years. While I still see myself as a researcher in the area of protein folding and drug design, I have become more and more interested in supporting students in their learning and also non-academic experience. It was therefore only logical for me to take on a new role as the Master of Rutherford College, a function that is both challenging and rewarding. I feel that I can make a real difference to the experience of students at the University and support them in their quest to mature into life-long learners.

John Peirson (School of Economics) This year, I have been developing theoretical models of decision-making under uncertainty that consider how rational agents make decisions. These models have then been tested against empirical data from gambling markets. Using these models, I have been investigating the underlying theoretical and empirical basis for the efficient markets hypothesis commonly used to justify lack of government intervention in financial markets. I have also been developing a new theoretical approach to the economics and mathematics of road congestion and how road users should be charged for their impact on congestion. I am the Schoolâ€™s employability officer and have been developing a programme to help economics students improve their employment prospects.

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NEW READERS (CONT) Peter Rodgers (School of Computing) Over the last year, I have been researching the field of Information Visualisation. In particular, I work on examining complex data with Euler diagrams and graph drawing techniques, often working with colleagues in the UK and abroad to explore new visualisation methods. I am a Royal Society Industrial Fellow, in collaboration with Trafficlink, a provider of travel information, and we have been working on applying schematic visualisation methods to road networks. In summer 2012, I was General Chair of the Diagrams international conference at Canterbury Campus. I am head of the Computational Intelligence Research Group, which has continued to produce a stream of high-quality publications and grants.

Charlotte Sleigh (School of History) I specialise in the history, literature and communication of science. My research interests encompass the life sciences over the past 150 years, focusing on the interrelationship between science and the broader culture that contains it. I have published three books on the history of animals in science, most recently Frog (Reaktion Books, 2012), and have also published widely on the historical and textual relationships between science and writing. I have begun developing my long-standing interest in science communication, co-founding the successful MSc in Science, Communication and Society. From this has sprung a science/art project, Chain Reaction!, which I am co-curating at the Sidney Cooper Gallery in November 2013.

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Doug Stokes (School of Politics and International Relations) My main areas of research have been on international security and US foreign policy. An abiding interest of mine has been the ways in which the US has used its post-war military primacy to manage great power relations. My most recent book, Global Energy Security and American Hegemony, was published with Johns Hopkins University Press in 2010. I am currently working on a new book that explores US grand strategic options for maintaining its hegemony in the face of a diversifying global political economy.

Jawad Syed (Kent Business School) My research interests include diversity management, organisational knowledge and cross-cultural human resource management. I am currently Programme Chair of the Gender, Race and Diversity in Organisations Special Interest Group of the European Academy of Management. In August 2010, I co-founded and became a member of the first Working Group of the South Asian Academy of Management. In March 2012, President Asif Zardari conferred the honour of Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence, one of Pakistanâ€™s highest civil awards) on me for my contributions and public service in the field of equality and diversity. I am currently working on a book on diversity management in Europe.

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NEW READERS (CONT) Dimitrios Theodossopoulos (School of Anthropology and Conservation) My latest work concentrates on two areas: social change, authenticity and indigenous tourism among the EmberĂĄ (Panama); and resistance to austerity measures in the context of the financial crisis (Greece). A third theme, the politics and poetics of exoticisation and self-exoticisation, provides a common thread through my work in both Greece and Panama. I have taken a leading role in the production of anthropological knowledge in these fields, publishing in major anthropological journals, convening panels and plenaries at international conferences, and editing volumes that have emerged from collaborative projects. My recent volumes, United in Discontent and Great Expectations, are only indicative examples of such work, as well as a special issue of Anthropological Quarterly entitled Laying claim to authenticity.

Aylish Wood (School of Arts) This last year, Iâ€™ve been working on an AHRC-funded Fellowship project focussing on animation software. My research has involved me interviewing animators using 3D animation software, finding out more about programming and software, as well as looking at the imagery created in the visual effects industry, games, and science visualisations. I look forward to developing this research further, building on the networks already established with other scholars, and seeking to develop larger research projects. In addition, it is a pleasure to feed this material back into my teaching of animation and digital media in the Film department.

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NEW SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOWS Karen Jones (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR)) While working at the Personal Social Services Research Unit, I have gained a long-standing interest in exploring the cost-effectiveness, quality and outcomes of community and healthcare interventions. Iâ€™m currently leading a three-year Department of Health-funded evaluation of the personal health budgets pilot programme. Previously, I was a key quantitative analyst in the Department of Health-funded evaluation of the individual budgets pilot programme and in a study exploring the costeffectiveness of the home care re-ablement service. During the next year, my aim is to continue to make substantial research contributions and secure funding awards.

Robert Smith (School of Anthropology and Conservation) My research focuses on conservation biology, covering a broad range of topics and disciplines. In the last 12 months, I have started a five-year project on climate change and biodiversity in West Africa and published seven articles, including work on identifying new flagship species for conservation fundraising campaigns and setting targets for habitat conservation in the English Channel. Next year, I will be running a marine project in Gabon, setting up a rhino conservation initiative in South Africa, leading research to understand conservation spending patterns in Australia, and collaborating on a study to measure the effectiveness of the worldâ€™s protected areas in preparation for the World Parks Congress in 2014.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS Anne Alwis (SECL) My research focuses on the literature of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, and its cultural context. This academic year, I have published my monograph, Celibate Marriages in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: the lives of Saints Julian and Basilissa, Andronikos and Athanasia, and Galaktion and Episteme and other articles on gender and sainthood. My research focus now moves to the adaptation of three Greek tales of unknown virgin martyrs. My teaching encompasses the entire span of Greek and Latin Classical Literature and this year, I introduced modules on early Christianity. During 2012-13, I will be Chief Examiner for Classical and Archaeological Studies.

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Alixe Bovey (School of History) My research centres on the visual culture of the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance, focussing on the production and reception of illuminated manuscripts, and relations between word and image within and beyond the book. Recent projects have explored representations of the Eucharist; the patronage and function of an enormous liturgical book from the Midlands; and an extraordinarily beautiful Netherlandish prayer book. I am currently looking at how images of the giants Gogmagog and Corineus have been used to ventriloquise civic discourse. I direct our thriving Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and am leading a campaign to secure the future of the historic Mendham Collection.

Caroline Chatwin (SSPSSR) Since my appointment to a lectureship in Criminology at Kent in 2007, I have been predominantly researching the field of harmonisation or convergence within European drug policy. In 2011, much of my work in this area came to fruition in the publication of my single author research monograph in the field and my appointment as the special advisor to a House of Lords Select Committee charged with investigating European Drug Policy. During the majority of my time at Kent, I have also been the Director of Studies for BA Criminology programmes.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Heather Ferguson (School of Psychology) My research focuses on the cognitive psychology of language, particularly the way that adults are able to access and use different perspectives during communication. Over the last year, this research has led to six new publications in high-impact journals, and I have been awarded £155,000 funding. My teaching commitments are also very important to me, and I have developed two new Psychology modules. I was delighted to win ‘Best Teacher’ at Kent Union’s Teaching Awards, and runner-up (with Dr Lindsey Cameron) in the Social Sciences Faculty Teaching Prize. Next year, I will focus on gaining further research funds, and continue disseminating my research in top academic journals.

Mattias Frey (School of Arts) I serve as a director of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Film and the Moving Image and as the School of Arts’ Director for Recruitment, Marketing and Internationalisation. In 2012, I was grateful to receive a University Teaching Prize for a module on film criticism. In the coming year, I look forward to the publication of my monograph on post-wall German historical cinema and an edited collection on film and ethics as well as invitations to speak at Birmingham, Bremen, Frankfurt and Passau. In June 2013, I embark upon an AHRC Early Career Fellowship to finish a monograph on extreme images of sex and violence in arthouse cinema.

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Helen Frowe (SECL) My research focuses on the ethics of killing. I’ve recently published a critical introduction to just war theory focusing on recent developments in this topical field. My second book, exploring the relationship between war and self-defence, will be published by OUP early next year. I’ve used my research interests as the basis of a new philosophy module on political violence, that encourages students to consider possible justifications for using force for political ends. In the past year, I’ve given talks in Seattle, Jerusalem, Aarhus, Belgrade and at the European Commission. During research leave in spring 2013, I will be giving talks in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Bowling Green, Colorado and Croatia.

Nancy Gaffield (SECL) During my years as Lecturer in and Director of the English Language Unit and SECL and as Master of Darwin and Woolf Colleges, I worked hard on writing poetry. I published a number of poems in national journals and my first collection, Tokaido Road, was awarded the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. I have been awarded the Templar Pamphlet Award for Owhere, to be launched at the Derwent Poetry Festival in mid-November, and I will be giving a reading at the Aldeburgh Festival this autumn. I have been commissioned to write the libretto for a Chamber Opera based upon Tokaido Road, and I am working on my next full collection.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Simone Glanert (Kent Law School) I research theoretical issues arising from the comparison of laws. For example, in De la traductibilitĂŠ du droit (Paris: Dalloz 2011), I critically assess legal translation. I also address comparison and translation in a book that I am editing for Routledge following an international conference that I organised at Kent in June 2012 and as guest editor for a special issue of The Translator journal. Meanwhile, I am writing an essay on philosophical hermeneutics and the understanding of foreign law. My goal is to equip my students with insights allowing them to operate optimally at a time of globalisation and Europeanisation of laws.

Manolo Guerci (Kent School of Architecture) My research concentrates on secular architecture, ranging from earlymodern European palaces to post-war housing estates while including conservation studies. After my recently published Palazzo Mancini, a 17th century palace in Rome, I am now working on a second book on the Great houses of the Strand: the ruling ĂŠlite at home in Tudor and Jacobean London, sponsored by the Paul Mellon Centre and the British Academy, to be published by Yale University Press. I teach history and design, alongside a number of roles in the School: tutor, director of internationalisation, study abroad co-ordinator and equality and diversity co-ordinator.

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Kirsty Horsey (Kent Law School) In the next year, I will be spending time updating the textbook on Tort Law that I co-author and also (re)turning my mind to other research, having spent most of the past academic year on maternity leave before returning as KLS’s stage 1 chief examiner in the spring. I have two terms of research leave in which I intend to revisit the law relating to surrogacy and other forms of assisted conception and, in particular, why surrogacy seems to have been paid little or no attention in recent reforms, especially regarding the legal construct of parenthood.

Pak K Lee (School of Politics and International Relations) The primary focus of my research since joining Kent in January 2007 has been China’s engagement with global governance – enquiring how and why the country is increasingly involved in the rule-making process about various issues of global concern as well as the limitations of its engagement. In the coming years, my research will concentrate on how China engages the US in the ‘post-American’ world, exploring whether China will evolve as a ‘normative power’ to counterbalance the US. I oversee the BA in Politics and International Relations with a Year Abroad in China/Hong Kong programme, one of the new and promising courses of study.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Bas Lemmens (SMSAS) My research interests lie in mathematical analysis and geometry. I am an associate editor of Linear Algebra and Its Applications. Last year, I was awarded an EPSRC First Grant to support my work in nonlinear analysis. I also published a research monograph with Cambridge University Press in that area, and organised a workshop on Hilbert geometries at the Centre International de Rencontres Mathematiques in France. I very much enjoyed teaching and designing our new stage one module, ‘From Geometry to Algebra’. This year, I am especially looking forward to working with my new PhD student and post-doctoral research assistant, and teaching an advanced course in our MSc in Mathematics and its Applications.

Neophytos Loizides (School of Politics and International Relations) My current research engages with institutional design emphasising the study of conflict-mitigating institutions in deeply divided societies. Specifically, my main area of inquiry focuses on institutional innovation and how it facilitates conflict transformation even in societies commonly associated with intractable ethnic, racial and religious divisions. Current projects examine voluntary repatriation among internally displaced persons in Bosnia and Turkey (funded by SSHRC Canada); peace referendums in South Africa and Cyprus (funded by the University’s Faculty grants); and power-sharing arrangements, particularly their impact on conflict transformation. My book Mediating Power-Sharing: Institutional Design and Federalism in Cyprus will be published shortly by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

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Matt Loveless (School of Politics and International Relations) I have been fortunate in my most recent research at Kent to be working with political scientists, economists, and sociologists (here and elsewhere) to advance an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of inequality involving a multi-dimensional approach to individuals’ expectations of the future. This possible innovation would help us better conceptualise and measure how inequalities affect individuals’ political attitudes and behaviours. I have also been at the forefront of the broadening and deepening of the School’s approach to teaching scientific inquiry to both our undergraduate and graduate students through directing the ESRC’s Doctoral Training Centre Seminars and developing new courses specifically for Kent Politics students.

Gang Lu (School of Engineering and Digital Arts) My main area of research is combustion instrumentation and measurement. Our research team have been conducting pioneering work in imaging techniques for 2D and 3D visualisation and characterisation of fossil fuelfired flames over more than ten years. The aim of work is to develop new technologies for a better understanding of fossil fuel combustion, and to help the power industry with improved combustion efficiency and reduced pollutant emissions. I will be continuing my research in this area, extending it into the development of renewable and sustainable energy technologies.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Dawn Lyon (SSPSSR) The focus of my research in the last year has been on embodied and sensory labour, particularly the labour of fishmongers. Based on images as well as sound, I have analysed the work that fishmongers do in the handling and selling of fish. This is part of a broader British Academy-funded research project concerned with the work involved in getting fish â€œfrom sea to tableâ€?. I have also been part of a team revisiting the Isle of Sheppey where Ray Pahl conducted research 30 years ago, in particular exploring the ways that young people imagine their futures.

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Giacomo Macola (School of History) I rejoined the School in January 2012, following three years’ research leave sponsored by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek. This period was marked by the appearance of a number of publications, including two edited collections and my second monograph: Liberal Nationalism in Central Africa (New York: Palgrave MacMillan 2010). A further monographic study examing the intersections between society and technology in pre-colonial central Africa – provisionally titled The Gun in Central Africa: A Social History to the Early Twentieth Century – is currently being prepared. Over the next few years, I look forward to continue building a thriving Africanist community within the School.

Michael Newall (School of Arts) In recent years, my research has focused on philosophical issues raised by pictorial representation. After publishing a book, What is a Picture?, on the topic last year, I am now looking forward to working on new areas in aesthetics and the visual arts, especially issues around art school education. My teaching this year is closely related to these topics, focusing around contemporary visual art and culture. My research into arts education chimes happily with my role as Director of Learning & Teaching for the School of Arts. This year, I am continuing in this role, helping to maintain and foster the excellent teaching culture in the School.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Nicholas Newton-Fisher (School of Anthropology and Conservation) Over the past year, my research has focused on patterns of grooming behaviour in chimpanzees, investigating whether negotiating and maintaining reciprocal exchanges contribute to the social complexity thought to have driven the evolution of advanced cognition. I have also developed a new theoretical framework for the understanding of strategies used by male and female chimpanzees to find mates. In addition, and with funding from the Ideas Factory, I have been producing an iOS app for detailed data logging of behaviour. In the coming year, I will be marketing this app, and switching my research focus to address questions of violence and aggression, again using chimpanzees as a model species.

Jesse Oâ€™Hanley (Kent Business School) My research is broadly concerned with the development and application of quantitative methods for natural resource management, healthcare delivery and supply chain management. My main expertise is in the use of operational research techniques (eg optimisation, decision analysis and simulation) and statistics. I am currently involved in a number of ongoing research projects, including the restoration of river connectivity for migratory fish both in the UK and the US, the optimal scheduling of blood donation sessions in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant, and the development of advanced modelling and solution techniques for designing robust and reliable facility networks.

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Dan Petrovici (Kent Business School) My research interests include advertising effectiveness, consumer processing of health-related information and cross-cultural marketing. In 2011, I was awarded an Academy of Marketing grant to investigate factors influencing the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertising and identify differences in consumer response to food advertising between the UK and France. This research is both timely and important in the context of growing obesity significantly linked to nutritional factors. I am working with PhD students on topics such as the effectiveness of anti-smoking threat appeals, product placement and ethics in advertising practices. I have enjoyed working on cross-disciplinary themes and the dialogue with other Schools such as Economics and Psychology.

Matloob Piracha (School of Economics) My main research area is migration, with an emphasis on different aspects of temporary migration and remittances and their impact at both micro and macro levels. It therefore contributes to the academic as well as policy debates at individual/household level and in the overall development process of the migrant sending countries. I am a Research Fellow of the prestigious research institute IZA, based in Bonn. My teaching interests are diverse, including advanced macro, advanced micro, international trade and game theory. I also give lectures in trade and development to non-economics postgraduate students at Kent in Brussels. This academic year, I will be admissions officer for economics postgraduate programmes.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) David Roberts (School of Anthropology and Conservation) My research interests have become even broader since moving to Kent from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In the past, I worked extensively on climate change, species extinction and how we know if a species is extinct. While these lines of research continue, I have branched out into wildlife trade, particularly the illegal wildlife trade over the internet, in collaboration with the National Wildlife Crime Unit, UK Border Force and NGOs. I am currently an Academic Editor of Endangered Species Research and recently PLoS ONE and PeerJ. I stepped down in spring as Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research and am now Academic Lead on Employability within the School.

William Rowlandson (SECL) My work over the last few years at Kent has concerned the historical roots of the US occupation of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the impact of this history in the present. 2010 saw the publication of my critical edition of Biografía de un Cimarrón, the testimonial narrative of a centenarian former slave still living in 1960s Cuba, which encompasses the genesis of US-Cuba relations and hostilities at the turn of the 20th century. My more recent work has concerned the relationship between Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges and traditions of mysticism, and my book on the subject will appear in spring 2013.

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Anna Schaffner (SECL) My recent research has focused on the history of sexuality and modernist literature, particularly cross-disciplinary exchanges between sexology and literature. My second monograph, Modernism and Perversion: Sexual Deviance in Sexology and Literature, 1850–1930, was published in 2011. I have also co-edited an essay collection, Modernist Eroticisms: Literature After Sexology (published in 2012). From 2009–2011, I was Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded research project Poetry Beyond Text: Vision, Text and Cognition, investigating cognitive processes when reading and viewing visual poetry. I am Co-Director of the Centre for Modern European Literature, a general editor of the Centre’s book series, Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature, and Head of Comparative Literature.

Jeremy Scott (SECL) My research is on the border between language and literary studies, and I have particular interest in the areas of narrative, stylistics, fictional technique, literary representations of dialect and the relationship between narratives and identity. As well as writing and publishing my own fiction, I am currently working on a new book on interfaces between literary stylistics, narratology and creative writing. Based on these research interests, I am convening a new MA module on literary stylistics. During spring term 2013, I will be on research leave to complete two articles: on narrative technique in Martin Amis’s novel Time’s Arrow and on conceptions of Englishness in contemporary fiction.

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NEW SENIOR LECTURERS (CONT) Jane Short (Centre for English and World Languages (CEWL)) Since becoming Director of Learning and Teaching for CEWL in 2011, I have successfully mentored colleagues in the design of new credit-bearing English language modules. In the coming years, I plan to continue leading the dissemination of good practice in learning and teaching throughout the department. I also plan to maintain and expand the provision of short English language programmes for international students during the summer months, and to continue developing student recruitment opportunities in Nigeria and Asia. I have just published a new text on listening skills with Harper Collins and plan to build on my achievements in materials publication and curriculum development to create and develop English language learning opportunities in CEWL and the wider University.

Paul Sinclair (Kent Business School) I am based at the Medway campus and have two main responsibilities. Firstly, as the KBS Medway Admissions Officer, I manage admissions for the Business and Management degree. Secondly, I have recently been appointed Deputy Director of KBS Medway with specific responsibility for managing the undergraduate student experience. This involves developing closer links between current students and alumni and further development of the Medway Business Society. In addition, I will be working closely with KBS senior management to refine our distinctive offer to students with KBS at Medway, as well as continuing a strong focus on student employability through support of our year-in-industry programme.

www.kent.ac.uk

Tobias von der Haar (School of Biosciences) Since I began my PhD in 1995, I have been studying how cells control the amount and quality of protein they produce. This is a fascinating problem both because of the intricate and multifaceted underlying biology, and because of its real world applications in the treatment of diseases and in modern biotechnology. Postdoctoral posts in different labs and a Wellcome Trust-funded Fellowship allowed me to explore many different aspects of this problem. Since taking up an academic post at Kent, my research goal has become to distil these past experiences into a modern Systems Biology approach for studying biological protein production.

PROMOTION AND REWARD

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