A Day in the Life of an Alumni Engagement Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies). 

Hi! My name is Gemma, and I’m the current Alumni Engagement Intern at Loughborough University. As I write this, I am celebrating my 8-month anniversary of being on my placement, with just 4 months left to go before going back to my BSc. Retailing, Marketing and Management degree.  

Today, I will take you through a typical day in my life as an intern at Loughborough University. 

Rise and shine ☀️ 

After my alarm goes off in the morning, I take a little bit of time to scroll through social media, and the Gen-Z in me can’t help but scroll through TikTok for more time than I’d like to admit before getting up and ready for the day ahead.  

After a quick walk along Ashby Road in the sunshine, I arrive at the Hazlerigg building, ready for another day at work.  

The first time that I saw these huge buildings back in 2019 at my offer day, I never would have imagined that I would be working in one of these amazing historical buildings. Did you know that they used to be student accommodation? 

The first thing I do as I walk through the huge doors of Hazlerigg is to wish a good morning to Dipti and Jayne, our lovely receptionists and the first people you’ll see as you walk in. I then head through the halls to the Marketing and Advancement Office (after grabbing the first of many cups of coffee, of course 😎) and sit with my team. 

Headphones in 🎧 

After my daily morning tasks of checking the email inbox, answering queries from alumni, and scanning our social media for comments and messages, I pop in my headphones; today’s choices: the Heathers and SIX soundtracks, and get stuck into planning my tasks for today. 

My role revolves around the Loughborough University Alumni Association, the collective name for our 190,000k+ amazing alumni from every walk of life that you can imagine. From the University Chancellor Seb Coe, Olympian Paula Radcliffe, to our most recent graduates, my team handle everything surrounding the alumni of Loughborough University. 

There is no typical day with my role, one day I could be writing news stories and answering enquiries from alumni, the next I could be attending a huge event with some of our most prestigious alumni. While I am super excited for the Alumni Reunion Weekend taking place soon, my favourite event so far has been a guest talk from Sky Sports News presenter and alumnus Mike Wedderburn for the Universities’ Voices of Diversity Series. 

Today, I have a few news stories to write, mainly looking at the various successes of the Universities’ alumni. In my role, I have had the opportunity to speak to and write news stories about some amazing people and their achievements including Olympians, Eco-adventurers, award-winning entrepreneurs, and my personal fangirl moment just a week into my placement, speaking with the director of RuPaul’s Drag Race who had just won his second Emmy award. 

Database and dissertation 💻 

After a bubble tea from LSU for lunch, I head back into Hazlerigg to check the email inbox and get onto my next task for today, database work following the alumni newsletter. Each month, I plan, write, and code the alumni newsletter which gets sent to approximately 80k Loughborough alumni. After this gets sent out, we usually receive quite a lot of correspondence from alumni which need to be responded to and logged, along with detail changes and unsubscribes.  

Today, I have some time left over, so it is time to do a little dissertation research. As part of the Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) qualification, I am currently in the process of writing my placement dissertation. With my team being heavily focussed on volunteering and events for alumni, I am analysing the impact of COVID-19 on Alumni Engagement for my dissertation. I take out a few hours each week to do additional research for this project, whether this be analysing reports from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) or looking through historical data from my team (KPI’s etc.). So, as I am wrapping up and preparing to go home, I am re-watching and taking notes from an Alumni Engagement summit that I attended online a few months ago. 

Heading home 🎮 

By undertaking my placement in Loughborough, I have been fortunate enough to continue being a part of the Welfare and Diversity section at LSU, definitely a massive perk of working at the University. So, after finishing work today, I will head home to have tea then head back out to my committee meeting, and finally back home to chill out, enjoy a bit of gaming or dissertation work, then hit the hay ready for another day. 

If you love working with data, helping with events, and getting to meet many extraordinary and interesting alumni, why not look into applying to become next year’s Alumni Engagement Intern? I have such an amazing experience and learned so much in this role that I can take into my final year and beyond. 

A Day in the Life of a Student Recruitment Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies).

My name is Emily Rigden and back in June 2021, I was lucky enough to secure an internship within the Schools College Liaison team, under Marketing and Advancement (M&A), at Loughborough University. The placement has taught me so much about the industry, the university and myself. Throughout this blog post, I hope to share a good sense of understanding what it is like to work for the University and what a typical day in the life of a marketing intern looks like.

What does a typical day look like?

To be honest there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day in the life. I can start work as early as 6am until late in the afternoon and go on to finish late in the evening. It completely depends on what my day consists of. At least 2 or 3 times a week I will have an event either on campus that I am supporting or an event anywhere in the UK at a school Higher Education (HE) fair (HEF). I can also be attending National events across the country such as UCAS Fairs or What Uni Search fairs. The main premise of my job is to implement and support recruitment marketing campaigns across all levels of study to prospective students. I do this through small, scaled school or college HE fairs, social media, or specific VIP outreach events.

Because of this ‘every day is a different schedule’ kinda life, I plan everything meticulously on my Outlook calendar.

Today’s to-do’s

To give an idea, I’ll run through a day where I will be working in the office in the morning and then travelling to a HEF in the evening. As a Student Recruitment Intern, I get the pleasure of working in Hazlerigg. So around 8:30am I will head into the office, normally meet Georgia (the other SRO intern) en route and discuss the morning coffee run. Once we have sat down in the office, the first job of the day is to finalise the plan for the day, re-allocate any time that was reserved for completed tasks and schedule in lunch.

If I have an event in the afternoon, I will usually confirm the event/my travel plans and make sure my hire car is on track to arrive on time. My morning activities can also include anything from posting and regulating the new Lboro_SCL Instagram and LboroSCL twitter account, producing presentations or doing research tasks for the wider M&A department.

Why chose an M&A internship at Loughborough?

I have absolutely loved my time as an SRO intern and especially working in the SCL team. It sounds so cliché, however, every single person I have met in the team has been so incredibly supportive, welcoming and made me feel like a valued member of the team. I have heard horror stories of my friends who have done placements where they have been treated horrendously, isolated from the team, and treated just as ‘measly interns’, I can hand on heart say, that is not how Loughborough treat their interns.  We are given independence and autonomy to work on things I like and things that can develop me.

I can’t wait to see what else this job has to offer me. I hope this gives you a better idea of things that a marketing intern could get involved in and what a typical ‘day in the life’ looks like.

Marketing and Advancement Internships: Advice from our current Interns

We’re looking for motivated and talented Loughborough University graduates, final-year students or placement students to join our award-winning Marketing and Advancement team at a top 10 UK university.

Does this sound like you? Well, before submitting your application, we asked our current interns to give you their top tips for applying for a role, a brief overview of their current internship, and what they’ll take away from this incredible experience.

Becca Ayres

Graphic and Digital Intern

My role as Graphic and Digital intern with Creative and Print Services has included a range of different responsibilities and tasks. I have been involved in branding for Staff Networks, illustration for Christmas cards and maps, social media assets, art direction of photoshoots, print materials, animation and so much more. I am thoroughly enjoying my internship and the variety of opportunities and skills it provides, no two weeks are the same and I continue to grow and learn throughout the year.

Top tips for applying
(for the Graphic and Digital intern position)

Applying for placement can be a stressful and disheartening experience, but rest assured that the right role will show up for you if you keep looking. My top tips would be to cater your cover letter and CV for each application and be selective with your portfolio. Rather than including any and every project you have ever worked on, choose a select few highlights that show a range of skills and reflect the type of work you want to be hired for.

How will your internship benefit you in the future?

My placement within CPS has equipped me with a huge range of new skills, both technical and social. I have gained so much confidence in myself and no longer feel anxious to put forward my ideas, I have a better understanding of working in a professional studio and communicating with clients. I have also hugely broadened my skillset in design, which will not only allow me to produce the best possible project outcomes in my final year at University, but will also greatly improve my employability once I graduate.

A lesson you will take away from this year

Some key lessons that I will take away from this year are to not be scared to voice my ideas and to value myself as a key member of a team, to grab hold of every opportunity available to me, and to put 100% into every project I work on.

Gemma Stewart

Alumni Engagement Intern

My role as the Alumni Engagement Intern is an experience that will benefit me throughout both my return to study as well as my future employment. There is no typical day with my role, one day I can be writing news stories and answering enquiries from alumni, the next I could be attending a huge event with some of our most prestigious alumni.

Most memorable moment

In the office, we currently have a teddy bear that we were given by an alumnus of Loughborough College (now Loughborough University) who had come onto campus on a trip from France, as the only person from my team in the office that day (due to dynamic working), I met with him, and we shared a fascinating discussion about his experience as a student in the 50s versus my experience as a student who had started in 2019, and how COVID had cut my first year at University short. He had graduated in the 50s, and wanted to give us the teddy bear, who was the mascot of the Water Polo team at the time, and that he had kept it safe all these years along with photos of his teammates. While it was a quick moment, it was certainly a lovely experience. 

What have you gained from your internship?

Where to start? As a total data geek, this internship has allowed me to gain experience in many different areas that I am passionate about, most notably the data entry and management of the University’s database with 190,000+ alumni records.  

During my studies at Loughborough, I had learned about database management, however mostly in theory. Having the ability to work closely with such a huge database has taught me so much about how data is handled in a professional setting, in accordance with GDPR and data security.  

Similarly, with a lot of my responsibilities such as social media management, article writing, and administration, I had had some experience through societies, my course, or previous employment, but learning about how to apply my prior knowledge and experience in this professional setting has made me realise the difference between theoretical and practical experience. 

How will your internship benefit you in the future?

The sheer quantity of experience in different areas will definitely benefit me in the long run as I go on to my final year and begin to apply for graduate roles. Many other internships may focus on one specific area, such as social media or finance, but my internship has provided me with a balance of data-orientated and creative experience. 

As someone who has come from a retail and hospitality environment, adjusting to an office environment heavily reliant on independent working was certainly a strange experience. Going back into my final year studies, the ability to plan my time and actions will be crucial, so with this internship, learning how to do this efficiently will definitely benefit me in the near future. 

Probably the element that will benefit me the most is my personal growth throughout the internship. As someone with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, my self-confidence and self-doubt are probably the areas that I struggled with most going into this role, even now I still find myself second-guessing myself, but something that will forever remember is my manager telling me that I need to “be proud of my achievements and not to brush them off” in a review meeting. This definitely set something off in my mind, and from then I’ve seen such a change in my confidence and willingness to speak up in situations that I had previously approached with caution. 

Saagar Sutaria

Web and Digital Intern

Working as the Web & Digital Intern offers a whole range of exciting opportunities. The nature of the role means that you can be involved in anything from social media and web development to photography and videography. Having this flexibility and scope has allowed me to develop a wide array of skills, improving my abilities holistically, rather than in one specific area.

Top tips for applying

I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason. If you put in the utmost effort into all your applications, you will eventually secure the best suitable internship for you.

Applying for the Marketing and Advancement internships is slightly different. You will not need to upload your CV like you may have for other applications. Instead, there will be a form that you will need to fill in. I would advise that you carefully fill this in, checking your responses as you go along. For the more open-ended or long-form answers, it can be beneficial to come back to them on a different day and analyse them with a fresh pair of eyes. This will help to refine and improve your answers. Be concise, whilst still endeavouring to explain why you would be ideal for the role. A major factor in doing this is to read the job description and criteria thoroughly. Attempt to meet as many of these criteria in your explanations and answers.

Most memorable moment

The internship, as a whole, has been a great experience. When you’re involved in a variety of projects and areas, it is hard to pick one that is most notable. However, I would say that my involvement with the Photography & Videography team has stood out particularly. This is because it is an area that was of great interest to me, but I had never explored in much detail, partly due to barriers of entry and lack of opportunities. Having worked with the team, I have become increasingly comfortable in my abilities to shoot and do things like colour correcting and grading raw footage. This is a direct result of what I was taught by the team.

Another area that has significantly stood out is the web development work I have done. This includes building websites, analysing and improving existing pages, and more. My strong eye for detail, in my opinion, has aided in my success in this area. I have very much enjoyed learning the content management system used build the Loughborough University website(s). Prior to this internship, I only had some basic knowledge on HTML coding. Due to my involvement with the Web Development Team, I have been able to learn more about both HTML and CSS, which has been an interesting aspect.

A lesson you will take away from this year:

A key takeaway would be that you should always take up an opportunity, even more so if it lies outside your comfort zone. I believe that it is under pressure where you can thrive the most. Sticking to just what you are good at doesn’t lead to much development. Your internship should be all about trying to diversify your skillset and become a well-rounded individual.

Emily Rigden

Student Recruitment Intern

The student recruitment interns supports a wide range of outreach and recruitment initiatives to help raise awareness of Higher Education and Loughborough University. I have been able to represent Loughborough at UCAS and Higher Education fairs, had the opportunity to talk to prospective students about applying and studying at university, and give presentations.

I really enjoyed the role as you get to work on various projects across the team with autonomy, which means that every week is different. You develop a wide array of skills that will not only benefit you in the role itself but in your future career.

Top tips for applying:

Show your passion for Loughborough and the higher education system. You could use examples from when you were on a committee at Loughborough or from any paid employment you may have, these will also show how you can meet the job requirements listed in the job description.

Most memorable moment:

Working my first ever solo event… and it was a success! This was 3-4 weeks into my placement and I was still using my Loughborough prospectus as a bible, but it went really well. I had so many inspiring conversations with prospective students and parents. Which made the 5 hour round trip worth it.

A lesson you will take away from this year:

If you want to try something, then you have to be open to new opportunities. It is important to have the confidence in sharing your ideas and opinions, and don’t be scared to ask for help or advice – especially when you have the benefit of very supportive colleagues around you!

Georgia Duthie

Student Recruitment Intern

Despite the role being title student ‘recruitment’ intern, I actually work on projects relating to a wide range of areas. Recent projects that I have undertaken are: the creation of subject-specific presentations, resources and lesson plans to increase interest in certain subject areas; completing market research tasks covering everything from scholarships and bursaries at Russell group universities to STEM subjects and their modules at over 20 different institutes.; attending Higher Education Fairs, UCAS events and community days to promote Loughborough; presenting talks about a plethora of topics relating to HE such as Student Finance, the UCAS Process and the benefits of university; starting and managing the social media platforms for the team, and mentoring Yr12 students throughout their further education and journey into higher education.

Top tips for applying:

1. Be passionate about Loughborough – understand what makes this university stand out from others
2. Get involved – Make sure you get involved in different aspects of the university, the broader your understanding is of the opportunities available, the better your advice and guidance to others will be.
3. Be understanding – university is not for everyone and although we are employed by the university, our main job is to help students make the best decisions for them. Be well versed in other forms of Higher education, and alternatives.
4. Be confident – you will be giving presentations on a range of topics, from student finance and the UCAS application process to specific courses offered at Loughborough. You obviously don’t need to know about these things when you’re applying but make sure you give off the same confidence in your interview, that you would need to present.
5. Know some facts – when I was applying for this placement it actually began as a general application to Marketing and Advancement, which meant that I had an interview with multiple departments such as Alumni, School of Business, Web and Digital and Student Recruitment. Take a look at what these departments do and how you would be able to help!
6. Don’t be afraid to try something out of the box! – After the interview stage there is often another stage of the application that requires you to get somewhat creative – don’t be afraid to show your skills!

Most memorable moment:

This team is extremely social which is absolutely amazing! I would say that my highlight was a trip down to Brighton for Sussex UCAS with one of my colleagues. We had travelled down the night before the event to get set up and ended up going out for dinner and drinks before heading to our hotel. Not only did we have great food, but we had a really nice conversation about my plans for the future and what I wanted to do after graduation. At the start of that conversation my answer was ‘I have no idea!’ and by the end I was looking up masters programmes and graduate schemes! I never thought a trip to UCAS would help me sort out my own future!

A lesson you will take away from this year

The environment that you work in and the people you work with are really the make-or-break factor as to whether you will enjoy an internship. Any opportunities or job prospects I have in the future will have to live up to the experience I have had in this team, and I know I shouldn’t settle for anything less.

I am very meticulous when it comes to planning and I always told myself that this was a bad thing, as people always aspire to be spontaneous and ‘go with the flow’. Since doing this job I have come to realise that this is not a downfall at all, in fact, I have been praised multiple times for this quality! Being organised and writing plans and to-do lists is a great skill that many professionals aspire to have, so my team have really taught me to embrace it!

If you would like more information about the Internships within Marketing and Advancement, click here.
To apply, click here.

The application deadline is the 12th June.

Good luck!

Digital Storytelling in the EDI space

As we approach the two-year mark of what might be considered one of the most critical wake-up calls in the diversity and inclusion space; I want to reflect on an EDI centred research project I conducted during my master’s programme at Loughborough.  

The research was influenced by the events in 2020, following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in the US. “Black Lives Matter” were the chants heard in protests across the world. A catalyst that led to an amass of content with pledges from companies supporting Black lives and a recognition of the need to represent individuals from all walks of life within working environments.

I began to think about how marginalised groups can share their real-life experiences and what is currently being done within organisations to help shape EDI strategies. From my initial research, I found that inclusion measurements are collected using surveys, interviews and focus groups. Therefore, this opened up an opportunity to explore a developing method of data collection known as digital storytelling.

My primary aim was to try and establish how organisations can use digital storytelling to inform equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.

Digital storytelling (DST) was initially developed in the late 1990s by Jo Lambert and their team in Berkley, California. It comprises a 2–5-minute visual narrative that combines media forms such as images, voice-over narration and audio. Digital storytelling established a way to democratise culture through empowering and giving voice to groups traditionally marginalised or ignored by mainstream culture. 

I chose to use Loughborough University as the primary case study for the research. In doing so, I had the opportunity to speak directly with some of the University EDI strategists. The interviews conducted involved screenings of real-life digital stories created by Gen-Z students from ethnic minority backgrounds through a series of workshops. 

The conversations were open and candid, and subsequently, I was able to derive some interesting findings. The research found that digital storytelling provides a unique insight into experiences of racial inequality and social inclusion. In addition, digital stories bring individual narratives to life that might otherwise be difficult to capture using alternative data collection methods. Overall, findings from the research indicated the benefits of the digital story methodology in raising awareness and securing buy-in, highlighting its potential, especially when combined with other data forms.  

For EDI strategies to be effective, organisations must assess their culture and establish an environment for initiatives to thrive. We are in an age whereby social apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok allow users to document their lives. Universities and organisations alike should consider exploring data collection methods such as digital storytelling moving forward in the EDI space:

1) to better engage with individuals on a human level

2) to ensure all voices are heard in the current digital landscape

The power of digital storytelling is being used in initiatives to amplify the experiences of individuals. The Making of Black Britain (MOBB) campaign partnership with Google Arts and Culture is an oral history project dedicated to telling stories. MOBB is a fresh example of how digital stories can capture the everyday of everyone, every colour, class and creed from generation to generation.

Annabeth Owusu

MSc Data Science

Graduated in 2021

This Week at Loughborough | 16 May

Gender Diversity and Sport: Interdisciplinary perspectives on increasing inclusivity

16 May 2022, 12pm – 5pm, International House

Join members of the Loughborough University Gender and Sport mini-CDT for the launch of their new book showcasing their work and that of other national and international scholars. With commentary from the Editors, contributors, scholarly reviewers, and trans inclusion advocates this event will discuss the complexities of barriers to inclusive access to sport and physical activity and discusses how sport, and society, can move forward beyond the gender binary, in both theory and practice.

Find out more on the events page.

Transitional Experiences: Understanding Embodied Stigma, Stress and Trans Resilience in the U.S.

17 May 2022, 10am – 12pm, International House

Although trans, gender diverse and gender non-binary people are increasingly visible in popular culture in the US, political backlash and entrenchment in a strict gender binary continue to contribute to enacted stigma and violence. This talk examines trans experience through a biocultural anthropological lens focusing on how stress and stigma become embodied and explores ways to understand trans lives, transitional experiences and ‘biologies of resilience.’ Discussion moderated by Ines Varela-Silva

Find out more on the events page.

Plant Pot Painting

17 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, The Treehouse

An opportunity to get creative painting some cute plant pots.

Festival: In your hands: 10 years of Fruit Routes – Storying/Walking, Parts I and II

17 May 2022, 2pm – 5pm, Barefoot Orchard

2pm Part I: Branching Out Storywalk: Traditional Stories of Our Treescapes

Guided Storywalk, led by Mike Wilson (LU) and Patrick Ryan

Branching Out, part of the NERC-funded UK Future Treescapes Programme, aims to capture the social and cultural values attached to our urban treescapes, by mapping the biophysical data of trees alongside the stories that we tell about them. Join professional storyteller Patrick Ryan as he brings the Fruit Routes collection to life.

3.30pm-5pm Part II: Stories of the Heart Wood

Led by Fred Dalmasso and Liz Lovely from the Storytelling Academy, Loughborough University

Join us as we gather and share stories of the trees, both personal and universal while listening to the wisdom of the orchards. Bring your good cheer and the tales that live about you.

Find out more on the events page.

Transitions and Trans Lives

18 May 2022, 9.30am – 12pm, LDS017, Design School

A unique opportunity to join scholars, filmmakers and activists for a screening and discussion panel centred on the filmic representation of trans lives.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Stephen Brown

18 May 2022, 11am, Online

Visibility or impact? International efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in the Sub-Saharan Africa

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Stephen Brown

18 May 2022, 11am, Online

Visibility or impact? International efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in the Sub-Saharan Africa

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Beeswax Wrap Workshop

18 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, MHL007, Martin Hall

Make your very own beeswax wrap to keep food fresh for days!

In this workshop you’ll be able to make your very own beeswax wrap which you can use repeatedly to keep that half-eaten fruit, or leftover takeaway fresh for days. This helps avoid both food waste and the use of landfill-bound, plastic-based cling film.

Find out more on the events page.

Professor Heike Jöns Inaugural Lecture

18 May 2022, 4.30pm – 6pm, EHB.1.10B & Online

Understanding the uneven global geographies of science and scholarship through triadic thought: an intellectual journey from mobilities via practices to geopolitics.

Science and scholarship are significant but contested fields of human praxis. Through the production of diverse cultural, scientific, and technological knowledge and innovation, science and scholarship have driven economic prosperity, cultural exchange, and considerable improvement in human health and wellbeing, yet they have also been identified as practices inextricably linked to warfare and powerful economic accumulation processes that have relied upon imperial dominance and exploitation in the development of an originally profoundly Eurocentric modern capitalist world economy. Understanding how science and scholarship have contributed to politically and culturally diverse yet geographically and socioeconomically highly uneven global knowledge economies has motivated much of my research over the past 25 years.

Find out more on the events page.

EDI Film Night – Paris is Burning

18 May 2022, 5pm – 7pm, LDN 1.04

The Loughborough London EDI Committee invites all staff and students to join us for an EDI Film Night to watch ‘Paris is Burning’.

This award-winning documentary chronicles New York’s drag scene in the 1980s and explores issues of race, class, gender and sexuality.

Find out more on the events page.

In your hands: 10 years of Fruit Routes

19 May 2022, 10am – 5pm, International House

An opportunity to participate in a number of events to celebrate the launch of the Fruit Routes Charter and 10 years of Fruit Routes.

After welcome refreshments and an introduction from Professor Marsha Meskimmon, Director of IAS, there will be various presentations.

Find out more on the events page.

CASHxMental Health Ambassadors: Calm Colouring

19 May 2022, 12pm – 4pm, The Lounge

 A chance to unwind and do some creative colouring.

University Choir: Outdoor lunchtime performance

19 May 2022, 12.30pm – 1.15pm, Outside Martin Hall

Join our University Choir for some outdoor singing and jubilee joy!

Following some freezing fun in December, our University Choir is delighted to present another lunchtime al fresco performance outside Martin Hall (Shirley Pearce Square).

As they will be outside, they’ll be singing songs about flowers, so please join them to feel the sunshine (hopefully), smell the roses and ‘hear’ the lilacs in spring.

Find out more on the events page.

Digital Marketing Talk with Tom Hostler

19 May 2022, 5pm – 7pm, LDN 1.04

Are you looking for a career in Digital Marketing? Join us for a chat with one of POKE’s (a Publicis Groupe company) co-founders Tom Hostler. For nearly 30 years Tom has worked across digital design and media creating trail-blazing campaigns for some of Britain’s biggest brands.

Find out more on the events page.

Spell-ing the Green Knowledge

19 May 2022, 6pm – 7pm, Barefoot Orchard

To mark and celebrate a decade of Fruit Routes and the passing on of the project, Topologies-of-Between, will be bringing together sound, image, mark-making, objects and voice in an improvised performance. All are welcome.

Find out more on the events page.

Henna-inspired Wooden Disc Workshop

19 May 2022, 6.15pm, The Treehouse

Design and embellish your own bespoke wooden discs with henna-inspired designs!

This one and a half hour workshop includes a chance to look through pattern inspiration and practice the acrylic cone technique. You’ll then design and embellish your own wooden disc to take home using this technique as well as an array of rhinestones.

Find out more on the events page.

Moth Trapping Walk

19 May 2022, 9pm – 10pm, Barefoot Orchard

Find out more about these wonderful night-time creatures with Graham and Nona Finch from Leicestershire Entomological Society. Graham and Nona have been monitoring moths at Loughborough University for a number of years.

Find out more on the events page.

Resistant Transition? Debating the Future of Legal Gender

20 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, International House & Online

Join Professor Elizabeth Peel (Loughborough), Professor Davina Cooper (King’s College London) and Dr Flora Renz (University of Kent) in-person to discuss the ESRC Future of Legal Gender project findings, and explore the challenges and consequences if legal sex were abolished.

Find out more on the events page.

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World

22 May 2022, 11am – 12.30pm, Online

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University – Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska – along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing.

Find out more on the events page.

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World

22 May 2022, 11am – 12.30pm, Online

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University – Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska – along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Student Session

16 May 2022, 12pm, Council Chamber

LSU’s Welfare and Diversity officer, Alex Marlowe will be running a session about how you can consider your volunteer role and make sure that you are creating a welcoming and inclusive space.

Find out more on the events page.

Karaoke Night

16 May 2022, 7.30pm, The Lounge

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

18 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Jam @ Jam Garden

19 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-Campus

Tuxedo Swing brings their signature sound to The Jam Garden, a glorious hangout with the tastiest of beers and most delicious of cocktails. The event is ticketed, get yours as soon as possible!

This is Tuxedo Swing’s last pub outing before the end of term, so if you haven’t had the chance to see them yet, this is your opportunity! It’s going to be a fantastic night!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

20 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Societies Awards 2022

21 May 2022, 6.30pm, The Basement

La Familia Societies is coming together to celebrate on the 21st May!

Come join us for a celebration of the achievements of our students this year.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Rag Colour Dash

22 May 2022, 1pm, Union Lawn

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

22 May 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Aston Martin F1 Car outside STEMLab

16 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside STEMLab

After more than 60 years away from Formula One, Aston Martin is back on the grid. Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team racing car will be on display throughout the day. They have Graduate, Placement and Internship opportunities for a range of STEM disciplines. Drop by and grab a selfie!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Widen career options with further study

16 May, 12pm – 1pm, MS Teams

Learn about the range of further study options you could pursue, where to find opportunities and how to apply.  You will find out about the benefits further study can bring, including a career change, so that you can explore whether further study is for you.

Find out more on the events page.

Come and ask us about postgrad courses to pursue a Career in Law

17 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside Careers Hub East, Stewart Mason

Find out about our Law Conversion courses, how they allow you to proceed on to the SQE, and how they are taught. Meet student recruitment team, current students and employability team. Suitable for all students and courses – please come along and collect some freebies at our stand.

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Ace that interview!

17 May , 1pm – 2pm, Wavy Top WAV.0.36

This session will be a fun, informal and supportive in-person session led by Career Coaches Sally Western and Deborah Till and is suitable for all final year students – whether you have had plenty of interviews in the past or none at all!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Drive your job search

18 May, 1.30pm – 3pm, Wavy Top WAV.0.36

This workshop will equip you with the skills to identify your strengths and interests to inform your graduate job search, explore ways of researching different jobs that match your preferences, and create a plan, to help you take manageable steps towards securing a graduate role.

Find out more on the events page.

CRCC Celebrates Loughborough’s Success in National Research Evaluation

We are delighted that the Research Excellence Framework (REF), whose results were published last Thursday, recognised the outstanding quality of research in Communication and Media at Loughborough University.

Most of our research was assessed by the D34 sub-panel (Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management), which included internationally recognised experts in these disciplines. The CRCC Research Themes of Language and Social Interaction, Media, Memory and History, and Political Communication were central to our D34 submission. Overall, the panel judged two-thirds of our research activity as “world-leading” and about nine out of ten of the publications we submitted as world-leading or internationally excellent. This is an exceptional result and confirms our position as one of the UK’s leading centres for interdisciplinary research in Communication and Media.

CRCC aims to support research that makes a difference in the world. For this reason, we are proud that the REF’s sub-panel evaluated 100% of our Research Impact as world-leading, an accomplishment achieved by only one other UK department. The four Impact Case Studies we submitted demonstrated how our research helped transform communication training in public, private, and third sector organizations, enhance public understanding of media and everyday life under communism during the Cold War, increase the accuracy and impartiality of the BBC’s coverage of rural issues, and improve the quality of media coverage and public debate during elections and referenda. Our research has achieved these meaningful changes thanks to our partnerships with broadcasters, campaigners, journalists, law enforcement agencies, medical professionals, museums, policymakers, public service media, technology companies, and television production companies in the UK and around the world. We are proud that CRCC is fulfilling its mission to support research that helps make the world a better place.

Finally, we are delighted that the REF’s sub-panel assessed 100% of our Research Environment as world-leading. This is the strongest possible endorsement of the vitality and sustainability of our research culture. Only two other UK departments achieved a perfect score in this category. We are delighted that our peers have recognised CRCC’s role in supporting and promoting excellent interdisciplinary and international research, particularly among early-career members of staff.

The results of the REF 2021 show that research in Communication and Media at Loughborough University has a world-leading record of excellence, vitality, and impact, and a bright future ahead. This result is first and foremost due to the competence, creativity, and dedication of our researchers at all career stages, as well as the professional staff who supported their work. The Centre for Research in Communication and Culture is proud to have played a part in this success. We look forward to working with our colleagues to ensure our research continues to grow and responds to the challenges of the future.

How to be alone, but not lonely

Hi, my name is Megan. I graduated with a degree in International Business from Loughborough University in 2018 and subsequently founded Hashtag Me (#Me). #Me aims to equip and empower students to better handle life’s ups and downs and maximise their university experience. We offer a 12-week, student-led course connecting like-minded peers to help students become more self-aware and resilient as they share experiences, learn healthy coping strategies and overcome challenges together. Subomi, one of our Social media and Engagement Leads, and I thought what better time than Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 where the theme is ‘loneliness’ to talk about the negative presumptions around being alone.

Choosing yourself

Often people can think there is something wrong if you’re alone or choose to do something alone. And they subsequently come up with conclusions that the only probable reason is that you don’t have friends, you’re boring or a ‘loner’. But why does this have to be the case? Being and choosing to be alone should not be perceived as unappealing. Rather it should be about choosing yourself, over anything or anyone else. It’s an opportunity to carve out space or time to find peace and solitude — to reflect, unwind, and maybe even to be creative.

Being alone versus being lonely

In our opinion, being alone isn’t the same as being lonely. Being alone is a physical state where you are by yourself while being lonely is an emotional state of sadness attributed to not having a connection with yourself or others. So, what this means is that you can be alone but not lonely and that you can be lonely even when you’re surrounded by people. They are not the same concepts; one is physical, and the other is emotional.

How to be alone

Before getting into the specifics of how to be alone, it’s crucial to note that being alone doesn’t have to imply loneliness. Yes, there can be instances where you’re alone and feel lonely, but the two don’t always have to go together. So, how does one achieve being alone without feeling lonely?

1. Go on a solo date

Although this may seem daunting, taking yourself on a date is a powerful and bold first step in learning how to be alone. Dates are strongly associated with two or more people, so this is your chance to challenge this assumption and practice independence and self-sufficiency.

If dating yourself still sounds scary, then start small. Study alone at a coffee shop, then try grabbing brunch with your favourite book or whilst listening to a podcast. And before you know it, you might even fancy a solo date day out to an art exhibition or to the cinema! The options are endless.

Start with what most appeals to you and seems doable, and once you become comfortable with that, we almost guarantee that being alone won’t seem so daunting.

Still not convinced? Remember that you’ll be able to improve self-awareness and reconnect with yourself as you practise entertaining, nurturing, and dating yourself.

• Take a break from social media

Social media is an easily accessible medium to a world of connections. Online platforms have changed the whole concept of being alone because we are just an Instagram story or tweet away from feeling connected to another person and their experiences. In situations where we’re waiting in line for something or going from A to B, a lot of us almost instantly pick up our phone to pass the time. Relying on social media can easily become a way to avoid being alone with our thoughts or engaging in the moment. It also presents a distraction from facing our own reality.

So, when you’re next tempted to pass the time, we challenge you to avoid going onto social media (and your phone altogether) and instead, take in your surroundings. Another suggestion is to stay offline for a particular time in the day (during your morning or evening routine for example) and if you’re comfortable going further, you could try setting daily limits or avoid social media altogether for a full 24 hours once a week to check in with yourself and be more present. Perhaps even use this time to practice self-care or to focus on a project you’ve started but haven’t gotten around to finishing.

• Find a creative outlet

Being in a creative space or doing something artistic can inspire and motivate, often leading to becoming so engrossed with our work that we lose all sense of time, and space. Finding a creative outlet helps to keep our minds busy and avoids letting the fear that often comes with being alone creep in. The distraction can encourage a state of joy or peace rather than feelings of loneliness.

There are the typical creative activities which first come to mind such as dancing, writing or arts and crafts, but your creative outlet can be anything that has meaning to you and that brings you satisfaction and a sense of achievement – even if it’s cleaning or doing maths!

To tap into your creative side, it’s worth considering what you’re passionate about and which environments you’re naturally drawn to. If you love being surrounded by nature, then perhaps you can spend some time foraging to bring the outdoors in? Or maybe there’s something outside of the box that you’ve always wanted to try? This is your encouragement to give it a go! It’s all about finding something that you can do alone which helps you to focus and express your energy, emotions, and thoughts. Just remember that it’s more about the experience and having the time alone than creating something perfect!

These ideas might not make a drastic difference in your life; however, we hope they will provide a stepping stone to getting comfortable with being alone. The more you incorporate some of these things into your routine, the easier it will get! So, try to see them as starting points in your journey to practising solitude and becoming more independent.

If you are experiencing feelings of loneliness, we have written an article on tackling it which we encourage you to read or share with someone you feel it could help.

Subomi Lawal, Social Media and Engagement Lead, #ME

Megan Gamble, Alumna and Founder of #ME

Global Communication and Social Change Podcast Playlist

Hot on the heels of our Open Access reading list on Global Communication and Social Change from last year, this year we are pleased to share a Global Communication and Social Change Podcast Playlist. This playlist picks out the top 5 from a longer playlist created for a module on the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme.

Global Yaadie: Global Yaadie Gets Climate Conscious

Our playlist must begin with Global Yaadie, a podcast by our alumna, Dainalyn Swaby, who is passionate about the role of communication for development and social change for climate justice and youth activism, based in Jamaica. I recommend the full series, but if pushed to choose just one, my top pick is Episode 1 of Season 2, ‘Global Yaadie Gets Climate Conscious’, in which Dainalyn talks with a fellow climate-focused podcaster. Participatory communication and other communication approaches emerge several times throughout. Dainalyn even mentions her MA dissertation at around 23:50, which you can read in full in our IMCI Graduate Papers.

Rethinking Development: Strategic Communication

This episode on Strategic Communication from the Rethinking Development Podcast series hears from an experienced professional in the field of development communication and advocacy. We cover communication approaches within the international development sector in quite a lot of detail in the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme, including how thinking and practice has changed over time. This podcast with Dr. Deepak Gupta gives an insider’s perspective on current practice, drawing on his vast experience in various UN agencies. He also discusses how communication is seen, and sometimes misunderstood, by other professionals in the international development sector.

SCA Podcast: Digital Solutions for communities and campaigners with Brian Young

As well as communication within international development, our MA programme also looks at the role of communication and media in social movements. The Social Change Agency (SCA) is a London-based organisation that supports a wide range of activists, social movements and development organisations with their strategies, systems and infrastructures. All their podcasts are fascinating insights into the world of activism and community organising, intersecting with media and communication strategies in many varied and indirect ways. We were very lucky to have two guest lectures from SCA for our MA Global Communication and Social Change students this year. I’ve chosen this particular podcast because it thoughtfully considers digital communication and technology in social movements. Brian Young brings a balanced view of both the potential and the challenges of a range of digital tools. There is also a Part 2 to this episode.

No White Saviours: Ethical Storytelling w/ Tom Saater

We change gears a bit in this podcast. No White Saviours is an exciting podcast team based in Kampala, Uganda, and their critical discussions on a wide range of topics always bring an important decolonising perspective. Postcolonial theories are an important aspect of our MA programme, helping us to understand the historical and structural basis of contemporary power dynamics and representation. In this very thought provoking, at times raw, episode, the No White Saviours podcast team hears from a photographer reflecting powerfully on his own role in taking stereotypical photographs of African people, especially children, for Western NGOs and audiences, and what led him to change his practice and perspective. There is also a slightly tangential but interesting reflection in the middle of the episode on the deliberately provocative title, ‘No White Saviours’ (which you can hear more about in their introductory episode). See also the follow up podcast where the NWS team reflects on ethical storytelling and photography.

Why Change: Responsive, Creative Social Change with Jacki Kauli and Verena Thomas

My final pick is an episode that features Associate Professors Jacki Kauli and Verena Thomas – both of whom are doing fascinating research on communication and social change practice in Papua New Guinea. Verena’s work focuses on visual storytelling and filmmaking, and Jacki uses theatre and drama. In this podcast they talk about their own work and projects, and reflect on some challenges of doing creative, participatory social change work within international development. I have visited the Centre for Social and Creative Media (CSCM), mentioned in the podcast, and they do truly innovative work around themes like gender-based violence, sorcery and violence, and women’s leadership. It is well worth checking out some of the films produced out of CSCM, and probably the best place to find them is on the CSCM Facebook page.

What do you think about these podcasts? Do you have a podcast recommendation? Are you a podcaster with an interest in communication and social change? Add your reflections and recommendations to the comments below or get in touch with the Programme Director of the MA Global Communication and Social Change at j.noske-turner@lboro.ac.uk with your tips!
See more details on the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme.

Living with Fibromyalgia

It is important to remember that writing about any condition is always specific to each individual. My experience of having and living with an illness may be completely different from another person being diagnosed with the same condition. That is why it’s important not to treat us all in the same way and offer us the same advice.

I grew up in a house where my Mum had Fibromyalgia. I thought I understood it a little and knew what pain she was in. I had no idea until I started to suffer with it myself.

Fibromyalgia is often called the invisible illness and can take many years to diagnose. It is an umbrella term for many different symptoms grouped together, so it can often get overlooked or misdiagnosed.

What is it?

Fibromyalgia is a long-term chronic condition that can cause widespread pain all over the body. A medical professional can try to diagnose fibromyalgia by pressing on 18 points located throughout the body to identify any tenderness or pain. As not all people react the same way to this test, years can be spent trying different medications to stop additional symptoms from occurring.

It took me over 10 years to get diagnosed. Over the years my symptoms have intensified and have covered the following:

• Memory issues
• Confusion and Brain Fog
• Chronic Pain
• Migraines
• IBS
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Fatigue
• Vertigo
• Excessive temperature fluctuations
• Extreme itching or Eczema
• Depression and Anxiety
• Suffering from constant urine infections or feeling you have them
• Vision issues

Because of the array of symptoms, I was sent to different specialists over the years who dealt with each symptom separately. This resulted in more tests, more time at the hospital and lots of medications. There were times I felt like a zombie because of the number of medications I was on.

It is the impact it has had on my life rather than dealing with each symptom that’s the most difficult part for me to deal with. When my symptoms were at their worst, I started to feel very down and depressed. The impact on your mental health can be just as debilitating. I didn’t want to go out and I couldn’t spend time with my family and friends. Eventually, many of my friends disappeared as they were fed up with the constant cancellations and couldn’t empathise with my condition. Losing friends in conjunction with the illness made me feel very isolated, alone, and angry.

One of the biggest contributors to poor mental health is not just the condition itself but what happens after the diagnosis. There is an ‘off you go’ attitude I’ve experienced by many specialists. There is no cure for Fibromyalgia; you are just expected to deal with it by yourself.

There was a huge impact on my family and work when my Fibromyalgia got worse. I was having more time off work and stressing about that which made me even worse. I then got into a cycle of stressing about having time off work which made me absent for long periods of time. I have two young children and my wife had to look after them and me. There is no guidance or support for them either. My wife and I would get frustrated with each other due to the situation we were in. I couldn’t do certain things for myself or was in bed for days which can be very frustrating for your partner when you have a young family.

The biggest ongoing symptom for me is fatigue. There is a huge misunderstanding about fatigue and tiredness. Tiredness is when you have had a long day or little sleep and you need to go to bed. Fatigue means that no matter how much sleep you have, you never feel refreshed. You can sit down and not know how you will get up to have a shower, get out of a chair or brush your teeth. It’s like your body is made from lead. Some days, daily tasks such as making the bed, walking up the stairs or changing the bins can seem like a huge challenge.

Then comes the medication. I have been put on dozens of medications over the years, some are successful and others have awful side effects. I have spent more time off work trying to wean off medications than dealing with the condition itself.

Each day is a challenge with Fibromyalgia. One day you will feel fine and want to do more. The next day you can’t get out of bed. I can start the day feeling great and then feel awful in a matter of minutes.

The final factor of having Fibromyalgia is its interaction with other illnesses. I suffer from a neurological illness where I have a permanent migraine and vertigo. Having Fibromyalgia interacts with this and causes the pain to intensify. Other people I have spoken to have mentioned how Fibromyalgia makes other illnesses worse.

There are however positive sides to dealing with this illness. I have had huge support from my managers and colleagues in IT Services at the University over the years and without that, I would no longer be at work.

My family constantly support me and because my children have grown up with me having the illness, they know how to deal with it on a bad day.

I have had mental health support both outside and within the University which allows me to deal with this condition on a daily basis. It is a condition with no respite, so strong mental health is key to dealing with it. I was told that being diagnosed with a chronic illness can illicit the same mental health symptoms as a bereavement. We long for the life we once had, and it is fine to ask for help to cope with that.

If you do not work on your mental health, then dealing with this disease is impossible. I know people who have this disease who no longer go to work and spend most of their time in bed suffering from depression.

I would say that my relationship with this illness now is better than it has ever been. I still have my low days, but I know with the right support and attitude, I can deal with it.

Gary Hale
Senior IT Services Specialist

Today (12 May) is World Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. More information about the condition can be found here.

Any staff member with a physical or hidden disability is welcome to join the Staff Inclusivity Group, which advocates for equality in the workplace for colleagues with physical or invisible disabilities. The group is also a place to seek support from one another and challenge University policies and practices. 

CRCC Hosts "Media and the Illiberal Turn" Conference

Over two dozen scholars from more than ten countries gathered at Loughborough University on 28-29 April for one of the first in-person conferences in two years, focusing on the relationship between news media and the rise of illiberalism around the world, as well as on the interactions between illiberalism, the media, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Many others participated online, taking advantage of the conference’s hybrid format.

Marking the upcoming finish of the ESRC-funded project “The Illiberal Turn: News Consumption, Polarization and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe” (2019-2022), and co-sponsored by the CRCC, the conference encompassed five panels, two special roundtables and two keynote speeches, delivered by Marlene Laruelle (Director of the Illiberal Studies Program, George Washington University) and Afonso de Abuquerque (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil).

While the panels discussed mostly the consequences of illiberalism for media and journalism (as well as the strategic use of communication channels – including social media – by illiberal political actors), the final roundtable brought a discussion on the possibilities for countering these trends, featuring Maria Donde (OFCOM/EPRA), Ricardo Gutierrez (European Federation of Journalists), and Sasha Scott (European Broadcasting Union) as representatives of media regulators and professional associations.

The conference’s full programme, including the abstracts of all papers, is available for download here. 

A Day in the Life of a Marketing Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies).

My name is Saagar, and I was fortunate enough to secure a placement within the Web & Digital Team, under Marketing and Advancement, at Loughborough University. Through this blog post, I hope to give you a sense of how great it is to work for the Uni and what a typical day looks like for me!

Wake up and smell the coffee

Today is a Thursday, and so, I will be working from home. I typically wake up around 6.00am, shower, get ready, and then pray. Unfortunately, I’m at the age where I kind of need coffee in the mornings now. So, that is my next step. I’m an espresso guy; there’s something special about that strong shot of bitterness that gets me ready for the day.

I then go to my desk and start working. I have OCD* and one of the things it affects for me is organisation. I like to plan my tasks so that I know what I will be doing throughout the day. I normally do this first thing in the morning, or, I will have already done this the night before. I quite literally put everything on my calendar.

*Mental health and wellbeing can affect many students and can come in a range of different forms. If you would like to speak to someone for support, please do not hesitate to use the University services.

Hey Siri, play ‘Im Working’ by Giggs ft. Jorja Smith

Once I know what I’m doing, I can start working properly. One of the greatest things about my job is the variety of tasks and projects I can be involved in. Web & Digital covers a broad range of activities, from social media, content creation, and building websites all the way to working with the Video and Photo Team, tracking analytics and writing blogs, just like this one!

Any leftover or unfinished tasks from the previous day are my top priority. I then like to move onto any creative or learning tasks. I believe my imagination, attention to detail, and ability to retain information are at their peak before noon. Getting these done first will allow me to complete them to the highest of standards.

On this particular day, I started off by working on some WordPress sites for the Web Development Team. They build sites for many clients, including researchers and businesses. My task involved solving a couple of nuances and problems with a few of these sites. I come from a mathematics and design background, but my knowledge of coding is limited. Hence, I really enjoy tasks where I can genuinely learn something new and develop my skills. Using HTML and CSS, I managed to solve and improve the websites as required. I could use the browser developer tools to test my changes before implementing them on the live site. Luckily, there is always members of the team that can support and assist me if I’m ever stuck with something.

One of the things I enjoy doing is checking content and proofreading. There is something satisfying about going through things and finding small errors or areas of improvement. This may seem tedious and boring to some people (understandably), but I like it. If there were any tasks that I didn’t enjoy, my manager is extremely open to me suggesting other tasks I would prefer working on. It’s nice knowing that your colleagues are happy to accommodate and make your experience working for the University as pleasurable as possible.

Working on social media is another large part of my role. I have a good amount of experience in using the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Therefore, I’m also able to undertake advanced design or editing tasks. These are usually designing Instagram posts and stories (using Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign), creating animations (using After Effects) or video editing (using Premiere Pro). Though such skills were not prerequisites of the role, I knew that they would definitely come in handy and allow me to get involved in a greater range of projects. As a result, I have been able to immerse myself in content creation for our different channels. Making animations for Instagram has been a highlight of this. After Effects was probably the program I had the least amount of experience using. So, everytime I do play around with the software, I learn something new.

Finally, another area I am able to get involved with is Videography and Photography. Though I have only worked on a couple projects with them as of yet, it’s great to see how they plan and execute shoots, and then turn that raw footage into the final product. I will be working with them more in the near future and have already been asked as to what I want to learn so that they can get me involved accordingly. More specifically, my protanopia colour defect means that an area I would like to work on is colour correction and colour grading photo and video.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work

It has now become cliché to call yourself a perfectionist. But, as the above quote by Aristotle says, perfection is a derivative of enjoying your job. I agree with this. No matter what you are doing, it is going to be extremely difficult to produce the best result if you’re not enjoying it. I have now been working as an intern for nearly 3 months. So far, my experience has been amazing.

I unequivocally believe that my team is supportive and wants to see me progress. Everyone I have worked with has been friendly and inclusive, further amplifying the feeling of there being a ‘Lboro Family’. You’re treated just like any other full time employee, and not someone who is there to just perform menial tasks. I’m given independence and autonomy to work on things that I like, how I like. I am very much looking forward to the rest of my year with the team, and what the future, after graduating, has in store.

I hope this gave you a better idea of the things that a Marketing Intern could get involved in. No two days are the same here and there is always plenty to work on, in whichever area I am interested in. Now, time to log off, I’ve finished for the day. 🙂

This Week at Loughborough | 9 May

Mental Health Awareness Week Events

Meditation for Mental Health with Aura Organics

9 May 2022, 7:15pm, Aura Organics, Canal Side Studio

Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event where we’ll focus on improving mental health through supporting, learning and connecting with one another.

Aura Organics have invited you to attend their free session on Meditation for Mental Health. This session encourages you to pay more attention to your thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing and parts of the body.

Find out more on the events page.

Breakfast Wellbeing Check-In

10 May 2022, 8.30am – 9.30am, EHB Foyer

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, join us in EHB and start your day with coffee, pastries and breakfast treats! Start your day with a casual meet up and wellbeing check-in. We will meet in the foyer (next to the shop) in EHB – no need to book, just turn up on the day.

Find out more on the events page.

5 Simple Ways to Manage your Wellbeing

10 May 2022, 10am – 11.30am and 12pm 1.30pm, Online

The Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Team will be running these wellbeing group sessions which will focus on five simple ways to add wellbeing into your routine.

Any of us can benefit from this approach.  During the session, we will be talking about each of these simple actions that we can follow, regardless of whether you have mental health problems or just looking to improve your general wellbeing. 

Find out more on the events page.

Newham Talking Therapies: Managing Low Moods

10 May 2022, 3pm-4pm, Future Space, Loughborough University London

Join us and Newham Talking Therapies as they deliver a workshop on Managing Low Moods. It will cover the meaning of a low mood, the causes behind it and techniques to help manage low mood in terms of our thoughts and behaviours.

Find out more on the events page.

Wellbeing Walk – Mental Health Awareness Week

11 May 2022, 1.45pm – 3.30pm, Meet outside Pilkington Library

The Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity are offering a guided Wellbeing Walk with the option to talk through anything on your mind. 

So if you need to pause and take a break from work, join us for a breath of fresh air, a chance to rebalance and enjoy a wellbeing walk (and hopefully see the bluebells!). Wellbeing Adviser Vicky Bailey will lead the walk. We will meet outside Pilkington Library and aim to be back at about 3.30pm. Just turn on the day with comfortable shoes so you can enjoy the woodland.  

Find out more on the events page.

LAGS Mental Health Awareness Week workshop

11 May 2022, 2.30pm – 4.30pm, LAGS Shed (Behind EHB)

Learn flower and herb planting techniques in a relaxing mindful session at the LAGS Shed (behind the Edward Herbert Building). Find out more about the propagation of flowers and herbs and take home your own plant at the end. 

Find out more on the events page.

Virtual Module Choice Event

9 to 20 May 2022, Online

The Module Choice Website gives current students the opportunity to take part in a live web chats and find out more information about your module options.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Costas Constantinou

9 May 2022, 11am, Online

Diplomacy and Inequality: Understanding Processes of Delegation and Exclusion at the United Nations

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Competing Socialisms: A Media History of the Sino-Soviet Rivalry in Africa during the Cold War

10 May 2022, 3pm – 5pm, Online

This seminar considers the interactions and interdependencies of the decolonising countries in one particular world region, Africa, with two competing models of socialism –  Soviet and Chinese.

Moving beyond the conventional framing of the Cold War as a conflict between the communist bloc on the one hand and the liberal-capitalist ‘western’ bloc on the other, this seminar explores how the Sino-Soviet split that began towards the end of 1950s had turned the rivalry of competing blocs into (at least) a tri-polar contest, while, simultaneously, the decolonisation of the Global South made the so-called Third World a crucial arena of Cold War rivalry.

Find out more on the events page.

Public Lecture: Tackling Health Inequalities

10 May 2022, 7pm, EHB 1.10B, EHB

After two years, we finally brought back our Public Lecture in partnership with Loughborough University. This year will be about health inequalities with our guest speaker Toby Lewis Senior Fellow, at the King’s Fund.

Toby undertakes research at The King’s Fund, focused on health inequalities and poverty. He contributes to their ground-breaking work on integrated care and health system reform. He has a particular interest in how the NHS can contribute to local regeneration and changing disparities of the outcome.

Find out more on the events page.

Tips on an International Career in Finance – Andrea Fletcher

11 May 2022, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Andrea Fletcher is the Chief Operating Officer for Citigroup in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The APAC region encompasses 70,000+ employees, across 14 countries, with 7 businesses generating revenues over US$10bn annually. Her role is to help drive Citi’s efforts to grow the regional Asia ‘franchise’ as well as overseeing organization-wide strategic and governance initiatives for Asia.

Find out more on the events page.

Wellbeing for Doctoral Researchers

11 May 2022, 12pm – 1.30pm, Online

This Doctoral Researcher five-week support group facilitated by the Counselling Service will offer support, a chance to explore the issues, peer problem solving (and survival strategies!) and a chance to break down some of the isolation that researchers often experience. 

Each week will have a theme or themes which may include isolation, motivation, supervision, the emotional pressures which can come from the length of time it takes to complete, fear of finishing or other topics chosen as relevant by the group. Participants are welcome to bring their lunch. 

Find out more on the events page.

Arts Scholars Showcase

11 May 2022, 12.30 – 1.30pm, Martin Hall Theatre

Join us to celebrate our 2021/22 music & arts scholarship students with a showcase of creative writing, music, photography, prop making & dance.

In this special lunchtime event, we’ll be showcasing the work of all nine scholars and celebrating their talents and progress.

Find out more on the events page.

Running out of Time: How Climate Change Games Represent Urgency and the Consequences of Inaction

11 May 2022, 1pm – 2pm, Online

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Jason Hawreliak delivers a seminar on his research.

The consequences of continued inaction on climate change are well documented in the scientific literature and a common theme in popular media. Yet, in spite of the dire reports and well-intentioned messaging campaigns, far too many policymakers and individuals fail to treat the matter with sufficient urgency. One key contributor to this disconnect is a perceived lack of immediacy.

Find out more on the events page.

Running out of Time: How Climate Change Games Represent Urgency and the Consequences of Inaction

11 May 2022, 1pm – 2pm, Online

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Jason Hawreliak delivers a seminar on his research.

The consequences of continued inaction on climate change are well documented in the scientific literature and a common theme in popular media. Yet, in spite of the dire reports and well-intentioned messaging campaigns, far too many policymakers and individuals fail to treat the matter with sufficient urgency. One key contributor to this disconnect is a perceived lack of immediacy.

Find out more on the events page.

Re-igniting your spark!

12 May 2022, 3pm – 4.30pm, Online

When we feel down, we can often experience low motivation. This can lead to us doing less and getting stuck in a vicious cycle of the less we do, the worse we feel. Session one looks at this cycle and a technique to break out of it by planning in and increasing activity levels to create a balance and a routine.

Find out more on the events page.

UX Design drop-in session

12 May 2022, 5pm-7pm, Loughborough Design School Foyer

Fancy a career designing exciting digital products and services?

Are you interested in designing better futures using digital technology and advanced services? Come along to this informal drop-in session and find out more about our UX Design Master’s programmes – any academic background is welcome, no coding or tech experience is needed.

Find out more on the events page.

See What’s There (Movement Workshop)

13 May 2022, 3pm-5:30pm, 0.17 & 0.18, Loughborough University London

Join artist Janine Harrington for a movement-based workshop.

Spend your Friday afternoon exploring movement and dance in this one-off workshop. You will move separately, together, and in different kinds of relationships as you explore a range of possibilities for connection with our bodies, others, imaginative space, play, decision making and habit.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Mental Health Conference

10 & 11 May 2022, 10am – 3pm, The Treehouse

The Mental Health Conference compromises 2 days’ worth of sessions surrounding therapy, counselling, systems of support, borderline personality disorder and more. It is free entry and goodie bags are also provided. We welcome anyone to come along to any of the sessions and get involved in some important discussions about mental health.

Find out more on the events page.

Networking event + Personal Branding workshop

10 May 2022, 6pm, The Lounge

As one of the last LSU Enterprise events of the year, we are doing a networking event with the International Network to help students develop key skills in networking with others, both in-person and Online through LinkedIn. We have spoken to successful founders and professionals to share their tips on networking, as well as offer their own experiences. The Creative Exchange will run a Personal Branding Workshop to teach you how to have a LinkedIn and social media profile that stands out, this is important for students looking for a new job, to form new connections or a founder looking for Investment. 

Find out more on the events page.

Train the Trainer

12 May 2022, 10am, Council Chamber

The Training Academy is running a Train the Trainer session to help you feel confident and prepared to share your knowledge and information with other students in an effective and engaging way.

Find out more on the events page.

CASH x Head’s Up: Figure Sculpting

12 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, The Treehouse

What to expect: A chance to get messy, sculpting your figure using air dry clay, for body positivity week!

Romeo and Juliet

13 May 2022, 6.30pm, Off-campus
15 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-campus

Shakespeare Society is proud to present its second semester play, Romeo and Juliet at The Swan in the Rushes. 100% of the ticket proceeds will be going towards our chosen charity, Schoolreaders, to help raise funds to raise childrens literacy.

See our beautiful cast bring a 70s twist on the classic love story of two duelling families as young love is put to the test.

Find out more on the events page.

Jazz Night – The Organ Grinder

13 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-campus

Tuxedo Swing are playing in Organ Grinders’ function room on Friday the 13th of May. There’ll be gin tasting, a charity raffle and big band music all night long. Only 40 tickets for this one, so get your tickets while you can! Tickets include a gin/tonic or soft drink. They go live this week, so watch this space!

Find out more on the events page.

Out!

14 May 2022, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Community Fun Day

15 May 2022, 12pm, LSU

Loughborough Students’ Union will be holding its annual Community Fun Day on Sunday 15th May – and everyone is invited to come along and enjoy animals, crafts, games and more!

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Orama Solutions – Employer Drop-In on campus

10 May, 10am – 4pm, James France Exhibition area

We’re an executive consultancy partnered with high growth tech start-ups globally. Come to James France Exhibition area for free merch and to talk about exciting opportunities on offer.

Find out more on the events page.

Impress with your CVs, covering letters and application forms

12 May, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Book onto this session for great tips on CVs, covering letters and application forms. Learn how to tailor them to make you stand out to employers and show you have what they are looking for!

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

13 May, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

Book onto this session for great tips on CVs, covering letters and application forms. Learn how to tailor them to make you stand out to employers and show you have what they are looking for!

Find out more on the events page.

Hack the Normal 2022: Sustainability with Beko

Friday 13th May – Sunday 15th May, All day, Online

Become part of a community driving the positive change, take advantage of the curated content, connect with leading brands and take your idea to the next level.

The hackathon will provide human-centered design training on problem discovery, research, solution development, prototyping, and investment pitch preparation. It will feature seminars and speeches by experts from business, technology, and design ecosystems.

Find out more on the events page.

Net zero – thinking differently about working with others 

The University’s new strategy, Creating Better Futures. Together, sets out a renewed ambition for Loughborough including how the University can play a part in tackling climate change and reaching net zero.    

You would be forgiven if the University’s Legal Services team is not at the top of your list of key teams to help achieve this goal.  After all, we are property and contracts lawyers, not environmental specialists.  Our potential, however, as in-house lawyers and business advisors, to support the University to act on climate change, has never been stronger. 

We are all familiar with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in which the UN issued a ‘code red for humanity’.  We as a team absolutely include ourselves – both personally and professionally – in responding to this call to arms.   

Our day-to-day work for the University touches many different aspects of University life through advising on and negotiating contracts and agreements.  Climate change will affect (and in many respects, already is affecting) all areas of our lives and every contractual relationship we create can either have a positive impact on our journey to net zero or a negative impact.  Each contract is an opportunity to do something different, something better. 

Climate-aligned contracting is a ‘win-win’.  It can help all parties to any contract work towards achieving their net-zero ambitions.  There is a wide range of tools and clauses that we have available to help achieve this.  We believe that as time goes on, climate-aligned contracting can (and should) become the default position.  The sooner that the potential for climate-aligned obligations is raised in the negotiations, the more likely it is that the deal will have net zero as part of the commercial discussion and ultimate delivery. 

If climate-aligned contracting isn’t something you have considered to date then don’t worry!  That’s where we come in.  In taking this route we can influence the journey to net zero in a way that supports the University’s objectives and future prosperity and has a positive impact on global environmental outcomes. 

If you would like to discuss this further with us, then please do get in touch by emailing us here.  There are opportunities to start the conversation on this topic all around us and we’d love to explore how we can help you make changes for the good of the planet through the contracts you create.     

The more we talk about what can be done, the more actually doing it becomes achievable and the sooner it will become our ‘new normal’. 

5 things I wish I’d known before starting my Art Foundation

Hi, I’m Emma a final year Graphic Communication and Illustration (basically Graphic Design) student here at Loughborough University. I started my journey back in 2017 with an Art Foundation year at Loughborough. It’s my 5^th year in the bubble now, as I did a placement year at the Met Office.

I think whether or not to do an Art Foundation is still very much a difficult decision for students, post creative A-Levels or college courses. Do you shoot your shot and apply straight for a degree, or do you go for an Art Foundation? Will a foundation be a waste of a year? Do you even know what degree you would want to do? All of these questions were swirling around in my head and at the time, it felt like the most important decision of my life. I want to reassure you that everyone goes down a different path and often what is right for your best mate, won’t be the best option for you.

My advice would be to weigh up your options, speak to people who have done Art Foundations, and search the internet for degree specifications, to figure out what route will suit YOU.

5 Things I Wish I Had Known:

1. Everyone is there for a different reason and your reason is valid

Prior to researching Art Foundation years, I assumed that it was a route to a degree for the people who perhaps couldn’t achieve the necessary A-Level grades, to go straight onto a degree. How wrong was I?!

There are lots of reasons people choose to do an Art Foundation and it’s important to be accepting of all these different paths. I had friends who went into Art Foundation thinking they would go onto to do Fine Art degrees that ended up doing Architecture! For some, it might be that extra year to figure out what degree path will suit them best. However, my reason was different and that’s okay. I went into my foundation year knowing that I wanted to do Graphic Design, but I did it to gain confidence and have that extra year of freedom to learn whilst experimenting.

You have to remember people come from all sorts of different schools and backgrounds. I felt my portfolio and skill set wasn’t quite ready for a degree and that was partly because my school didn’t offer Graphic Design A-Level.

2. It won’t set you behind

A year in your life in the grand scheme of things is nothing. I was worried about graduating later than my school friends, but I don’t think I’d be where I am today if it wasn’t for my foundation year. As far as my career goes, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to go out into industry on placement, without having had that extra year prior to starting my degree.

There is often that fear of entering a different cohort to your school peers and being behind by “wasting” a year, but I can reassure you; a year is nothing. If anything, it has made me make more friends throughout my University experience, as I have met many interesting and different people during my 5 years here at Loughborough.

I feel the reason my career will be accelerated post-graduation is partly due to having had a full-rounded education experience at Loughborough, which all started with that Art Foundation.

3. Get the idea of being a perfectionist out of your head

An Art Foundation really gives you the freedom to experiment and I don’t think I realised that many of my bad habits from school, would begin to be fixed during my foundation year.

I got taught how to use a sketchbook, had a go at life drawing, and quickly learnt how to “let myself go” through drawing. As someone who has never been confident at drawing and who actually felt quite anxious about going onto a course where I knew people would be better at drawing than me, I wish from the get-go that I knew an Art Foundation was meant to be a year to experiment. You will realise you are good at things you didn’t even know you were good at!

I got quite into photography and also did a bit of stop-frame animation on Art Foundation, which I loved. Once I no longer stressed about perfect outcomes, my work actually ended up being way more unique and interesting.

4. You are part of the Loughborough University family, and it is your first year

An Art Foundation is a great stepping stone to University life. Upon first starting mine, I didn’t really see it as my first year of University, when in fact it was! I wish I had seen it as my first year of University from the get-go, as it would’ve helped me feel less different to my friends from back home and made me jump into all of Loughborough’s activities sooner.

Whilst on the Art Foundation at Loughborough, you are totally immersed in the University and can join the array of sports clubs and societies. Art Foundation even gets its own section of the degree show, which provided an exciting opportunity to exhibit my final major project, alongside the final year degree students. You can read more about the degree show in my previous blog here. I also found that having two first years in effect (foundation and first year of my degree) allowed me to settle into Loughborough and make the most of my uni experience. I just fell in love with the community and campus feel of Loughborough, which is why I stayed here for my degree.

5. Be proud to be doing an Art Foundation, everyone is on different paths and that’s okay, own it!

Before starting my foundation and in the first few weeks of making friends, I would be embarrassed whenever I got asked “what course do you study?”. I always felt like I had failed as if I wasn’t worthy enough of being a technically first year of a degree like everyone else. I cannot express enough how valuable my Art Foundation truly was for my creative skillset, as well as on a personal level of confidence to taking that leap of independence to move away from home. You should be proud of the path you are on and know that everyone will be going at a different pace. An Art Foundation is only a year and that year may be everything to get you to your next step and the step after that. Even many of my tutors say they wouldn’t be where they are today without their foundation years!

If you are embarking on an Art Foundation this Autumn, enjoy it! Make the most of that time to try something new, experiment and be free. Good luck with wherever your journey takes you.

Walking with the Wind

Geraldine van Heemstra

In my practice I raise questions about my position and that of other artists as the human subject or anchor of the work. It challenges my ongoing dialogue with the natural world and recognizing the agency of the nonhuman. I like to explore the role of randomness and manipulation and why chance plays a crucial role in my artistic development. In my work I aim to let go of the keystone position, the agent in control, and have always valued collaborative and collective work in some form or other. 

By embracing and immersing myself in the environment through walking and engaging with the land, I want to open a conversation about the surrounding landscape and our position as humans within the natural world. Filling sketchbooks, collecting found objects of the land, I make drawing and etching devices that I take out on my walks, like extensions of my body recording the intangibility of the wind. Creating wind drawings and wind etchings, my aim is to convey that energy I feel in and through my work and I would invite the viewer to rekindle a conversation with the elements. I mean to describe how as humans our makeup is elemental. The flow is therefore seamless. 

A WALK WITH THE WIND (1 MINUTE) https://player.vimeo.com/video/430342736?h=62f35280ff&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 

A WALK WITH THE WIND (2MIN 20SEC) https://player.vimeo.com/video/424033565?h=0f0801e678&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

http://www.geraldinevanheemstra.com @geraldinehvh

Facing a blank sheet of paper

Garry Barker

Being faced with the empty vacuum of a clean sheet of paper is something all drawers have to face. The following proposition is a drawer’s response to George Spencer-Brown’s ‘Laws of Form’, written in 1969.

Let the blank page ☐ denote True or False, because it is a space for possibilities to happen and let a ≠ symbol be read as Not or not as things were. I.e. if the blank page is a sort of truth, then once ≠ is added to it, things will have changed, this difference would mean that what was a truth is now something else, it is not true. Conversely if the blank page is in some way false, by adding ≠ to it, it is now something different and if it is not false it can now be true.
Then the primary arithmetic would have the following sentential reading:
If ☐ = false, then ☐ ≠ = not false = true
If ☐ = true, then ☐ ≠ = not true = false

Read in this way the moment before a mark is put on a blank piece of paper is either true or false, however once a mark is put down some sort of truth or falsehood is established and then when a second mark is put down, that first truth or falsehood is questioned, so we now have an untruth or a new truth. 

The ≠ sign symbolises the essence of how we think about ideas, it indicates the capability of differentiating a “this” from “everything else but this.” It represents the drawing of a “distinction”, and can be thought of as signifying the act of drawing a boundary around something, thus separating it from everything else; it also represents that which becomes distinct from everything by drawing a distinction or boundary as well as the crossing from one side of this boundary to the other.

So in effect the first mark we make changes things, we have made a distinction between one thing and another, we have created a difference, and in creating this difference a new possibility is born.

This is reminiscent of another area of theoretical conjecture as to how to visualise the moment of creation itself, that moment of the Big Bang; which as Stephen Hawking has stated, was ‘a quantum fluctuation out of nothing’. In the 1960s John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt combined quantum mechanics and general relativity into a mathematical framework now known as the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. By integrating Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle into the Wheeler-DeWitt equation He, Gao and Cai have argued that a small empty space can come into existence probabilistically due to fluctuations in what physicists call the metastable false vacuum.
‘When this happens, there are two possibilities. If this bubble of space does not expand rapidly, it disappears again almost instantly, but if the bubble can expand to a large enough size, then a universe is created in a way that is irreversible’. (He, Gao and Cai, 2014)
Perhaps there are very close parallels between the moment of a drawing’s inception and how we think about the coming into being of the universe.

Spencer-Brown takes us into some interesting areas. This is a thought experiment taken from the beginning of the first chapter of ‘Laws of Form’.

Draw a distinction.
Call it the first distinction.
Call the space in which it is drawn the space severed or cloven by the distinction.
Call the parts of the space shaped by the severance or cleft the sides of the distinction or, alternatively, the spaces, states, or contents distinguished by the distinction.
Let any mark, token, or sign be taken in any way with or with regard to the distinction as a signal.
Call the use of any signal its intent. (Spencer-Brown in Farrell, 2010, p. 47) 

Going back to Hawking’s ‘quantum fluctuation out of nothing’, we would have to think about ‘nothing’ as existing infinitely and extended everywhere in every direction. However just to be able to think about this is impossible unless you use a metaphor and in our case it is the empty sheet of paper.

This rectangle represents a blank sheet of paper that itself represents an empty box with no sides that exists infinitely and extends everywhere in every direction. The broken line used to make the rectangle representing an idea that is not solid, or to some extent invisible. This infinitely extended ‘no-thing’ can be mathematically expressed as an empty hyper-set like so: Ø. Within this space we can now make a simple distinction by drawing a line that encircles an area to become a shape.

We now have two spaces, one inside and one outside the shape. The shape in effect is a circumscription of a space. It is though important to remember that what is now inside the shape is actually also the same as but now defined as different from what was circumscribed. Because the original space was infinite the selection would also be infinite.
So a crude mathematical expression of this would be:

If Ø1 represents the original empty hyper-set, then Ø2 could be used to represent the simple distinction or selection and ≠Ø1,2 the boundary that is in effect the common surface between the two spaces that have now been distinguished. We now have three distinguished nothings. A primordial trinity that always includes Ø within it because everything is always composed of what was the original infinitely extended no-thing. This abstract topological construction can now be used as a metaphor for a moment of becoming, of making something from nothing.

This is where mathematics, drawing and religion begin to fuse together. 

Dongshan He, Dongfeng Gao, Qing-yu Cai (2014) Spontaneous creation of the universe from nothing Cornell University Library arXiv:1404.1207v1
http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.1207v1 accessed on 7. 1. 22

Joseph Farrell (2010) Financial Vipers of Venice Port Townsend: Feral House

Upcoming Webinar

The next Geopolitics & International Affairs webinar will take place on Wednesday, 4 May, from 3PM-4.30PM.

I am delighted to say we will be joined by Professor Anthony King who will discuss his latest research on urban warfare, including his book Urban Warfare in the Twenty-First Century (Wiley, 2021).  

Professor King is the Chair of War Studies at the University of Warwick. He has published widely on war and the armed forces, including a trilogy on contemporary military transformation: The Transformation of Europe’s Armed Forces (CUP, 2011), The Combat Soldier (OUP, 2013) and Command (CUP, 2019).

In addition to his scholarly research, Professor King has advised and mentored the British, European and American armed forces, as well as NATO in Afghanistan.

DD.

Welcome to the Geopolitics & International Affairs Blog

Geopolitics & International Affairs (GIA) is a series of webinars examining contemporary inter-state competition, conflict, and geo-strategic rivalry around the world from the perspectives of International Relations scholars, Geographers, Historians and Practitioners.

The webinars are open to all staff and students at Loughborough University.
GIA is organised and chaired by Dr Duncan Depledge, Lecturer in Geopolitics & Security (IRPH)

Vows of the Marhajjha Particle Drawing on Difficult Visualization

Edwin Van Gorder

Chaos :Strife and Drawing on Imagining a pred-dimensional medium such as that spatial extension of space itself prior space time in which the energy involved has no reason to be ordered and no reason to be disordered therefore we have to consider our preconceptions…brings us back rather shoulder to shoulder with the Presocratics as usual and necessary as even a fashion line named Everything Everywhere at Once prompts the cultural dimensions of Long Live Fashion to cosmogeny alite cosmology fashioning the yet difficult Heraclitan synthesis upon his sources extending strife and chaos within the imagination of the speaker to share that chaos presupposes order and order chaos… we have gradually adapted to the realization that explosion is an intuitive fallacy better described as expansion… the interest in finding to some extent the “shape” of the Higgs field similarly must meet a kind of moment of questioning whether visualization is always possible the answer being hinted at in for example an instruction towards learning a speech pattern (Chinese ) Stars? Stars!… the question and answer shows in our visual field like harmony and melody as we “open scan” then settle into a series of connectives which then open out again: similarly the unruly primal universe is a medium where densities in some wise both separate and come together, nearness is the force of gravity in coalescence patterns redistricted then as its own common denominator and suggestive of that order of particles which are their own antiparticles…

This Week at Loughborough | 2 May

Featured

Student Success Academy Launch

4 May – 5 May, 1pm – 5pm, Various Locations

We are delighted to invite students and staff to the official launch of the brand new Student Success Academy.

There will be introductions from senior Loughborough University staff, testimonials from students who have used our services so far this year, and stalls showcasing the range of support services the Academy offers and others we collaborate with from across the University.

Find out more on the events page.

PGR Session: Climate Change Games

3 May, 2pm – 4pm, Graduate House

Games can be an effective way to explore systemic issues and causal processes.

In this workshop, participants will learn how game mechanics (rules and systems) can be built and used to communicate persuasive messages. The session will include a brief overview of how to create a classical form of board game, and how to embed values within the game. Participants will then have the opportunity to create their own simple board game built around the theme of climate change. Materials and a template will be provided. No prior experience in game design is required.

Find out more on the events page.

RAeS Lecture on Engine Power – Where will it come from in the future?

3 May, 2pm – 4pm, Graduate House

For over six decades the gas turbine has dominated aircraft propulsion, delivering unrivalled levels of power density. But what about the future? Is the gas turbine nearing the end of its evolutionary journey and are there any game-changing technologies set to emerge in aircraft power and propulsion? This presentation will explore both of these questions, with particular focus on the transformational technologies and capabilities offered by more electric and hybrid solutions.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Karin M. Fierke

4 May, 11am, Online

Based on her recent Leverhulme Trust-funded project: Agency & Strategy in Non-Western Political Thought

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Screening of ‘My life at the moment’ and performance of ‘For how to be alive’

4 May, 3pm – 6pm, Stanley Evernden Studio, Martin Hall

Screening and Performance: Chris Ivey and Vanessa German, followed by Q&A with the artists.

The Institute is delighted to host two IAS Visiting Fellows, filmmaker Chris Ivey and artist Vanessa German, for an in-person afternoon of film, performance and discussion.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Improving physical activity in older adults with hearing loss

5 May, 5.30pm, Online

This public lecture will be delivered by Dr David Maidment, Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University. Taking place during hearing loss awareness week, the talk will discuss improving physical activity in older adults with hearing loss.

Find out more on the events page.

NT Live: Henry V (screening)

5 May, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) plays the title role in Shakespeare’s thrilling study of nationalism, war and the psychology of power.

Fresh to the throne, King Henry V launches England into a bloody war with France. When his campaign encounters resistance, this inexperienced new ruler must prove he is fit to guide a country into war.

Find out more on the events page.

Study in Pink

6 May, 10am – 12pm, Martin Hall Exhibition Space

A performance and exhibition by Petra Salaric using paintings to convey the emotions experienced through interactions with other people.

Find out more on the events page.

Fellowship Inaugural Lecture: Dr Sola Afolabi

6 May, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Sustainable biogenic waste valorisation – a call to low carbon economy

Dr Afolabi will describe the beneficial exploitation of standalone, and novel integrated synergic waste conversion processes that render pathogenic/hazardous biogenic waste safe whilst producing clean carbon-neutral energy/soil-ameliorants that irreversibly bind carbon. He will also share his pathway to securing a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Engineering for Development Research Fellowship.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Mental Health First Aid course

3 May, 5pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally recognised training course which teaches people how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health and provide help on a first aid basis.  The course has been spread out weekly (3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th May, 17:00- 20:30). In order to gain the qualification participants MUST be free to attend the whole course in person each week.

Find out more on the events page.

Open Mic Night: At The Movies

3 May, 6pm, The Lounge

The only thing greater than the power of song – the magic of movies. From famous films to films made famous, ground-breaking soundtracks and zeitgeist albums are equally celebrated in tonight’s homage to cinema’s greatest.

Find out more on the events page.

Comp Sci Match Launch – connecting those with ideas with those who can design and code

3 May, 6pm, The Treehouse

We are running a networking event between the Computer Science department and LSU Enterprise. Do you have a business idea that needs an app, website or software and you don’t have a clue on how to build it? Sign up to the event and give an elevator pitch to prospective developers and software engineers who may be interested in working further on your idea. 

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

4 May, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

6 May, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Leadership Conference

8 May, 10am, West Park Teaching Hub

The LSU Leadership Conference is open to all our members.  The theme of the conference this year is “Becoming an Agent of Change” and we want to empower you to develop skills, consider new ideas and recognise yourself as a leader of the future.  Throughout the day there will be keynote speakers, talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities and panel discussions.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network

City Year UK – Employer Drop-In on campus

3 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside ‘The Place’, Stewart Mason

City Year is a full-time, year-long voluntary mentoring and leadership programme allowing 18 – 25 year olds to engage in a year of social action within a school. We’re currently recruiting graduate and placement students for our August 2022 – July 2023 programme based in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Stop by for a chat with one of the team!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Engineering)

4 May, 6pm – 7pm, The Start Up Lab, STEM Building

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Vows of the Marhajjha Particle Drawing on Difficult Visualization

Edwin Van Gorder

Chaos :Strife and Drawing on Imagining a pred-dimensional medium such as that spatial extension of space itself prior space time in which the energy involved has no reason to be ordered and no reason to be disordered therefore we have to consider our preconceptions…brings us back rather shoulder to shoulder with the Presocratics as usual and necessary as even a fashion line named Everything Everywhere at Once prompts the cultural dimensions of Long Live Fashion to cosmogeny alite cosmology fashioning the yet difficult Heraclitan synthesis upon his sources extending strife and chaos within the imagination of the speaker to share that chaos presupposes order and order chaos… we have gradually adapted to the realization that explosion is an intuitive fallacy better described as expansion… the interest in finding to some extent the “shape” of the Higgs field similarly must meet a kind of moment of questioning whether visualization is always possible the answer being hinted at in for example an instruction towards learning a speech pattern (Chinese ) Stars? Stars!… the question and answer shows in our visual field like harmony and melody as we “open scan” then settle into a series of connectives which then open out again: similarly the unruly primal universe is a medium where densities in some wise both separate and come together, nearness is the force of gravity in coalescence patterns redistricted then as its own common denominator and suggestive of that order of particles which are their own antiparticles…

When Sarayaku smiles

Ana Cristina Suzina, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

The rain was falling so much that my poncho was soaked, and I kept my head down, so as to avoid feeling the drops on my face, accelerated by the wind and the speed of the boat, going down the Bobonaza River¹. The young woman next to me, without poncho or hat, was draining the water that had accumulated in the bottom of the boat with a plastic pot. It all seemed a little chaotic, improvised, maybe dangerous, but I would look at Nelson² , standing at the bow of the boat, probing the riverbed with a long wooden stick, and he was smiling. And all it took was the rain to subside a little for the conversation to liven up among the Kichwa on the boat. And from the smile, they went to laughing and even to laughing out loud. It was clear that the mood there had another nature, that the disposition to deal with life was different, lighter, happier, I dare say.

It doesn’t stop being weird. A people violently attacked, in a territory seriously threatened, and they smile. I don’t understand a bit of Kichwa, but the tone of the conversations suggested good humour, an uplifting, confident presence of mind.

They laugh a lot during their confraternizations around the chicha³, they laugh easily at each other’s stories, an almost innocent laugh, from someone who has not yet lost the ability to be seduced by simple things – like the noises made up by Rosa imitating the animals of the forest, one night, at the guest house.

And before this report sounds like a self-help text about the power of laughter, it is important to make it clear that this vestige of innocence is not alienating at all. On the contrary, it comes from somewhere else, which could be the political horizon of the idea of poverty or the shared sense of struggle, or probably both.

In an interview, the Kuraka⁴ Mario Yaucen Renache talked to me about the invention of poverty as a project to keep people dissatisfied and, therefore, consuming things they don’t need as if this could save them from that said poverty. It is true that, in Sarayaku, most houses do not have electricity, running water or sanitation. But the conversation with Mario suggests a clear distinction between access to rights and a decent life, on the one hand, and an idea of poverty to motivate consumption, on the other.

Living with the Kichwa people of Sarayaku made me think that they laugh because they genuinely find joy in the simple things in life: being with the family, sharing chicha, having good land to plant and harvest bananas and manioc, getting to know the plants that keep them healthy, owning the time that allows them to share their existence with nature and all visible and invisible beings. And they also laugh as a kind of alliance that keeps them united in the struggle for the rights they do want to access: mainly, respect for their territory and their culture, access to public goods and services like all citizens.

Sarayaku’s smile reminded me of many other communities wounded in their dignity that I’ve come to know in my work as a journalist and later a researcher over the past 20 years. I remembered their songs, the small gestures of kindness, their awareness, faith and strength.

This smile is not, however, any palliative for pain and absences, because these are properly mourned and problematised. It is not neither the very expression of intellectually fabricated resilience as a remedy that explains the ability to bear and resist of impoverished populations. Nor it is the smile of the “good Indian”, as the idealized profile of the docile indigenous who accepts to submit to the colonialism of body and mind.

Sarayaku’s smile is revolutionary, because it recognizes the value of what is considered poor or outdated; it recognizes the value of what really makes sense for these communities. And it is also revolutionary because it humanizes the struggle, making it bearable in the reciprocity of indignation and hope, and forging the amalgam that permanently recalls the meaning of these efforts.

Sarayaku’s smile is a symbol of resistance in a world lacking meaning. It is not there to be appreciated as the exclusively aesthetic expression of the way of being of a people – despite being a defining part of who these people are as subjects of their history. It can only be understood with the keys given by their reality. And, being so, it is a letter, an invitation to each person for a kind of purification, of distillation, that allows recognizing and valuing what really matters to live a dignified life and to allow the dignity of the diversity of life forms.

Footnotes

1. Extract from personal diaries from the field research “Agency and appropriation of digital media by young people in riverside communities in the Amazon region”, carried out in April 2022, in the community of Sarayaku, province of Pastaza, Ecuador. This research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2020-194). For more information about Sarayaku, visit https://sarayaku.org/ .
2. People who were not formally interviewed for the research are mentioned only by first names, so as to avoid individual identification.
3. Artisanal beverage made of manioc, that is commonly shared in collective meetings.
4. Kuraka is a political and organizational position held by someone chosen by the community for a period of one year; the Kuraka is responsible for calling collective efforts and meetings, for sharing important information with the families of their community, and represents it in the Tayjasaruta, that is the main decision-making instance of government in Sarayaku. There is one Kuraka for each of the six communities that constitute Sarayaku.

Loughborough's Hidden Gems

Hey, I am Lucy and I am a Psychology student currently on my placement year. Having spent three years in Loughborough, I feel that I know the ins-and-outs of the town and I can give you a little insight into the hidden gems if you choose to study at Loughborough!

Places to eat

As students, we love our coffee shops! They are the perfect place to relax and get some work done.

My personal favourite in the town is Public and Plants who do the most amazing homemade rocky road – in a shop surrounded by…plants (which is very good for the mind and relaxing).

Another thing that is good for the mind is healthy eating. If you’re into your health but still love a delicious treat, you should definitely head down to The Green Bowl where you can grab a salad, smoothie bowl or a toasted bagel filled with goodness! But in the evenings, Peter Pizzeria is definitely one of the student-favourite restaurants; they do the best homemade pizzas in an authentic pizza oven.

Walks and parks

Besides the delicious food and cute coffee shops, Loughborough is filled with beautiful views and calming walks and hidden gems; one thing that Loughborough students really appreciate. You’ve just got to know where to find them!

Many students love to go for a morning run down by the canal, or a walk around Charnwood Waters where you can see a lot of local wildlife. You can also find some parrots in Queens Park, which always surprises people! If you fancy a bit more of a journey, then why not cycle to Beacon Hill or Bradgate Park and go for a picnic? I’d recommend going on a Sunday evening when the sun is setting. There is an amazing view overlooking Loughborough, with Nottingham in the distance.

Other entertainment and activities

Sometimes at the weekend when I have some extra time and fancy a fun activity, I like to go to the golf range which is only down the road.

But if you fancy something a bit more challenging then the escape rooms are definitely for you! These are especially popular during freshers time, as they are a fun way to bond with your flat! As well as this, there is a local skatepark, Loughborough Town Hall that holds regular shows such as comedy nights and musicals, as well as a rock-climbing centre, and a leisure centre with a pool and a sports hall. All these things certainly give you a good excuse to try something new and step outside your comfort zone alongside meeting new people. Plus, there is no excuse – everything is within the town so is in walking distance!

Drawing on Euler's and Universal C 911 Drawing Research Slipstream of Contemporary Neo Space Eventua

Edwin Van Gorder

Drawing on Euler’s and Universal C 911
Since crossing mid-line a rotational vector finds to right angles the mirroring motif of crossing mid-line and thereby finding as well the diagonal as a quantum growth root rectangle those bare beginning as primordial pose a center one may build alternately towards as a kind of point object or then again as a space or equilibrium zone as in architects placing studs centered or off center…mathematically then the fraction multiplied by five as the mirror of its reciprocal divided by two implicates the ratios of decimal places each to each as containing in equilibrium those differences which as a standing energy explains Zeno’s paradox then as an expansion principle in the centers over riding distinctions only made to the point object and this transitive. In the drawing I have placed in tension the number 911 as the square root o f three times three which coincides with the degree the complement of the square root of five crosses mid-line with the ramification that the third generation o the the golden section arm of the square root of five receive the 911 complement as completing a division in thirds…coexisting in the drawing space with the number exactly double the Universal Constant .0074 as .56generated by the 8th generation in a spiral (ie the seventh dimension so to speak per brane or portal sil) o 1.382 or the complement o f .618 paired to unity (one or square. The difference between the one and its half relating to creating forms from the edges or dividing from center … The final point of interest is relating Euler’s constant to analysis : 2.718281284590

Means: .618 with inverse o f 1 as .1 to .718 mirrors the doubling of the base of 1.618 thus now 2.718 and the next term (overlapping) of .1828 is the complement of .8172 congruent to 1.2236 or unity plus 1half of square root of 5 in reciprocal form of .4472 thus the first term has placed one arm of the golden section to a stepping up in the fraction to meet the rate of expansion or if you will the complete spin in relation to complete rotation as an imaging of center to edge…while the second term contracts from the two wing form in an inverse momentum… the third term also overlapping show 28 mirroring towards mid-line as repletion while finally .4472 rounded off by the lensing of decimal places as .45 is simply doubled with no indication of mid line as in the 1 shared by the 28 pair indicating the status of equilibrium belonging to states contributing to standing energy while remaining undefined to phenomenon.

Drawing Through the Inflatron

Edwin Van Gorder

A recently published study which proposes an “ Inflatron “or primordial field of dark matter form separated in time by the quick closure of that field in a destruction due to cessation of inflation poses for me the dimensional comport of fields themselves since any particle being a view upon a field if then remaining must find that fielding as “virtual “ or quasi particles do in the electromagnetic spectrum and gravity remaining as that critical transpose of collective differences sometimes to an equilibrium familiar to the testing of momentum and standing energy by which overflow we get the quantum zeno surplus and yet again if viewing “ space itself” underlying space time as a notion to critique as expansion does explosion a form my drawing here goes into in which the idea of an active field is in the Bob and Alice tradition in being constructed upon perception in such a way that berms and wales brought to the surface cancel space time in a sense and yet in so doing are also the field of differences in which the cancelling is a position now maintained to the very synthesis of absence and presence as spectators upon the structural veracity of chaos and randomness.

Drawing on the Higgs

Edwin Van Gorder

Drawing on the Higgs
Given that momentum upon velocity are the dimension of spin the ontological mathematics of roots as quantum offer a specific fractal length of .0074 as the universal constant from it’s preliminary double of .1056 ; which is the region the square root of five complement overlaps and in so doing stages a recurring structure added or subtracted like up an down quarks thus to my mind the moral equivalent of the Higgs…at .5528 via crossing mid-line such as becomes the critical ontological factor.
The drawing here stages that Higg’s like entry level upon scales that lens it…

Interestingly then: .o156 , a number a number generated as eighth generation thus seventh dimension of the complement of golden section .618 per .382 added to unity as 1.383 in reciprocal form .7236 stepping those denominations

All In-All All is One

Edwin Van Gorder

All In-All All is One
Einstein’s space elevator metaphor of phenomenon in an enclosure or field dependent vs the outer or rotational field is similar to the universal big bang flattenng to disc form in which that structural rotation is preserve to Hamilton’s mathematics of rotations in dimensions and the reference to Maxwell’s demon or separation of differences (like the Greek “genoskein or splitting differences to the setting of keel on breakers.. this splitting of Maxwell

in which entropies cancel show as well in the Sterne experiment of quantum vectoring : an essential note is that in the “turns” or bends of the welling and berms and wales of space time a Poincare horizon or surface staging prepares a diversion from “counting columns twice when going around a square so to speak meaning that concerning gravity the “pull of gravity” is an oxymoron just as black holes don’t pull matter in but rather are the point of their inference well of gravity we can turn to the white hole as similar to the fourth dimensional basketball returning inside out as metaphors together for the difficulty of envisioning space itself as a matrix which arrives to it’s surface having no parts but point like in that infinity has no parts but is already everywhere at once … The Dirac equation describing the spin of particles compares to the unanswered question as to why particles come each of 4 kinds in 3 weights… ( ie like a clock hand at 12 to 3 travelling left to right, 3 to six right to left and six to nine left to right while final mine to to 12 right to left joins identity to leave those three vectors with the cancelation and these as fields skein like informing dimensions of transference are dimensioning by which stars appearing like holes in a fabric of darkness have then that dark force altogether in the idea…the crossing of midline in a dimension such as the particles yield visualization from their fields should as well I think in the recombinative poetics of beta decay invite the consideration of skeins of planted dimensions in the space time continuum and along with particle and anti-particle consideration the Lebesgue tonic identifying the inverse nature essentially that the larger numbers at one side of a decimal are the inverted scale which Carol described per the sublative clause of two pills or two chessboards in reverse dimension based on the Greek Gnomon of applied square in relation to its complement by which the remainder to rectangle and that complement codefined two different sized squares each of their unity.
In particular I see the strong force tubules as a sign of skein like fields striking notes of incidence towards a surface and this collective note is the weak gravity force as a whole made strong as condensed to a surface. Falconer who built on spin towards the Quantum feeds invented a digital sundial and this nomenclature again highlights the Greek Gnomon and the noema or subtly of engages scales to phenomena built on that noumenic character of codefinition upon the hypokoemonon or strata find.

Note that in Greek Gnomon means “that by which things are known” and thus also “sundial” and “carpenter’s edge.. hence the appropriateness of Falconer’s digital sundial…. As a kind of visual theremin…

My Italian Study Exchange Experience

Ciao a tutti!  

Although it has been a year since I left Italy, Italy has not left me. Since my Study Exchange semester, visiting a different part of Italy annually is now on my bucket list! I can only thank Loughborough for this life-changing opportunity and myself, for choosing to study abroad during a pandemic.

Why did I choose to study abroad?

I decided to study abroad because the thought of a traditional placement year did not excite me.  I remember spending a whole day researching the available Erasmus Universities to choose from with my Mum’s help. In fact, it was my Mum, who pushed me towards choosing Salerno. I remember her distinctly saying, “Shannon, go to a country that you haven’t been to before!”. Therefore, jointly inspired by my mum and my desire to break out of my comfort zone, I chose Salerno and emailed my Study Exchange form immediately!  

Let the journey begin!

After countless hours of Duolingo to finally condensing my wardrobe in one suitcase, I was ready for my adventure. From hugging my parents tightly before my 6am departure to the roaring of my plane’s engine on the runway, this was it. I knew my life was about to change for the better. And it did…after a rocky start! Truthfully, the beginning of my Exchange was not easy, I suffered from homesickness, the uncertainties of the pandemic, and the stress of adjusting to remote learning. Also, what a time to have a birthday, I turned 21 in the same week! Luckily, I managed to celebrate it with my Study Exchange buddy at a Burger restaurant! She is also from Loughborough and now one of my closest friends 😊

Support from Loughborough

With Loughborough’s pastoral support and sharing my problems with my Study Exchange buddy, my transition to Salerno became easier as I overcame my troubles of living internationally. My pastoral support from Loughborough involved frequent video calls on Teams with my Study Exchange Coordinator, who checked to see if I was settling in well and adjusting to my new modules. Within a couple of days, I met my Italian Exchange tutor and my modules were sorted because of Loughborough. At that point, I was reminded of how great Loughborough’s care for their students is, which stopped me from returning home in the end!

My semester abroad opened up my eyes to a brand-new country that I had never visited before, all of this within exceptional circumstances. Now, I am comfortable facing any ambiguous situation because conquering Italy has reminded me of my hidden resilience.

What was my course like?

Unfortunately, I did not see my University, nor did I meet any native Italian students because the teaching was virtual. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my modules. I chose a combination of Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules taught in Italian and English, which was very challenging at times! My favourite modules were Circus in Victorian Literature, Global Gender Studies, and Intermediate Italian. With virtual learning, I found that I had more freedom to do what I loved best and that was being a tourist! During my study breaks, I used to walk along Salerno’s lungomare (Seafront), visit fashion boutiques, and eat Tiramisu-flavoured gelato! Despite my region’s Covid restrictions, I managed to visit a few beautiful places close to Salerno which include Pompeii, Napoli, Amalfi, and Vietri Sul Mare.

What did the experience teach me?

I can honestly say that my experience has transformed my confidence and my awareness of the Italian culture and its music. Yes, my Study Exchange was not a “normal” one, however, I would not change it for the world! It is true, your experience abroad truly does enhance your life in all aspects. A few examples are, that I am amazed at my personal growth, and I am open to interacting with people from all walks of life. Since Italy, I returned to Loughborough with a passion to complete my English degree and I even joined the Italian society! My mornings before lectures now involve learning Italian with a mug of coffee to remind me of Salerno.

My decision to study abroad was no doubt the best decision I have ever made. Not only did it inspire my current dissertation topic, but I learned how to appreciate the littlest things in life. On a final note, how many people can say that they studied abroad during a pandemic? I can and I have no regrets!  

L’Italia, on vedo l’ora di rivederti e anche grazie Loughborough! 

N Dimensional Quantum Print Drawing Upon Reciprocal Process

Edwin Van Gorder

N Dimensional Quantum Print Drawing upon Reciprocal Process.
A heritage within cubism of recognizing reciprocal forms as process within my own appreciation of drawing to print form frames for me the Duchamp roto relief image to sound bow and lyre bolero by which the mathematics occasioned strongly reached black hole research is now as well a welling up within the coming Webb Scope Age“non photography” i.e. transcendent clauses of spectrum to sense as an n-dimensional quantum in the making… the imprint upon the horizon by which the complexity of information is sensed by the black hole as it’s formative mass has to do with the eventua come to crisis not exactly at the horizon but crossing bridges burned at fulcrum points so to speak further “downstream” as theoretical physicist Paul Sutter notes and where divided at the difference of two horizons emerge there to phenomenon the submerged elements of parity within equilibrium… like the spotting of a dancer or the gymnast “sticking” a landing the point of equilibrium at the landing is apparently motionless but actually the turn of events visible to the spotting and invisible in the landing like a rotation out of view because within a reciprocal moment of space time quantum a print form evolves…

In the drawing enclosed I play with the structural placement of the ratio of the universal constant implicit with the grid generated and generating (and in a way symbolizing “space itself” (as the heuristic rose noumenon and hypokomeinon enigmatic and underlying as it were..)

: Towards which fulcrum nodes place generated ratios as comparing the idea of different sources to a same ratio in relation to the simpler in place built logarithmic spiral of the angular projection motivating the quantum eventua. A term from rhetoric “interlacing” or “simplicio/complexio” carries for me much of “soft form “ puns on cubism in which a sense of the reciprocal as process compares what arrives to our senses as sometimes complex, sometimes simple in that very interplay arrive to form in mind just as the Webb Scope Age now prepares for those Conceptual Art to come considerations of process where phenomena of physics will be out of reach due to universal expansion and thus considered ultimately to thought experiment informed by prior bridges…or as the sage seemed about to say” you can see a lot by more than observing…”…)…

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: Living Environments & Human Culture

Thank you to Serena Smith for chairing the first event in the series of DRN 2022 Ecologies of Drawing events, to the presenters Rachel Bacon, Sarah Casey & Ivana Wingham for their varied and interesting papers and to everyone who attended the event.

Video also accessible at: https://vimeo.com/703314887

This Fortnight at Loughborough | 18 April

IIE research seminar series – Professor Ian McCarthy

21 April, 12pm – 2pm, In-person & Online

Professor Ian McCarthy from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and LUISS University (Italy) will present his paper entitled “User Innovation during the Covid-19 Pandemic”. Ian’s research and teaching interests include operations management, change and innovation management, and social media.

Find out more on the events page.

Midlands Innovation Flow Cytometry Meeting 2022

25 April, 9am – 4.30pm, Holywell Park Conference Centre

Want to learn about Flow Cytometry? Want to see what’s new in the field? Want to find out about research and facilities within the MI Universities? Then come along to the Free MI Flow Cytometry Meeting 2022!

This will be an in-person one day conference bringing together academics, local biotech and instrument manufacturers to discuss all things flow cytometry, imaging flow cytometry, mass cytometry and full spectrum flow cytometry. Come along to learn about the technology, hear something new in the field or attend one of the educational workshops.

Find out more on the events page.

Unlocking the Power of Artificial Intelligence for Real World Challenges

26 April, 10.15am – 4.30pm, Online

AI is widely used in many different real-world application areas. However, this creates its own challenges with a number of research questions for the AI community to develop more advanced AI algorithms. In this event, six world-leading researchers will share their project research experience on both the fundamentals of AI and its applications.

It covers psychologically and biologically inspired cognition development for robots; neuromorphic sensors and computing; combining AI, model based control and embodied intelligence; crossmodal learning, integration of knowledge and learning; cooperative AI for integration into society; and explainable deep learning.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Arts and Humanities)

26 April, 2.30pm – 3.30pm, BRI.2.08

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Social Sciences and Sciences)

27 April, 3pm – 4pm, SCH.1.05

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Catalysers’ Congress: New Leaders in Social Change and Development

28 April, 9.30am – 4.30pm, London Campus

Do you want to be at the centre of social change? Are you interested in a career in international development?

Loughborough University in London invites applications to attend a one-day Catalysers’ Congress exploring future thinking, practice and career opportunities for the next generation of international development and social change leaders.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series : Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar One

28 April, 3pm – 5pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series, ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to reflect on the way violence is remembered and commemorated from the World Wars to the climate crisis.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar Two

29 April, 11am – 1pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series, ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to consider a variety of critiques of common rationalisations for violence and pacifist responses to it.

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

29 April, 12apm – 12.30pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

This Week at Loughborough | 11 April

NEUSCHLOSS Sculpture Writing Workshop

12 April, 11am – 1pm, Martin Hall

Over the past year, NEUSCHLOSS has been visiting, and thinking about, the sited sculptures of Loughborough University campus. The project grew out of an initial proposal, which considered games and game-play as a potentially interesting device to activate the sculptures in new and surprising ways. Since then, NEUSCHLOSS has been developing collaborative texts that take role-play and games as a form, or that have been produced by group game-play and improvisation. This event is an opportunity to experience some of these texts in progress at the sculptures and to participate in generating new texts for the project.

Find out more on the events page.

Mathematics: Enabling Innovation in Sport: Public lecture and panel discussion

12 April, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, Edward Herbert Building, EHB.1.04

Join this public lecture and panel discussion taking place as part of the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium 2022 conference, this year being held at Loughborough University.

Find out more on the events page.

CAREERS NETWORK EVENTS

URBN webinar – internship and entry level role opportunities

13 April, 12pm – 1pm, Online

URBN is a group of constantly evolving brands which includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People, all of which have experienced incredible growth over the last few years.

This webinar is a chance to learn more about our business and opportunities we have across our stores, head office and distribution centre. We will be covering internships and entry level roles, what we look for in applications and our recruitment process.

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

15 April, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Citations count

All academic researchers know they are never far away from a citation count. And while citations undoubtedly do count, there is much debate about what a count of citations actually counts for.

At Loughborough, we’ve been working hard to increase the influence of our research on other researchers and the field more generally, and citation is an important indicator of this influence. Many factors make a difference. The quality – significance, originality and rigour – of the research itself and our ability to craft the message matter, of course. So does the visibility of our research to the right audiences, through choices about with whom and where to publish. Open access is a game-changer in this respect; our Institutional Repository delivers a citation benefit from enhanced visibility which is why our Open Research Position Statement commits to depositing the full text of all our primary research outputs from 2020.

However, improving citation performance is like turning a supertanker round. For example, the QS 2022 rankings, to which international stakeholders like students and funders pay keen attention, recognise the citation of research published all the way back to 2015 (up to 2019). However, the supertanker is most definitely turning; our hard work has seen Loughborough’s citation count and citations per faculty score almost double since QS 2018.

A number of universities have recently highlighted the Stanford University list of the world’s “top 2% of scientists”. Amongst the many excellent researchers on the list are over 120 Loughborough colleagues, past and present. We congratulate them.

Media coverage has served up multiple cuts through the Stanford data. For example, would you like to know who is in the top 10 of European researchers? Meet Georg, Karl, Peter, Douglas, Charles, Avelino, Guido, Stefan, George and Michael. Spot anything? (To save you the trouble, Avelino is male too). While the ranking metric is carefully crafted, ultimately the list is based on total citation counts and so it’s no surprise to see it perpetuate a view that the world’s “top scientists” are all older white men. We’re in no doubt that these guys all are (or have been) fabulous scientists, but total citation counts (including variations on the theme like h-index) favour certain research fields, long service and output quantity. Consequently, they particularly diminish the profiles of those whose research careers have been interrupted by career breaks and disrupted by balancing a research career with significant caring responsibilities.

This is why, guided by our sector-leading Responsible Use of Research Metrics statement, we make use of field-weighted citation metrics, to accommodate significant differences between disciplines, that are also normalised to avoid emphasis on quantity. We have consistently emphasised output quality (which can only be judged via expert peer review, not citation) and visibility, guided by outlet metrics such as Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). Output quality and outlet visibility are much more under our direct control, and they have proved to be the essential ingredients that have nearly doubled our citations in 4 years.

That’s why our PDR process (outside of the Arts) uses SNIP, SJR and Field-Weighted Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles to promote reflection on citation levels. Field-weighted metrics also support comparison of ‘topic clusters’ at the whole-institution level, adding weight from a research perspective to our choice of strategy themes – net zero and climate change, sport and health, and vibrant and inclusive societies.

In case you are wondering, the Stanford list top 10 for Loughborough is also all-male, while a ranking we produced by Field-Weighted Citation Index (FWCI, solely for the purpose of this blog) has 4 women in the top 10 (in a University where just over 30% of academics are women). Nobody features in the top 10 of both rankings … or the top 20 and then we stopped checking.

But this is not a quest for a better ranking metric; of the myriad of citation indicators to choose from, each with different meanings and merits, none is a plausible basis to rank individual research performance, nor have we ever felt the urge to do so. At the same time, citations do count. Well-cited work should be celebrated and best practice lessons learned, while less well-cited work should prompt frank reflection. Citations tell us about the academic impact of our research but that’s difficult to influence directly, hence why we concentrate our efforts to increase citation on output quality and visibility.

As we look now to take our research and innovation to the next level, quality, visibility, and impact will all be front of mind. Our new University strategy also foregrounds equity at a time when the need for fair and responsible assessment of research performance has never been greater. Our ‘Same storm, different boats’ study was one of the first to highlight how the pandemic had amplified gendered differences in caring responsibilities with clear consequences for career progression. The more recent study by the ‘500 Women Scientists’ organisation. shows nothing has changed, suggesting that “women in science have experienced career disruptions that will take years, or even decades, to undo”. We commit here that our assessments of research performance will repay the commitment of colleagues through the pandemic with the nuance required to acknowledge these extraordinary lived experiences.

Professor Steve Rothberg
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)

TRACEY Call for Papers: Drawing Anthropocene

Guest editors: Sarah Casey & Gerry Davis

Call for Journal Articles: Drawing Anthropocene
TRACEY Drawing and Visualisation Research
Guest editors – Sarah Casey & Gerry Davis
Deadline – Friday 8th July 2022

This edition proposes an examination of the relationship between drawing – a practice of traces – and the concept of Anthropocene. This is a timely lens through which to examine research engaging drawing in relation to current debates on environmental crisis and invite reflection on the value of drawing in the context of deep time.
The term Anthropocene, coined at the start of the new millennium by geochemist Paul Crutzen, denotes a new period of geological time, reflecting the extent to which human activity is making its mark on geologic stratigraphy. Essentially, for geologists, the legacy of the Anthropocene will be the traces that our existence will leave in the geologic record in times to come. We might even see this as a collaborative durational drawing spanning the development and demise of human existence!
While there remains debate about the precise starting point of the Anthropocene (and it has yet to be formally acknowledged by the International Committee on Stratigraphy), the concept is now widespread and in common usage as a byword for human impact on the environment. This tension provides a useful provocation, one that prompts questions about how drawing might function in relation to climate crisis and what knowledge it might produce. For example, drawing may examine areas of contention: petrochemicals and carbon release, resource extraction, more than human agency, migrations, or post-human and planetary futures.

Drawing is an activity of tracing, layering, erasure, the drawn mark often belies the process of its making. It has been called a “trace fossil” (Halperin, 2013). Over the course of the twentieth century tenets of drawing – arguably the trace of an action made over a surface – have been tested, stretched and exploded as artists embraced performance, land art, soundscapes as forms of drawing. Drawing now has many identities, from lines in sand, footprints in the snow, or vapor trails in the sky (Dexter, 2005: 6). Acknowledging, as many do, that environmental traces – foot prints, tidelines – are a form of drawing, what might this offer for using drawing as a lens through which to enter critical debates on environment? Conversely, how might new thinking emerging from earth sciences and geo humanities reveal new insights into what it means to make a drawing be it conventional or expanded?

Particular areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following questions:
• How might drawing help us position ourselves in relation to changing ecologies?
• What contemporary or historic strategies does drawing offer for bearing witness to environmental change?
• The Anthropocene reflects changes in global cultures. How can drawing alert us to such changes?
• What does thinking through the lens of deep time offer for understanding drawing and vice versa? Equally, what does this lens of time and change offer to our speculations of futures?
• How might drawing bring us closer to activity in the deep past or timescapes remote from our own lifetimes?
• What geopolitical questions does the concept of Anthropocene raise for ethical practices of drawing? Of how drawing is conducted, who draws, where and for whom?
• How might thinking through the concept of Anthropocene revitalize the traditional field of landscape drawing?

Responses are sought from outside and on the fringes of the arts – all rigorous research related to drawing or the ideas mentioned above, whatever your field, will be warmly welcomed.

TRACEY would like to invite the following submissions in response to the theme:
Full academic papers between 4500 –6000 words to be submitted through TRACEY’s online submission portal: https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/TRACEY/about/submissions

Please ensure that you use the template for your submission, which can be downloaded from the submissions link above.
Deadline for all submissions: Friday 8th July 2022

Please include the following information for papers:
Author(s)
Institutional Affiliation (if appropriate)
50word biography

This Week at Loughborough | 4 April

Book Club: Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi

5 April, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Join our regular Book Club for an online discussion of Lola Olufemi’s 2020 book which aims to ‘reclaim feminism from consumerism’. Plastered over t-shirts and tote bags, the word ‘feminist’ has entered the mainstream and is fast becoming a popular slogan for our generation. But feminism isn’t a commodity up for purchase; it’s a weapon for fighting against injustice.

Find out more on the events page.

Inspiring Minds STEM: Year 12 taster day

5 April, 9am – 3pm, West Park Teaching Hub

Inspiring Minds is Loughborough University’s series of taster days for Year 12 students. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn more about the options available at university and how to get there. The events allow you to not only experience studying your chosen subject area at university level, but also to meet our current students and academics and discover university life.

Find out more on the events page.

As Sensors Unfold – Research Seminar by IAS Residential Fellow Dr Berit Greinke

6 April, 1pm – 2pm, Online

For electronic textile crafters, an apparent lack of control and elements of surprise when working with fibres and threads are a familiar occurrence. Often, the process of making is undetermined firstly, and characterised by a dynamic process of negotiation between the textile and the crafter through multi-sensory engaging with material properties and tools.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Trying to outrun cancer

6 April, 5.30pm – 6.30pm, Online

This public lecture will be delivered by Dr Mhairi Morris, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Loughborough University.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that physical activity and exercise play a key role in reducing cancer risk and helping to improve patient outcomes, but we don’t fully understand what’s going on at the cellular and molecular level.

Find out more on the events page.

ReLondon Sustainability Hackathon

7 April, 10am – 5pm, Dual delivery

Join a team of likeminded students and look to create solutions to a real-life problem, this hackathon we will be working with our friends at ReLondon on ‘creating sustainable solutions’.

Find out more on the events page.

Confidence in the digital age: Do you trust your news? Do you trust your phone?

7 April, 4.30pm – 6.30pm, U0.05, Brockington Extension

Neil Stansfield, Head of Strategy, Digital Sector, Resilience and Security, National Physical Laboratory

The first duty of any government is the security of its citizens. Such a simple phrase in such a complex world. Because now our security is not just about having confidence in our physical safety, it’s also about confidence in the way we go about our lives.

Find out more on the events page.

Petre Breazu: Fellowship Inaugural Lecture

8 April, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, LDN.1.04 & Online

In this lecture, Petre will introduce his MSCA project carried out at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance under the mentorship of Professor Aidan McGarry. This project investigates contemporary expressions of racism and xenophobia toward the Roma in the context of the growing populism in Europe.

Find out more on the events page.

Headlight Child Between Manchester and Leeds..

Edwin VanGorder

A soft edged abstract work has the potential to share an odd binary star with the Baroque operatic Cumana Bosso or the expected improvisations made on melody line from numbers in the score thus also as a architecture of sight and sound here comparable to the strong axis in Art Deco finding Jazz it’s musical counterpoint… Sight and sound as coefficients on cosmic radiation bring our star as well to a pulsar identity within our particular Renaissance of cosmology which I indicate in the enclosed article from Manchester College which has the pulsar stars coded into sound and sight by which I mean to focus all this spin in the narrative above and the spin of the quasars in which mass millions that of earth completely rotate clock like perhaps 600 times a second and introducing us to cosmic scale on the one hand generally but also a very specific coefficient which helps introduce via the mathematics by which a rounding off of numerical extension places a kind of fractal entity in high variety where spin places to dimension the tensions on time space by which magnetic fields and gravity mark local tone to the spin through variance in the interference pattern… the term quantum hair , like our Rothko has been invented as a variation on “fuzzy mathematics “ as yet again a link on Chain mathematics or the states introduced in the variances I mentioned as “rounding off” of which the Manchester visual graphs in a sense pose as that density of the oscillation to influence what will be velocity contribution to gravity…The black hole Rothko or hair or fuzziness is considered a form of quantum entanglement print made upon the field of entry or processional…

web to Webb Drawn

Edwin VanGorder

Given the web to Webb scope orientation of my work currently as a projection of the work in progress history of known unknowns stemming from preliminary illustrations to Duchamp’s Green box orientation to n dimensional scaling I am reminded of Deleuze on “rhizome” ( “unusual architecture”) “not exactly a Point of inflection but lines of variance” or words to that effect… posing shall we say something like the realization Duchamp had that “ the conditions of experience simultaneously (expansive term! -those of the objects of experience”(per Kant ) reflected on the Cezanne portal to nature which brought artist and model, still life etc to a cultural rapture of the deep dispelled not by photography per se but rather the broad technological identification which for example with the roto relief give us what we see yet again with cloud chamber images as within the specter of nature a kind of narrowing of the distinction between art and nature which Duchamp temporized to his culturized technical advency and moment in time to a degree but also in for example in his puns on “electrical stripping” indicates the metaphor as we have noticed stripping itself away … Returning to the Web scope on the advent of it’s firs overwhelming image one notes the rays and the mirror structure may be retraced as structured to string theories moment of success in predicting the scattering velocity of photons and this model of successive dimensions as a critique or mode of thinking shows a simultaneous structure between the machina of the idea and that of the apprehended status of nature in the art of the event…

Crossing Midline

Edwin VanGorder

Black hole horizons as evidencing quantum entanglement sense incoming energy and adapt behind the horizons which respond structurally to interference patterns as the measure of entropy as evident states. AS high mass is high entropy the matter of field invariant and field dependent are the structural clause of imaginary ie negative numbers to physics as a signature of states and transformation “absence” positing a null state alternative meaning to the intuitive “zero”. This equilibrium field belongs to the low energy constants as they contribute to the reading or signatures of otherwise “ states “ in their conditional freedom of extension as “dimension” the strength of which prompts at this point a kind of comparison to our own physiology in the sense of our developmental reflexes which hinge upon a variety of arrangements and responses to the phenomenon of “crossing midline”….and as our own physiology contributes to our language adaptation witness the Sanskrit drawing verbs as our language foundation these semiotic clauses have had the profound Leibnitz/Bergson oscillation and monad introduction for example as a representative ontology.
Because imaginary numbers relate inverse ratios the matter of loss of Associative function figures in cosmic parity The theory recently proposed which adapts Supersymmetry or a world o f to be found anti particles as demonstrating a parity restoration of otherwise missing links such as only left handed spin to some particles and cosmic drift and Higgs hyper mass has hit upon multiverse mirror opposition as feeds of these symmetries… the idea itself however may have an Ockham edge in that before we arrive at the probably necessary Multiverse :is the Inverse so to speak at a simpler foundation in that the famous “hiding in plain sight” may in this case yield the observational insight that centers become edges and edges become centers as expansion of dimension replaces the naïve “explosion” which falters on the Zeno critique of that consciousness which launches it.
In my drawings I like to consider a space as possibly a condition between meeting edges that has an alternative reading in that it may just as well represent an overlap and our cat like physiology for example translates to hearing the ideas of pitch and resonance to visual counterpoints…

Neo Space Drawing Web to Webb

Edwin VanGorder

Counter point of Post Intuitive Cyber Drawing in NeoSpace
It has interested me to realize that the interplay of physics in a cosmological view of the Presocratics with the poetics that are the dynamics of Sanskrit drawing verbs adjusted to Greek knowledge kinds arrived to visual verbal Esperanto of new found poetry and poetics with Joyce and Duchamp. There is for me then this juncture I mark to the advent of the Webb Scope from which my sense of the window at the door I made of Illustrating the Green Box must now from that that apostrophe
Match the dimensions of scaling down and rolling out with the Neo Space sense of post intuitive orders in the Dark regions of our Post Heraclitan Dark Energy/Dark matter inquiry into the Cosmological quantum and unity…Therefore as the Webb scope adjusts it’s mirrors I will adjust mine to preface this: within a golden to relate what I will give here generally as the number 1.2236 as sufficient to represent in that ratio the Higgs Field and the number .0156 places the Higgs bosun as essentially a brane upon cosmological constants sequencing from there to .0074 denominations….

Nor Over Drawing on Wit and Wisdom

Edwin VanGorder

At the always and ever risk of over thinking (over thinking being a world word itself rather self fraught) It occurs to me at the last minute to compare the beautiful house Wittgenstein built ( I pored over this as exactly what I liked, a kind of Indian Sanskrit processional) and it’s fate as being currently burned down, the shell of it as though a prescient monument to the ghost towns of the current war… his object language and questions such as how does one locate a pain contrast with the over thinking of his declared interest in a per situation grammar which while succeeding in arranging a post philosophy ie anti Constructionist mood only too open to Deconstructionist questioning with for example the very root of the word Pain in Pei the transformative taken into Greek from the Sanskrit (i.e; words like paen, phenomenon, experience, paint psychology, pawn, philosophy etc… the meaning for me being these Sanskrit drawing verbs which inform our variety of means of drawing on the nature of nature as the relate over time a tension between the intuitive and necessarily non intuitive modes are a naturalness beyond what he may deny ( some claim he is being ironic..)

Clockwork Blue on Fire

Edwin VanGorder

Guandara Guanyin clockwork blue and eristic rose alike Durer’s perspective box or spiritual metronome the Tres Riche Heures , headlong “headlight child” cork lined room, chimera in camera and river god Guuandara anchors on Ankara
And Kairos to Hypsos Kairos to eristic as Ankara to angst river god fulcrum of the breath and displacement of breadth at centers… the Struttgarte box o f silver points and the “Valise” intuitions since the Flemish world of looms the illumination cathedral books upon dimensions point to axis in the shadow box silver point to a cloud of silver atoms halos on the Sterne experiment we have seen the box from stoppages case and cork lined room, loom and shadow box, book as box cathedral the clock work Cythera proto computer and Anti Cythera pilgrimage of foam (“aphro” dit Aphrodite or with Proust Circes Ingle to the English… Surcingle the source or “horse the country” =( ‘fills up to the same amount” ie Great Year to Light Year).. “ skhar” musical score of the music of the spheres if you will…
Just so a pair a puns from my intellectual childhood that heuristic rose should anagram Tres Riche Heures on the one hand and chimera in camera on the other look for the freedom of movement forming each idea of dimension first in an intuitive world and then the flood waters of all deeper than…

In Advance of the Fugue State

Edwin VanGorder

: numerically ; the rounding off of a number which may have the life of an extended decimal results in a different cadence or skhar/score so to speak depending on the derived equilibrium entropy point of adjustment (Duchamp ironically proposes the “point of sex”) but this being said one sees a theme developing in his projects in which the fugue or mathematical spiral in the conditions of experience are retrieved from the societal implications ( and limitations) of Abott’s Flatland towards his own concerns. In so far as the Salon show mirrored the glass fronts of the new idea of commercial boutiques and mal like presentation the malic mold adjusting previous ideas of a Salon or group of friends shifting from the Proust model is note as Chaux de Saline or the portal in Ledoux Salt works become Duchamp’s chocolate grinder per the neo classic nine muses or nine chaux ,shadows , cats etc and cat-o-ninetails a reference to Nazis using Ledoux oculus as a death camp presaging the continuing dichotomy of Modernism used both by liberals and illiberal as their projected imaging.
The variance of the fugue state figures actually in the mathematics of blackhole horizons which Penrose understood via Duchamp’s rotoreliefs and likewise then quantum entropy entanglement follows suit. Duchamp’s imagery appreciated the Degas tilted square base for his dancers as a mathematical quasi quantum release and indeed arabesque… the projects of is own intertwine the profile view seen from above and pasted indicating the view one has one closing one eye and then the other of the alternate sides of ones nose which then in an equilibrium stated disappears and this linked to “with my tongue in my cheek and later a view of his tonsiled head suggest the lounge following the trajectory of the eye…
Seemingly influenced by Gorky who taught a course at the New School on camouflage on the strengths of his own flight during the Armenian catastrophe a corresponding sympathetic emerges in for example the painted stoppages which mask the collected apostrophes or art witnesses of the Glasses projects as planted mirrors so to speak and indeed the original stencil stoppages placed in a carefully (soundly) constructed box are a kind of camouflaged violin as shared between Ingres and Einstein…
Structurally the claims of a diagonal on a quantum expansion will state the terms which implicate its underlying equilibrium bias towards other polarities which like the Stern experiments will bifurcate but then again in space time the receptive berms and wales will constantly shift in the moods of the kind of “rounding off” mentioned at outset… Cat0’s nine…tales…

Drawing on the There-Being of the Print

Edwin VanGorder

The Roto- Reliefs of Duchamp as printing light within a singularity escaping visually from its structure on a sound disc (record) can be traced to a testing between the senses of which Heraclitus give primacy to vision as a better witness than sound perhaps but linked to “currency” or a relation of the aural and oral, the bow and the lyre via anwa or critique which like what has come to be termed non photography on the heels of non- philosophy has enabled the substitutions by which black holes for example were photographically constructed on a different spectrum. To take Einstein’s confederate Bohm on relevant as word to relate to re levate, or raise to view again The Greek Artemis who for a moment inhabits a Platonic dialogue on “art” is of the Upanishads and uphara of ahara as breathe and uphara origin taken to anwa or critique and puranha the net, apuranha drawn bow the meaning of which places center to edge placement and displacement such as informs the idea of a mathematical reciprocal and in advancing from Duchamp’s horizon of contributing to early black hole mathematics from his roto relief expression of his art n dimensional chess we can view as it were levate per currency as to re-curate or find in recurrence as in Artemis manifest of two centers of the world, Delphi and Ephesus, the Artemis of one a nursing type of goddess an in another the hunter musician twin of Apollo whose name is of uphara as pei the con-figurative combined with olo or osmotic… the new manifest that we can review per Relativity wherein simultaneous events cannot be proven but with the exception of perpendicular placement and this mathematics of the quantum extension then of square roots as informing relativity as maintaining objectivity over distortions is at the horizon we inhabit in our brane o f time as informing that extreme expansion of radio galaxies which built on perpendicular expansion then suggest that non-bound objects creates within the spaces of the cosmic web where dark energy pushes from center to edge while maintaining local gravity or center motion are spreading the web as the universal expansion of which dramatic or cosmological energies relate the low key universal constant to that infinity of space itself which looking back so to speak has infinite low key extension which beyond our intuitive concept is a kind of printing of that energy in a quantum-post quantum
Duchamps projects relating glass to this new threshold of printing seem to quote the origins of photography as silver coated glass plates which are yet implicated in the Stern experiment on quantum splitting in which silver atoms imprinted on screen.
In the enclosed drawing I am relating the histories of printing which the digital medium contains in it’s own collective subconscious so to speak….

Drawing on the Heels of Quantum Zeno

Edwin VanGorder

In art the apple and orange co-define: one sees the other in their “space” in which such space is defined by that relation which can be broadly compared to the idea of ratio which might be advanced as with Ethan Siegal in the article on Zeno’s paradox as itself a matter of an embedding between time and distance… in terms of time/space where objects move in a straight vector but meet a curved space that space has as conditional to Newtons definition of objects at rest unless moved or moving unless stopped which raises a question about “space itself” ie is it at rest or in motion or is it a matter of perception as in the “quantum Zeno” concept the article introduces.
Be that as it may an interesting tension emerges in the kinetic diagram given in the Zeno article in which the time clock diagram bounces between limits from which it must rebound while the motion up and over a slope meets that change of traction… thus the material, or spectrum of interference introduces gravity as the energy which borrowed and returned even in the symbolic representation where ones vision provides a kind of “material witness”… comparing this with the diagram of a harmonic progression one is left to consider the actual turn in space of spirals and this is the idea Duchamp made very present to the thought of Roger Penrose as the mapping to perception of recession and progression give an n dimensional plane of approach. (one might think of the runners space as divided between the Roman concept of events as “forced” and the Greek sense of “coming upon”- a kind of visitation version of phenomenon…
The “taxonomy” of this idea of rate is for some the solution to Zeno’s paradox on the level of physics but the problem Zeno posed was about the apriori human critique of parsing by segments which can be returned as a critique of mind creating a scale to measure ratio, the attempt to create the scale for determining the ratio meets the same riddle. The Quantum Zeno idea in which an equilibrium is arbitrary and dependent on observation as limiting in which this limit itself touches on infinite possibilities to extricate potential out of possibilities becomes the common thread: in some way the center is codefined to the edge at the same time which makes things happen or be their happenstance and handles their “friction”.

Referencing:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/zenos-paradox/

Drawing on The Story of H and Three Apostrophes of the Glass

Edwin VanGorder

Cezanne in speaking of his “little sensation” evokes something in another age I would describe as quantum- like : i.e. his transposed table view shifts are now in another take like drawing a straight line for example this time purely architectural and one feels one gathering up a succession of spotting like a dancer which follow through by passing midline and a the new distance traversed echoes the rhythm in the variety of crossing midline and chooses a flourish side.
Similarly: The Famous Sterne experiment of Copenhagen controversy fame establishing quantum mechanics as splitting light through an aperture rather than regaining the single beam then in space time recovered opened up the question as to whether the quantum interval was established in the act of measure or whether in it’s implicate nature it, like the flourish I describe found its’ own way. Embedded in the question is a difference between the Roman view of events as forced to phenomena or whether the Greek sense of Noema or events coming upon their way are question faces to a riddle and this question at the time of Duchamp informed his interests as a view into the new world something like our experience of the potential of the Webb scope where in our case the difference between quantum scales may read to a new development in realizing dark energy and dark matter scaling…: has a physics in relation to Matisse’s notes on clarity in art like steam clearing from a mirror which in another apostrophe or witness Duchamp visits on the one hand and on the other the vial of French air suspended to a hook particular to the sigla of the Glass (Duchamp seems to have arranged his auxiliary “witness” projects to glass as sigla an idea he may be responding to as in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake : the hook is his take on the Greek sense of emphasizing with the letter H, the word hook being “Ouk” or not given the H emphasis now hook is also as much as to say like La Fayette” Why Not? Why not sneeze follows up on this as relating the rectified readymade (witness the rectified honey to faux sugar cube marbles in the apparatus while the sneeze references atmospheric pressure which forces us to breath by one measure and by another measure we alter to our breathing response..). To Be looked at for Nearly an Hour although ironically given as optical charts are a review of the dust raising to the Sterne experiment in which then the oculus or witness (measure) is one eye and the persons eye yet another…. Taken together these all seem in cadence with Bohm’s “Implicate Whole” by which the address to the question is very much in the nature of the question itself as a kind of Bob and Alice . the ontology of looking through the aperture it should be noted is also a reference to the Greek idea of vision as a kind of fire streaming through the eyes generated by the person and in a sense the quantum spin turns the person inside out….as an artist then Duchamp is interested in this n dimensional chess…he forms on the total interest value of a new physics… as is very much our estate…

Cosmic Web of Drawing and Space/ Time Refounded

Edwin VanGorder

Cosmic Web of Drawing and Space Time Refounded
Natures “ mysterious fluide” as the obligations to live and die manifest in an artistict apparition as the “bow and lyre” of Heraclitus on the one hand as is then again recovered on the other per time recaptured and recaptured as well to space . ( Here we meet Einstein as the sad young man on a train which by current lights finds universal expansion will provide a “cosmic censorship” on the availability of all light upon all space in the event of perception of one kind) By this I mean to add as as further example of This bolero an extension in the lens of Lucas Van Leyden’s David Before Saul print in which an imagery of the bow and lyre are staged to the printing process as his gambit.
Fast Forward to Duchamp’s intro to the Green box notes as his intro to the Glass and he mysteriously provides a “ headlight child” as sigla to a journey towards a cubist exhibition in Auvers , that location serving linguistically to identify the home of the troubadours ( who spread news in a code the occupying Normans could not understand) In the Glass this malic mold as it were is staged to representation of a salt grinder symbolizing the context placed on nine shots ,, or nine cats , nine shadows,, nine muses matrix in which the evolution of Versailles places the Vers of Auvers and the Vers of Versailles as the “glass” or lens provided yet again by Ledoux Chaux du Saline and the ironic “chocolate grinder” signifying that Neo Classical Oculus structure which was a transport of salt dissolve to river to fine a processing plant under heavy surveillance per Oculus in a vast Neo Classic Architecture indicating a conflux of Aletheia the breaking water and Tethys the Muses underground which serve as Dyonesian Mysery context for Duchamp to place the Phaedrus to a lens of the formative “pei” or formative link in Greek root Words ranging from Apeiron to philosophy to experience to paint and palette, apparition and so forth all as well rooted in the Sanskrit Uphara or Origin Mystery born of UruAna- the goddess which came to be split in the Greek world to a pair of Artemis gnomons one of Delphi as center and the other Ephesus as center of the world towards which the dimension of Duchamp’s n dimensional chess studied the challenges to dimension within it’s innate nature. Correspondingly today we ask, furthering his research which prompted much of early Blackhole mathematics what is the relation of space itself to space time? The cosmic Webb of our current Renaissance is currently suspended to the particular location of the Webb telescope and so here as well as then our headlight child upon the advance of our n dimensional chess to understand for one thing the coming language and troubadour of gravity waves….
Drawing as the language of drawing inferences is rooted in Sanskrit drawing verbs taken up by Greek knowledge kinds and vestiges of this I picked up on many years ago in the BIMP or British Isles Minority Languages Language Engineering Project of Lancashire College In which the dialects of English spanning in Manx, Guinea, Scotts. Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, were I believe then matched in the Drawing Research Network ( auxiliary of Tracy at Leeds college which you may not remember as site of the WHO’s Live At Leeds Concert as a link to drawing as language which we have seen is linguistically appropriate to the hundreds of words for drawing by which Sanskrit has ordered the structure of our ontology in language semiotics and semantics as well as art itself of itself linked as “dassein” to the being of being as being… as a nod to Duchamp I made a book on the names for glass in different languages and in so doing realized how languages all extensions of human dimension are dying each day. It is then a universal language of freedom within the freedom of extension by which language finds humanity that we strive.
Duchamp as a dialectician exemplified the kind of “teacher” of sorts who operated necessarily outside the system… the necessity of this… is a thought we can all piece together as we encounter contemporary events… Similarly: When Duchamp said Chess is me he meant I am therefore I think… recognizing ontology to higher roots than the merely accessible thought and this link is mysteriously the flight learning arc of art.
In the enclosed drawing I am broadly referencing a punning gambit of Duchamp in which he relates the Wright Brothers to Joseph Wright of Derby the first per flight and Phaedrus and the latter author of a painting Philosophy and Alchemy the Nude Descending was “modeled “ on which I relate as an exquisite corpus to the recent solution in math to the “3 bodies problem” by which two are linked to each other and the third entirely to velocity as their recombinate poetic managed to a perturbation of sorts…

Drawing In Language Space After the Incident a Austerlitz

Edwin VanGorder

The Duchamp Glider in Neighboring Metals is a volatile protectory linking his most obscure fragments to their revelation in an idea of scale and compression. Those fragments are : The Glider itself, Parva Domus Magne Quies. The brawl at Austerlitz, Precision Optics, and With My Tounge in My Cheek… for example the last might lure the observer into thinking it a linguistic game with the words “my lounge” which taken up by the observer substitute their own lounge in the reading… likewise the others sprout rhizomes of association yet their common root is in a Davinci drawing for a press which mills metal , ie flattens the depth which has been abstracted from a prior drawing elaborately staging the Platonic solids…generating also a very strong stand or base which one sees very directly quoted in the Brawl and in the Precision Optics Rotorelief… The Brawl stages the metal to glass through a rebus construct of “glass Block” which is a material formed of milch glass or heated thin strips which bind to each other seamlessly thus enabling a host of dimensions in a small place, or as the Parva Domus Magne Quies has it much peace (piece work) in a small space… the meaning partly being a reference to that small City State which is basically a neighborhood as staging house as city and city as house. Davinci drawings of a sawn skull may well have suggested a way to create the famous glass skull forgeries by likewise placing and controlling the milch to that mold…
The Magne Quies drawing rephrases the elements of the Glass into a different image following DaVincis overture to translating Michelangelo’s Sistine Genes similarly in a same form yet different image in the “five Grotesques drawing… The Sistine Genesis being on it’s own also modelled on the structure of the brain stem field possibly inspired by the same Davinci sawed skulls and the lounge in cheek drawing similarly is a reconstitution of the female fig leaf…which is essentially a female urinal as counterpart to the famous fountain gambit.
In the enclosed drawing I have tried to up the ante by considering the lounge formation of cutting vowels by consonants formed in different physical locations of which for example a Hawaiian scape with names formed on a link between that language and Sanskrit via traders from Meluria reaching SouthSeas from African trading posts are then Mauna Kea , Mauna Loa and Honana… M,N,K,L form in the three mountains a mantra like structure which edits “T”… (apparently a “tisk” sound was just not for them))… and to trace the history from Meluria to Malic molds…

Brane and Membrane of Drawing Through the Cosmic Web N Dimensional Speidos and Speed of the Weave Cosmological Constancy…

Edwin VanGorder

Brane and Membrane of Drawing Through the Cosmic Web N Dimensional Speidos and Speed of the Weave Cosmological Constancy…

Cabanne on Duchamp Mirroring models in his introduction a gambit of the Glass wherein he references Duchamp’s own marking a “derby” of Wrights ie Joseph Wright of Derby and his “brothers” stripping bare as it were the cloak of painting “Philosophy and Alchemy” with some Frank Loyd Apostrophe of inside and outside … altogether then perhaps to the vestiges of arena of wholeness composed to all apposite visual and n dimensional transitive environment modelled very likely in the malic molds to Brancusi’s studios which he Brancusi insisted kept intact as his museum similar to his exclusive “rights” to photography.(the studios maintained as well the “presence” of works sold via plaster casts… this presence of the work finds it’s way into Duchamp’s otherwise n-dimensional chess…an insistence on the ranks from gambit or opening as mathentos or Brane…to membrane as it were to coin a meme.
The Cabanne Intro compares to physicist Bohm’s “Rhea Mode” which reflective of his confederate Einstein considers raising to view a second time to review towards “relevance” or re levanting (levate to lift to view ie implicative of the broad Sanskrit sense of drawing to view)
“speidos” Greek for branching of “eidos” or idea thus a branch of the branch is “spider”
Thus Cabanne give three introductions, one by the Mawkish Marquee Dali who assiduously illustrated the green box throughout his paintings to a degree he was almost the Gozoli of Duchamp’s Monastic heir of Tres Riche Heures now anagrammatic shall we say to “heuristic rose”… and also in the NY genesis Motherwell as reflective on conversational time and Johns towards language space.
I would add to this a right Duchamp has earned to be compared with Heraclitus both in their hermitic yet dialectical outlook and their wedding of Physics and Art of which Duchamp pointedly returns Davinci as an example of a reverse of the expectations that art Is influenced by technology….

This Week at Loughborough | 28 March

Spring Clear Out

The University and Loughborough Students’ Union are working with local partners to initiate a community donation drive later this month for a number of causes.

Find out more on the events page.

Student Live Lounge

28 March, 7.30pm, Grow Hackney

An open mic night showcasing the best student talent from our London campus.

If you enjoy live music and discovering new artists then join us for a special, laid back evening as we present the best talent from Loughborough University London.

Find out more on the events page.

AI and Cultural Heritage

28 March, 11am – 4pm, Online

As part of the IAS Annual Theme ‘AI:Facts, Fictions, Futures’, this virtual event will bring together a range of academics to discuss AI and Cultural Heritage.

The role and impact of AI is not limited to the scientific area; it also has enormous significance for society and culture. In the course of this event, our Fellows and invited speakers consider applications of AI and digital technology in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector, examining the collection, analysis, and dissemination of cultural heritage data, how this information might be experienced, and the ethical issues raised by these processes.

Find out more on the events page.

The three conundrums of being an entrepreneur

28 March, 5pm – 6pm, Online

Stuart started his first company, Octopus Information, at the age of 26. It was a call centre-based concierge service that lurched from one financial disaster to another until he sold it six years later. This enabled Stuart to launch his second venture, ByBox, in Silicon Valley during January 2000. ByBox is the UK’s leading business-to-business overnight parts delivery service. The business owns and operates a network of unmanned, technology-enabled lockers.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Making Easter cards

28 March, 7pm, John Cooper

As the Easter holidays approach, why not spend your evening learning how to create your own Easter cards using Adobe Illustrator.

We will look together at what Adobe Illustrator is and learn how to use some basic shapes and functions to create eggs-cellent Easter cards! Following the workshop, LU Arts will arrange to print a set of your cards for you to send to family and friends.

Find out more on the events page.

Personal Best My Story event with Oliver Sidwell

30 March, 1pm – 2pm, In person & Online

Personal Best: My Story talks give students a valuable insight into career paths lived by Loughborough alumni. The sessions are interactive and inspirational with a live Q&A, representing a fantastic opportunity for students to understand how some of our successful alumni have achieved so much since leaving university.

Find out more on the events page.

Personal Best My Story event with Oliver Sidwell

30 March, 1pm – 2pm, In person & Online

Personal Best: My Story talks give students a valuable insight into career paths lived by Loughborough alumni. The sessions are interactive and inspirational with a live Q&A, representing a fantastic opportunity for students to understand how some of our successful alumni have achieved so much since leaving university.

Find out more on the events page.

Stations of the Cross service

30 March, 1.15pm, Chapel, EHB

The Stations of the Cross (also called the Way of the Cross) is a traditional liturgical devotion commemorating the last day of Jesus’ life. The devotion originated with pilgrims in Jerusalem retracing the traditional steps Jesus is believed to have followed on Good Friday.

Find out more on the events page.

Anarchist Entrepreneurs?: Anarchism Research Group Seminar

30 March, 4pm – 5pm, Online & Herbert Manzoni

For decades, anarchists have been starting or taking over businesses. Although a widespread occurrence, academic studies regarding these anarchists implementing entrepreneurial practices are quite limited.

Through their thesis, Adeline’s aim is to find out more about how these organisations are structured and how their anarchist ideas influence the way they are run.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Karaoke Night

28 March, 7.45pm, The Lounge

Join us in The Lounge for a fun filled evening of Karaoke. All welcome!

Find out more on the events page.

Alzheimer’s Research Fundraiser – Live Music night

29 March, 6.30pm, The Lounge

This year, a group of Loughborough students have been raising money in support of Alzheimer’s Research and in July 2022, they will be embarking on their greatest challenge yet, they will be traversing the Laugavegur trail in Iceland.

Find out more on the events page.

Emergency First Aid Training

30 March, 12.30pm, Council Chamber

The course covers primary care and the recovery position, resuscitation, defibrillation, bleeding control, shock and seizures as well as minor first aid protocol.

Find out more on the events page.

Train the Trainer

30 March, 2pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

The train the trainer course will help you develop the skills and confidence to plan and deliver training.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

30 March, 2pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Cirque du soul

31 March, 10pm, LSU

WELCOME TO OUTTA SPACE!

Cirque Du Soul’s FINAL SHOW of the academic year in Loughborough with their brand new theme – OUTTA SPACE!

Find out more on the events page.

London – HIIT – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 2pm, Off-campus

High Intensity Interval Training – A fun, impactful cardio workout mixing intense exercise with slower recovery periods.

Find out more on the events page.

London – Yoga – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 3pm, Off-campus

A calming practice bringing together mind and body, with breathing exercises, balance, strength, toning and relaxation – a great way to destress

Find out more on the events page.

London – Table Top Games – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 4pm, Off-campus

Come and play a variety of board and card games, chat to other students in a relaxed environment whilst putting your skills and knowledge to the test!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

1 April, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Union Jazz

2 April, 6.30pm, The Basement

Tuxedo Swing’s event of the year returns! We’ve got a whole evening of big band music for you to enjoy, this is not one to miss!

Union Jazz is the unmissable annual event hosted by Tuxedo Swing, showcasing only the best of their signature massive sound. Featuring everything from jazz standards to adaptations of modern hits (and the return of the mighty ‘Rhythm Mix’), Union Jazz is the perfect highlight for any weekend.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network

How to Manage your Money at University

28 March, 6pm, Online

This event, which is part of a varied programme looking, holistically, at Money Management, will look at how to create an effective budget to live by, share hints and tips for saving money, and further increase your confidence when it comes to taking control of your finances.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Engineering)

30 March, 2pm, The Start-Up Lab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

1 April, 12pm, The Start-Up Lab

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Inclusive design and EIAs: Everyone’s opportunity to build a more equitable, diverse and inclusive culture

I talk to numerous people through my work who are keen to understand what role they can play in helping to make Loughborough a more equitable, diverse and inclusive place for all staff and students.

There are so many ways in which people can do this, but one easy way is through embedding equality considerations in all that you do and utilising Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) for large scale policies or functions.

No matter the position you are within the organisation or what job family you are part of, Equality Impact Assessments are something you should know about. Awareness of this process is a simple tool through which you can ensure you are diversifying your thinking, raising your awareness of when decisions are being made without the inclusion of people from different groups, or consideration of the views of people from these groups.

Any large change, new policy or review means an Equality Impact Assessment is required to be undertaken, however, by embedding equality considerations into smaller changes, we can ensure we realise our EDI aspirations across the organisation.

We have created a short flow chart to assist everyone across campus to assess whether something requires an Equality Impact Assessment, or if taking account of equality considerations is the right course of action.

If you need to do an EIA, we have produced guidance and a process to ensure the work you undertake is both proportionate to the scale of the task, thorough and ultimately helpful. EIA’s ensure what is implemented is inclusive for all and also capitalises on opportunities to progress equality of opportunity.

I believe that embedding equality considerations and EIA’s into our practices will allow all we do as a University to become more inclusive. Considering these matters from the outset ultimately allows for a more inclusive policy or initiative to be implemented.

Case studies

1. The University was preparing to launch a campaign to encourage blood donations and to be a venue for this activity. As this was a small scale activity it was decided that this did not require an EIA but still required equality considerations to be taken into account. Resultingly, conversations regarding the event included a diverse group of individuals. Taking measures to take account of equality considerations at this point resulted in plans and measures around this campaign being mindful of the exclusion of some groups of individuals that was in place at the time of the event.

“A campaign for blood donations is a wonderful, positive thing. By actively considering equality issues and diverse voices, we were able to run the drive in a way that acknowledged that regulations in place prevented some (gay and bisexual men) from participating. The campaign still proceeded but we made sure we avoided making a thoughtless assumption that all could support and avoiding any impact that could have on others.”
– Richard Taylor, Chief Operating Officer

2. It quickly became apparent that due to the scale and scope of the move to Dynamic Working, an EIA was required. Those working within the Change Team brought together a small team to begin work and planning on an EIA with several early adaptations coming out of this work.

Through the EIA, early consultations identified that Dynamic Working could negatively impact colleagues on lower pay grades due to the IT and equipment available for home working. It was also identified that colleagues on lower pay grades are less likely to have a suitable chair and/or desk to work from home effectively. Therefore, to mitigate this impact, a scheme has been introduced allowing staff on grades 1-5 to purchase a chair and/or desk up to the value of £200 and claim the cost back through expenses.

“I personally found undertaking an EIA for Dynamic Working an enlightening experience as the process caused me to consider the initiative from perspectives outside of mine. Simply asking the question – how might Dynamic Working positively or negatively impact individuals from different groups? – really challenged my outlook and helped me to consider the experiences of others and identify hidden impacts.  Ultimately, it allowed us to maximise the positives and mitigate the negatives of the Dynamic Working initiative and prevent unintended negative consequences.

This undertaken on a regular basis across the institution and different policies and processes will help to create a more inclusive and equitable working environment and experience for all.”
– Renae Huggan-Broughton, Graduate Management Trainee, Organisational Development and Change Team

“The development of an EIA provides a fantastic opportunity to think deeply about all the possible benefits and issues that might arise in a project, which is clearly helpful towards ensuring success. In addition, the systematic consideration of the potential impacts in relation to different protected characteristics gives the chance to assess whether issues might interact in an intersectional manner, allowing mitigations to be devised that are likely to be effective for a greater proportion of people. Ultimately everyone wants their project to be successful and the more people that benefit the more successful you have been. The EIA helps to make that happen.”
– Dr Steve Harris, Change Portfolio Manager and Process Improvement Lead

More information on the Equality Impact Assessment is available here.

Living Environments and Human Culture

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

6^th April 22 – 11.00 BST  

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Rachel Bacon, Sarah Casey, and Ivana Wingham to present papers on the interrelationships between living environments and human culture. This event will be chaired by Serena Smith, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University whose research explores the generative intersection between language and stone lithography.

Rachel Bacon is a visual artist and teaches at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Rachel’s work considers the role of drawing within the wider contexts of landscape, extraction industries and the aesthetics of climate emergency. Her interest in patterns of damage as psychological, historical, and geological conditions, have led her to approach drawing as a form of excavation and to explore the metaphors associated with that activity. In her presentation she will share the methods, processes and outcomes of her recent practice. Sarah Casey is a visual artist and researcher and Senior Lecturer in Drawing and Installation at Lancaster University UK. With reference to ‘Emergency’, a drawing research project provoked by glacial archaeology based on fieldwork with a Swiss museum collection, Sarah will consider the material intelligence of drawing in relation to the precarious ecologies of the global climate emergency. Ivana Wingham is an architect and academic, she began her studies in Serbia, attended the Architectural Association as post-graduate student and completed her PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Exploring the ‘Intersecting Ecologies of Air in Architectural Drawing’, Ivana’s paper will look at three drawn ecologies that co-exist and intersect: an architecture of the macro world of insects, a drawing of architecture while in flight, and a panel of evolutionary breath drawings.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

A More Than Human World

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

22nd June 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University- Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing. This event will be chaired by Penny Davis, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is exploring autoethnography as an approach to drawing maternal embodiment.

How can drawing facilitate an ethical relationship with the land and its inhabitants? Dr Jan Hogan is an artist and academic exploring the interweaving of nature and culture in material traces of artistic practice. Her practice-led research explores the traces left in the land of past events intertwining deep geological time with historical events and the present moment. In this presentation she will be discussing her most recent work where her notion of drawing becomes a dialogue with the intertidal ecology of a bay in Tasmania.

How can the more than human shape our understanding of drawing? Artist, researcher and lecturer Lucia Cunningham explores how more than human traces define drawing through movement. Through field observations of snails, slugs, spiders, vegetation Cunningham considers the artfulness of the traces left by their drawing.

How can digital drawing trace the interdisciplinary and intersecting ecologies of a more-than-human world? Anka Makrzanowska is a Polish-British academic, artist and researcher. She introduces her concept of the ‘virtuallage’ – a process through which the artist employs transdisciplinary drawing techniques to explore the maternal relationships between trees and the human body.

The intersections between each artist’s approach presents a varied response to the concept of a more than human concept of drawing, but also promises a fascinating discussion afterwards on how dialogues between new materialism and post-humanism are being explored to extend our knowledge of expanded practices of drawing.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022 ‘

Mapping Environments

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

25^th May 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Daniel Coombes, Ann McDonald and Uri Wegman to present papers on the role of drawing in mapping environments. This event will be chaired by Kiera O’Toole, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question, “Can the process of Drawing in-Space record the ‘emotional vibrations’ of atmospheres to the extent the atmosphere is co-present in the drawing? “

Daniel Coombes is a PhD candidate in landscape architecture at Te Herenga Waka at Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on the aesthetics of more-than-human designing in the Anthropocene. Ann McDonald is an Associate Professor of Design at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches design research methods and Notational Systems for Experience. Her current work investigates how close observation of the built environment, traces of human activity, and physical communications created by inhabitants of various environments offer clues about changing conditions and cultures. The Truant School initiative is led by architects, artists and educators including architect, Uri Wegman. It wishes to generate multidirectional formats of knowledge, teaching and action. Founded in 2020, its first act, ‘Visions of Clouds’, was performed at the Bermuda ateliers near Geneva and exhibited in the virtual Italian pavilion of the 17th Venice Biennale. Using A.I. vision tools and software, Wegman’s presents a new approach for observing and drawing clouds.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

Intersecting Ecologies

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

27^th April 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Eric Le Coguiec, Vu Thi Phuong Linh, and Fiona Lim Tung & Julia Nakanishi to present papers on the role of drawing in the intersections of architecture, ecology, and politics. This event will be chaired by James Bowen, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question ‘How can voice be explored as a tool for drawing?’ and the role of surface, trace, and technology in the production of voice.

Eric Le Coguiec is currently a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Liege and whose research focusses on drawings as a mode of knowledge in architecture. Vu Thi Phuong Linh is conducting a PhD research project Living with Water in the Mekong Delta at K.U. Leuven and whose research seeks to unravel landscape transformations through traditional practices and responses to imposed hard-engineering infrastructure development. Fiona Lim Tung is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto researching drawing as a form of resistance. Fiona will be presenting collaborative research with Julia Nakanishi who is currently a designer at PUBLIC WORK in Toronto and whose work explores architectures of degrowth and community-informed design.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022 ‘

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

Life as an Autistic Professor

When you read the words ‘autistic Professor’, I’m guessing some people may be surprised to find out that I’m a woman. When I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, there were very few autistic children, and it was generally believed that only boys were autistic.

I was always a bit ‘odd’. I found social interaction difficult, and had my obsessions with Greek mythology, as well as cataloguing my books, records, and photographs. I think my ‘oddness’ was noticed at junior school, as I was taken out of class for fast stream maths and always treated as a bit weird and geeky. 

I’m lucky to have an older sister and copied a lot of her social behaviours; this is called ‘masking’, and sometimes I feel that I lose myself by doing this. Masking is one of the reasons that fewer girls and women are assessed for autism, as we are encouraged to learn (mimic) acceptable social behaviour and hide our ‘weirdness’. I’ve been doing this for decades, so when Emma Nadin suggested that I should join the Inclusivity Group, my first response was, ‘you don’t want me there – I’m too weird!’.

As an adult, I moved around a lot and hid my differences by only staying in a job for 1-2 years at a time and living in different parts of the world. Eventually one of my obsessions led to a part-time PhD, and this opened the door to academia. My ability to focus on a single issue is useful for research but creates problems in other parts of my life. I can find attending meetings and conferences overwhelming. I will periodically ‘crash’ – the same as when I was a small child, only as an adult I don’t lie down in the corridor and have a blanket put over me – I instead retreat by leaving the room and/or putting up a ‘do not disturb’ sign.

In my 50s, there was more information about autistic women, and I did online tests which showed that I was probably autistic. As retirement approached, I became very anxious about this major life change and decided that it was time to know more about myself. So, when I was 59 years I was assessed and diagnosed as autistic with difficulties in:

1. Social communication: I find it hard to follow jokes and can be very direct/blunt.
2. Social interactions: I struggle with timing in conversations and often interrupt – I know this is very annoying for others. I also obsess about interactions: did I get it right/wrong, have I upset someone? I also know that others can find it hard to ‘read’ my face and misunderstand me.
3. Flexibility of thought: this is a very common autistic problem, with dichotomised (polarised) thinking. I ‘know’ when I’m right, which can be useful for academic defence but not great for social interactions.
4. Unusual sensory experience: I’m very sensitive to noise, lighting, and smells, so being at a networking meeting or dinner party can be like standing in a sandstorm with my senses on overload. It’s really exhausting to concentrate, talk and generally interact in these situations whilst trying to act ‘normally’ (masking).

I disclosed the diagnosis to the University and had a supportive meeting with the Occupational Health team. I’m now in my 60s and my diagnosis has helped me to be kinder to myself and more accepting of my ‘weirdness’. It’s ok to say ‘no, thanks’ to meetings, conference dinners, university social events, etc. It does mean that I miss out on opportunities, and I guess that colleagues will continue to think that I’m weird and not very sociable, but at least I’m not as exhausted by ‘masking’.

If you want to know more about autism in women and girls, ‘A Kind of Spark’ by Elle McNicoll includes three neurodivergent female characters at different life stages. It tells the story of an 11-year-old girl campaigning for a memorial for Scottish women (witches) who were persecuted and burned for being ‘different’.

…I’m glad that I was born in the 20th Century!

Professor Sue Hignett
Professor of Healthcare Ergonomics and Patient Safety

This piece was written to mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week (21-27 March). Any staff member with a physical or hidden disability is welcome to join the Staff Inclusivity Group, which advocates for equality in the workplace for colleagues with physical or invisible disabilities. The group is also a place to seek support from one another and challenge University policies and practices. 

This Week at Loughborough | 21 March

The Institute for Sport Business Careers Symposium

21 March, 1pm – 5.30pm, London Campus LDN001 and Future Space

The Institute for Sport Business is proud to offer current students and alumni the opportunity to hear from industry experts on the latest careers and developments in sport business at the annual Institute for Sport Business Careers Symposium.

Find out more on the events page.

Speech Bubble

21 March, 7.30pm, The Lounge

Join us for a relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry showcasing the best-spoken word talent on campus. As well as the open mic slots, Speech Bubble will feature professional poets Matt Abbott and Esther Koch.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Treatment of obesity – present and future

22 March, 5.30pm, Online

The public lecture will discuss obesity as a disease and obesity stigma. It will consider lifestyle interventions, currently available pharmacotherapies and bariatric surgery for weight loss and weight management. The talk will also cover the physiology of weight regain as well as the mechanisms of weight loss after bariatric surgery. Newly approved and possible future pharmacotherapies for weight loss will be considered.

Find out more on the events page.

James Joyce and Us: Anne Enright and Eimear McBride in Conversation

24 March, 7pm – 8.30pm, British Library London & Online

Two of Ireland’s finest writers, Anne Enright and Eimear McBride come together to share thoughts and feelings on the great modernist masterpiece of literature, James Joyce’s Ulysses, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. Chaired by Dr Clare Hutton, Loughborough University.

Find out more on the events page.

Trip to National Holocaust Centre

25 March, 9am – 4.15pm, The National Holocaust Centre and Museum

The National Holocaust Centre and Museum promotes an understanding of the roots of discrimination and prejudice, and the development of ethical values, leading to a greater understanding within society.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Your Skills: Support Networks using LinkedIn

21 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

LinkedIn is a great resource for helping you find a job and network effectively, but you can also utilise it to help build your resilience and develop your own support networks. This session led by Frances Trought, founder of Everything D&I will help shine a light on how you can do this. More details to follow.

Find out more on the events page.

Becoming Resilient: How? And what does this mean?

21 March, 6pm – 7pm, Online

In this interactive session, we will look at what it means to become resilient, uncover ways to build and develop it, identify the support network on-hand to help you with this, as well as how to manage and deal with both rejection and change.

Find out more on the events page.

Ultimate Activity Camps on campus drop in

22 March, 10am – 4pm, James France Exhibition Area

Drop by to chat to Ultimate Activity Camps, a leading provider of holiday childcare in the UK. Our activity camps operate at venues across the south of the UK & we are looking for holiday staff who are not only passionate about childcare, but also make camp an exciting & fun place to be! We offer Activity, Survival, Tech & Sports Camps, come & chat to us to find out more.

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Starting a Business

22 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Discover how the Loughborough Enterprise Network can support you to start your own business and/or learn entrepreneurial skills. Including information on our dedicated graduate accelerator ‘The Studio’.

Find out more on the events page.

Quick tips from Microsoft: Getting the most out of MS Office

23 March, 1pm – 1.30pm, Online

Microsoft Office is probably the widest-used suite of applications globally for tasks, productivity and collaboration at home, at work or while studying. In two short sessions we’ll look at top tips from Microsoft staff for this range of programs.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: How to find and keep your focus

23 March, 6pm – 7pm, The StartUp Lab, STEMLab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Working in the UK as an international student: Visa Options

24 March, 6pm – 6.55pm, Online

This talk will be delivered by experienced trainer in higher education, Andrew Humphrey. The session will be delivering information on working during studies, the Graduate route, a brief overview of Skilled worker (formerly Tier 2) for sponsored skilled work and Q&A at the end.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Open Mic Night: Folk & Country

22 March, 6pm, The Lounge

Bring down some Tex-mex, unpack your denim, boots and plaid, and prepare to grace the stage, or lean back and take refuge in tonight’s love letter to Folk & Country.

Find out more on the events page.

Post Grad Get Together

22 March, 7pm, The Treehouse

Dear Postgrads, get ready for one of the biggest postgraduates social gathering of the year hosted by Welfare & Diversity.

Expect an evening of networking, entertainment, music, opportunities to be involved with the Welfare & Diversity associations, as well as many surprises throughout the night!

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

22 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Indie Club

24 March, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Get on your dancing shoes and dust off your bucket hat for The Indie Club! Our resident DJs will be playing your favourite indie and alt-rock anthems throughout the night.

Find out more on the events page.

FND

25 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

27 March, 4.30pm, The Basememt

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Classical in Concert: New Beginnings

27 March, 6pm, Union Lawn

Join LSU Classical’s Orchestra and Concert Band for our yearly Spring Concert! With everything from Danse Macabre to Beach Boys you’re bound to have a great time!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

27 March, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Ecologies of Drawing Online Exhibition 2022

Continuing the annual Drawing Research Network events, the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University are pleased to invite submissions for an online exhibition of drawing curated by artist Sara Sneckcloth  which aims to explore the notion of ‘Ecologies of Drawing’. We invite responses to the theme from anyone practicing drawing in a traditional or expanded way.

Images selected for exhibition will explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and environments, in the context of drawing, the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Sara Schneckloth’s expanded drawing practice centers on intersections of biology, geology, and architecture as understood through body, material, and mark. An Associate Professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina (US) and co-curator of the Seed Cultures Archive, a project in conversation with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Schneckloth holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, and has exhibited, taught, and published throughout the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Norway, and France.

www.saraschneckloth.com, www.seedcultures.com, www.canyonsagesky.com

Please submit up to 3 drawings or a single audio/video file using this link:

Submission Form

Full information and details including acceptable file types are clearly shown on the submission form.

The pitfalls of scaling up educational interventions.

Written by Jacob Strauss and edited by Dr Jayne Pickering. Jacob is a PhD student at Loughborough University. Please see here for more information about Jacob and his work.

How does education research transition to practice? The usual approach is something like this:

Phase 1: start with a small-scale study

Phase 2: repeat phase 1 using a much larger sample

Phase 3: communicate research findings to schools, policymakers, and other educational professionals.

Phase 1 is riddled with problems. Many interventions fail. Sometimes the theory is not strong. Sometimes the methodological design is not sound. That may feel obvious; if we already knew the best possible ways to do everything, then we wouldn’t need research at all. What is perhaps less obvious, is that much promising research also collapses at phase 2.

There are many examples of interventions which failed to scale up. The Parent Academy, a programme designed to equip toddler’s parents with skills to support their children’s learning, initially showed outstanding promise. The Educational Endowment Fund (EEF) spent nearly a million pounds on implementing Parent Academy, but the initiative failed miserably. The Collaborative Reading Strategy, a programme designed to increase reading comprehension, failed to reproduce the same benefits at a large-scale that were observed in initial trials. Project CRISS, a professional development programme for teachers, showed promising results in the initial research stages that were later overturned in a larger study. The infamous class-reduction-size study, Project STAR, failed to replicate the benefits of reduced classroom sizes in the large-scale and expensive Program Challenge and Basic Education Programme. 

In principle, scaling up seems like an easy, almost trivial, task. Simply take an existing intervention with proven success on a small scale and apply it to a larger scale. The reality is starkly different.

Each of the above examples illustrate some manifestation of the “scaling effect”. The scaling effect is the net change in a treatment effect as a result of scaling, encompassing both positive and negative changes. Many people have attempted to generate models and theoretical frameworks that encapsulate the key factors contributing to the decline in efficacy of programmes at scale. For this post, I have combined these models into a single summary (below), which provides an overview of how a programme’s scalability is under threat at each stage of the knowledge-creation process. 

Al-Ubaydli et al. (2019) offer advice to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners on the actions they can each do to prevent things going wrong at scale. Everyone has their part to play in the transition of research to practice. I will give a brief overview of one important issue: the representativeness of the situation. 

Representativeness can refer to the sample. I.e., an intervention may work for a particular demographic but not another. Representativeness may also refer to the research context. Characteristics of research, such as having a high level of control and providing participants with a high level of support, vanish as a programme is scaled up. Contextual idiosyncrasies such as the efficacy of the teacher, the classroom culture or the in-class support from teaching assistants are often overlooked or unaccounted for when scaling up interventions. A potential solution is for researchers to use technology to standardise as much as possible and to conduct educational research as naturalistically as possible by setting up ecologically valid conditions. 

Clarke and Dene (2009) describe 37 contextual variables that could influence the efficacy of a technology-based intervention. These variables were spread across five categories: (i) student variables, such as their access to technology or absentee record; (ii) teacher variables, such as their pedagogical beliefs or their prior professional development related to technology in classrooms; (iii) technology infrastructure conditions, such as the reliability of the equipment or its location in the school; (iv) school/class variables, such as the type of class schedule or the length of lessons; and finally, (v) the administrative variables, such as the level of support from the school’s administrators.

Clarke and Dene developed a ‘scalability index’ identifying which variables statistically interacted with the treatment, and thus were conditions for success. By identifying key features of the intervention’s context, Clarke and Dene were able to give policymakers a detailed depiction of the types of schools the computer game would be suitable for and what additional requirements were needed for the programme to scale up.

Scaling up educational interventions is extremely complicated, and this post barely scratches the surface of everything that could cause a scaling effect. The representativeness of the situation in which a study is conducted is one of the many ways the scaling effect could manifest, but it is often overlooked by researchers, policymakers and school leaders. The context in which research is conducted is sometimes counterproductively the most conducive for positive results. Research programmes are carefully checked that they are being implemented properly, participants might change their normal behaviours as a result of being observed and the organisational culture of schools and classrooms might be instrumental to the programme’s success. Before deciding whether to adopt an evidence-based practice, it is important to not only ask whether the sample is representative of the individuals who will be affected by these practices, but also whether the context is representative of the organization adopting these practices. And if in doubt, contact the researchers of the original study and ask them for advice on how to implement their research programme. 

This Week at Loughborough | 14 March

Careers Network Events

Finalist Futures: Further your career with a PhD

14 March, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Have you enjoyed your research project as part of your Undergraduate or Master’s degree?  Do you have a passion for a subject you would like to research further, or a desire to make a real difference in the world?  Attend this session to find out the reasons people study towards a research degree (PhD), what’s involved, how to apply and where can it lead.

Find out more on the events page.

Your Development: Digital Skills at university

14 March, 6pm – 7pm, Online

This event, which is part of varied programme looking, holistically, at your Digital Skills (and counting towards your Digital Fluency badge activities), will look at how to manage your digital footprint, social media and employability, and tips and tricks for staying on top of your emails.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research

Arts and Humanities

15 March, 4pm – 5pm, Bridgeman Building BRI.2.08

Social Sciences and Sciences

16 March, 6pm – 7pm, The Start Up Lab, STEMLab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Quick tips from Microsoft: Getting the most out of MS Office

16 March, 1pm – 1.30pm, Online

Microsoft Office is probably the widest-used suite of applications globally for tasks, productivity and collaboration at home, at work or while studying. In two short sessions we’ll look at top tips from Microsoft staff for this range of programs.

Find out more on the events page.

Starting a side hustle – with Loughborough Enterprise Network

17 March, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Calling all entrepreneurs! This workshop offers an insight as to where to start in developing your side hustle, including advice from the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) and a former student’s experience from their Year In Enterprise.

Find out more on the events page.

Pensions 101 with the Money & Pensions Service

17 March, 1pm – 2.15pm, EHB

Are you utterly mystified by the world of pensions, with no idea about if they are important and how you can go about setting yourself up as effectively as possible? Our session led by the Money & Pensions Service is here to help!

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

18 March, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together. Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Initiate Bootcamp, Workshop Series with LSU Enterprise

Day 1  ­|  14 March, 6pm – 8pm, LSU & Online

Entrepreneurial Mindset – Work-Life Balance & Introduction to Ideation

Day 2  ­|  15 March, 6pm – 8pm, LSU & Online

The Business Model Canvas & Goal Setting

Day 3  ­|  18 March, 6pm – 8pm, LSU & Online

Goal Setting and Pitching Practice

Find out more on the events page.

RAeS Lecture: Air Accident Investigation Branch

15 March, 7.30pm – 9pm, Room U020, Brockington Building

The speaker will describe how the process of accident and incident investigation is carried out following both domestic and international events. This will be followed by brief descriptions of some interesting past investigations the speaker has participated in over 47 years with AAIB.

Find out more on the events page.

Introducing RIC-KI

16 March, 12.30pm – 1.15pm, Online

Find out everything you need to know about RIC-KI, the collaborative research platform for health, wellbeing and sports science.

We will cover how to get started on the platform and explore why facilitating new research collaborations is so important. There will be time for questions within the session and you are welcome to submit these to us in advance we will cover as many as possible in the session.

Find out more on the events page.

IIE Seminar: Professor Jordi Surroca

17 March, 11.30am – 1pm, LDN018 & Online

In this seminar, Professor Jordi Surroca from the University of Liverpool will present a paper entitled “CSR as catalyst or deterrent of organizational change”.

Jordi is a Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Liverpool Management School and Head of the Subject Group of Strategy, IB, and Entrepreneurship. Before joining Liverpool, Jordi was Professor of Strategy & Organization at the University of Groningen, where he also served as Director of the Innovation & Organization Research Program.

Find out more on the events page.

Ethnic Minorities Network X Nightline Scavenger Hunt

19 March, 3pm – 5pm, LDN018 & Online

For EMNs BAME Campaign, Nightline is hosting a campus wide scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt will end at The Treehouse where the top 3 teams will be getting hampers with a ton of goodies and some vouchers from Bom Bom Patisserie along with FREE cookies on the day!

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

ISN European Night

15 March, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

16 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

18 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Origins 2022

19 March, 12am, The Basement

Find out more on the events page.

Guinness Six Nations

19 March, John Coopers

2.15pm, WAL v ITA

4.45pm, IRE v SCO

8pm, FRA v ENG

Find out more on the events page.

OUT: LSU’s LGBT+ Night Out

19 March, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

20 March, 4.30pm, The Basement

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

20 March, 8pm, The Lounge

Welcome to Loughborough’s weekly quiz night!

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

International Women's Day 2022

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect, increase visibility and celebrate women’s achievements. When inequality is still evident in different parts of the world, it is important for us to consider our contribution and how we can positively impact the lives of women.  

It was only 122 years ago when The Great Unrest began. In the early 1900s, women began to vocalise their oppression and inequality. International Women’s Day was implemented at different times all around the world. In Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, the day was first marked in 1911, the United Kingdom quickly followed suit. The United Nations recognised the annual event in 1974. However, the centenary was celebrated worldwide in 2011.  

Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?

The day allows us to educate ourselves and applaud those who have made significant contributions to women’s lives. However, it is important to consider the challenges and successes that all women face daily.  

The day prompts you to: 

• Educate yourself on women’s rights all around the world 
• Identify how you can uplift women and make a positive difference in their lives 
• Raise awareness against gender bias and challenge stereotypes 
• Empower women 
• Improve women’s experience in all aspects of their lives, including the workplace, healthcare, and lifestyle 

Celebrate International Women’s Day by taking some time to read, listen and learn.  

Break the Bias

Bias occurs via preconceived ideas that you possess through subjective experience. Gender stereotypes hinder objectivity in all aspects of life. Often these stereotypes start young when primary school teachers ask the boys to put away the chairs and ask the girls to tidy the paper and pens. It can be difficult to unlearn what is ingrained into society. However, this is no excuse not to try. 

Firstly, challenge bias and learn to identify stereotypes. Look to the women around you, they are all wonderfully unique. Look to the women in history, how they rallied together to progress. Celebrate their differences and their growth. Learning and understanding can lead to positive changes in your mindset. 

Who inspires you?

Loughborough University is home to many inspiring women. Whether it is a political activist, cutting edge scientist, medical professional, or a family member, women achieve great things daily. Role models do not have to be famous, but you can let them know that they are valued and that you recognise what they do.  

My mum is the most inspiring woman in my life. She raised a family as a single mother whilst working two jobs. It is incredible that she juggled work, family, and life, and still managed to undertake an Undergraduate Degree in Psychology. What was even more impressive, was that the house was always tidy, and she found time to come up with engaging games. Granted, some of the games may have been for her child development module, but we still had fun, nonetheless.  

You see the influence of women everywhere. Utilise International Women’s Day and read about women’s achievements. Whether you are interested in the sciences or the arts, there will be hundreds of influential figures ready for you to discover.  

To get involved and learn more about International Women’s Day 2022, please visit the dedicated webpage.  

This Week at Loughborough | 7 March

Featured: International Women’s Day

Voices of Diversity: Baroness Grey-Thompson DBE DL

7 March, 6pm – 7pm, Online

To celebrate International Women’s Day, alumna Baroness Grey-Thompson DBE DL will share her story in the next Voices of Diversity talk online via MS Teams.

As one of Britain’s greatest Paralympic athletes, the Baroness won 11 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze medal across five Paralympic Games between 1988 and 2004. She won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times and held more than 30 world records throughout her career.

Find out more on the events page.

Self Defence Class

7 March, 7pm – 8pm, EHB Squash Courts

The LSU Women’s Network and Jiujitsu are running a self defence class.

Find out more on the events page.

International Women’s Day March

8 March, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, Starting at Hazlerigg Fountain

The Loughborough Students’ Union Women’s Network is hosting a march around campus in celebration of International Women’s Day.

All staff and students are welcome to attend homemade signs and banners are encouraged. The march will be a celebration of women’s achievements at Loughborough and the wider community.

Find out more on the events page.

Women in Enterprise Showcase

10 March, 5pm – 8pm, The Treehouse

In celebration of International Women’s Day, LSU Enterprise and Loughborough Women’s Network are hosting a mini-market event to celebrate female entrepreneurs from different backgrounds. 

To register a stall – apply here

To attend the event – no registration needed, just turn up.

Find out more on the events page.

Featured: Spring Careers Fest

How to Manage your Money at University

8 March, 12pm – 1.30pm, Wavy Top B01

This event, which is part of a varied programme looking, holistically, at Money Management, will look at how to create an effective budget to live by, share hints and tips for saving money, and further increase your confidence when it comes to taking control of your finances.

Find out more on the events page.

Making the most of volunteering in your first and second year

8 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

As well as highlighting the benefits that volunteering brings, the opportunities available to you, how to get involved and learning how to present volunteering experience on your CV, this workshop also features a Q&A panel to answer any questions you have based on past volunteering experience and how to use volunteering to help you on your career journey.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Engaging with the Literature (Engineering)

8 March, 6pm – 7pm, STEM Building, The Start-Up Lab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Doing a Master’s (and other postgraduate study)

8 March, 6pm – 7pm, Online

Many finalists are considering pursuing further study as their undergraduate study draws to a close. But what options are open to you, what do you need to consider when choosing, and where can you find the information you’ll need? This presentation will help you navigate your next step.

Find out more on the events page.

Kickstart your Career: How to write a CV with limited work experience

9 March, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Come join us on this session to see how we can help develop your CV. You may have never had a “proper” job before however you will have some relevant experience and this session will allow you to explore this further.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Engaging with the Literature (Arts/Humanities)

9 March, 6pm – 7pm, G Block, G0.07

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Kickstart your Career: Preparing for Interview Success – Top 5 Common Questions (for Part A & B students only)

10 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

The session will help you understand how to improve your interview skills and tackle 5 common questions that employers frequently ask. We’ll also have two guest employers ready to answer your questions.

Find out more on the events page.

Mock Assessment Centre

10 March, 6pm – 8pm, Online

Celebrating the finale of Spring Careers Fest, this will probably be the last Mock Assessment Centre of the academic year. Hosted by Careers Network and designed to help you prepare for the real thing. This event is sponsored by Druck.

Find out more on the events page.

Women In Enterprise (LSU Event) Coffee/Networking Panel Event  

11 March, 6pm – 8pm, Online

Coffee Networking/Panel Event to celebrate Women in Enterprise. 

Register for this event.

Graduate Artists Exhibition

7 – 12 March, 5pm – 7pm, Martin Hall

Find out more on the events page.

Peter Bailey – Tips on a Career in Healthcare Technology

7 March, 5pm – 6pm, Online

This is a series of masterclasses, showcasing the careers and opportunities experienced by Alumni.

Find out more on the events page.

Discover Islam: Try on a Hijab stall

8 March, 12pm, The Atrium, EHB

Visit the stall to try on a Hijab/head covering and talk to Muslim women about their experiences.

In collaboration with the Ethnic Minorities Network, Femsoc and the Loughborough Women’s network.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Kidney health for all: Bridging the knowledge gap to better kidney care

8 March, 5.30pm – 6.30pm, Online

This public lecture will be delivered by Professor James Burton, Professor of Renal Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Leicester. The talk will discuss bridging the knowledge gap to better kidney care.

Find out more on the events page.

Loughborough London EDI Committee and Women in ISB Group Film Night

8 March, 6pm – 8.30pm, LDN 0.01

In honour of International Women’s Day, The Loughborough London EDI Committee and The Women in ISB Group are hosting a film night.

The film that will be on is LFG. This is a documentary following members of the US Women’s National Soccer Team as they sue the United States Soccer Federation for pay discrimination. The film was featured as a Spotlight Documentary at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

Find out more on the events page.

Discover Islam: Women in Islam – oppressing or liberating?

8 March, 6.30pm, EHB002

Is Islam liberating or oppressing women? How did the status of women within pre-Islamic Arabia and other regions, change after the spread of Islam? What kind of rights has Islam entitled to women? Can women have an active role in Islamic society?

All these questions and more will be discussed by Sr Alima Ashfaq, in another interesting talk for the Discover Islam campaign.

Find out more on the events page.

Venture Crawl 2022

9 March, 9am – 9pm, Online

Venture Crawl is back for 2022! The Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) and FutureSpace teams invite you to join us to embark on a unique online entrepreneurial journey. London Venture Crawl helps connect entrepreneurs with support, connections from the eco-system.

Find out more on the events page.

Lent Walk

9 March, 1.15pm, Edward Herbet Café

As part of our Lent Celebrations join us for a 30 minute walk across campus pausing for contemplation.

Find out more on the events page.

Disability, Empowerment and Paralympic Media: The Politics of Representation

10 March, 6.30pm – 8pm, Online

A discussion event bringing together artists and academic researchers to discuss the contested politics of Paralympic representation.

Find out more on the events page.

Year in Enterprise Briefing Session

11 March, 10am – 11am, Online

Spend your placement year self-employed with our support!

Are you thinking of setting up your own business? Our Year in Enterprise Programme is designed to give students the chance to set up their own business during their placement year. With a training session plus mentoring and plenty of peer support, we aim to help you to maximise your business success.  

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Dr An Jacobs and Dr Katarina Krulisova

11 March, 11am, Online

Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

FA Vase Quarter Final: Loughborough Students v Wythenshawe Town FC

12 March, 3pm, Loughborough University Stadium

To access the University Stadium please enter through the West Gate of Campus using Post Code LE11 3QF.

Due to other events taking place on campus this day, entry to the ground will be through Holywell Rubber Crumb located next to Holywell Fitness Centre NOT the University Stadium turnstiles.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Student Live Lounge

7 March, 7.30pm, The Lounge

If you enjoy live music and discovering new artists then join us for a special, laid back evening as we present the best talent from Loughborough University.

Student and event organiser Benjamin Parrett is your host for the night. Benjamin is planning a mixed line-up of singers and musicians from a wide range of genres. Come along and support our students and experience something special.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe: Giveaways Galore

9 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

This week, we’re also giving away a range of prizes including an iPad!

Find out more on the events page.

Incognito

10 March, 10.30pm, The Basement

Welcome to INCOGNITO, Loughborough’s biggest and best night for all things hip-hop, rap, trap, R&B, reggaeton, dancehall and bashment! We’ve taken everything we knew and loved about Cogs and moved it into The Basement for a full night of the biggest beats and best bars around.

Find out more on the events page.

Guinness Six Nations

11 March, 8pm, John Coopers, Wal v FRA

12 March, 2.15pm, John Coopers, ITA v SCO

12 March, 4.45pm, John Coopers, ENG v IRE

Find out more on the events page.

FND

11 March, 10.30pm, The Basement

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

11 March, 10.30pm, The Basement

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

13 March, 4.30pm, The Basement

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

13 March, 4.30pm, The Basement

Welcome to Loughborough’s weekly quiz night!

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

My experience with mental health support at Loughborough University

Taking the Plunge: Open Water Swimming

From a very young age, I have loved water. I learnt to swim in the sea whilst on holiday in Menorca and went on to swim competitively for my local swimming club, the Leicester Penguins, until I was a body-conscious teenager and other distractions kicked in.

When one of my friends mentioned open water swimming (OWS) over two years ago it was something that piqued my interest. At the time it all felt a bit out of my comfort zone – I hadn’t got any of the kit, where would we go, how would I fit it in and how cold would it be?!

Fast forward to September 2021, life had changed dramatically. We were all navigating the impact that the pandemic had on our working and social lives. Just prior to the pandemic my mental health hadn’t been in the best shape, and heading into lockdown things just got steadily worse, until I accepted that I needed help. That help included looking at exercise, and whilst I dabbled with running for a time (unfortunately it was something that was personally triggering) I looked for something new – cue OWS.

Race Hub in the Six Hills, Leicestershire, run an ‘Induction and Skills’ OWS course during the summer, and luckily me and two friends managed to attend one of the last sessions of the 2021 season. In this lesson, we learnt all things OWS including how to put on a wetsuit, what happens to your body in cold water and how to avoid ‘after drop’ (a phenomenon where your body temperature continues to drop even after you get out of the water) and the art of warming up steadily to avoid shivering and ultimately getting hypothermia.

After a few initial expletives we were all in the water and learning how to acclimatise. It was a bit like having a whole body ‘brain freeze’ moment, we all looked at each other wide-eyed and nervous, but after a couple of minutes, our cores were warming. We were swimming past ducks with geese flying overhead, and we all had huge grins. It was amazing, exhilarating, crazy but brilliant!

We’ve pretty much been every week since that initial session; our small group of three has expanded week on week and we’ve met some truly lovely people. OWS has an amazing community, people are so warm (unlike the water!) and welcoming. The Race Hub café is full of yummy delights for that post-swim warm-up, it is lovely to finish a swim with a hot chocolate and catch up with friends.

You can also hire wetsuits from Race Hub so you don’t have to commit to getting all the kit until you are sure OWS is for you. After a few weeks, I opted to get an entry-level wetsuit (around £100) which has been brilliant and as the water has become colder, boots and gloves have been added to the kit list, along with a dry robe and hot water bottle to keep dry clothes toasty whilst swimming.

We also swim at Stoney Cove in Stoney Stanton, a spring-fed disused quarry popular with divers and swimmers. It is a beautiful venue, referred to by one of my friends as ‘a bit like swimming in the Italian lakes’ (I’ll take her word for it).

If you’re brave enough to put your face in the water, you may catch a glimpse of a Helicopter, Galleon, and many other underwater wrecks. As with Race Hub, the people we’ve met along the way have been so friendly – I’ve bumped into old school friends in addition to meeting some really inspirational people (especially those swimming in ‘skins’ aka costumes in water temperatures of six degrees!)

Since starting OWS we’ve been involved in all sorts of themed evening swims too – from glowing in the dark on Halloween to celebratory Boxing Day dips with mulled wine and mince pies.

The physical health benefits of OWS are many, but by far for me, the mental health benefits are incredible. There is something about getting into cold water, with nature all around you, that feels so wonderfully exhilarating and ever so slightly bonkers. It has given me a sense of peace and allows my busy and anxious mind to calm. My friends Lisa, Helen and Emma have also found the wellbeing experience invaluable, here are some of their thoughts too:

“It slows everything down and stills the mind; I become very peaceful and totally relaxed for the rest of the day.”

“It’s meditative, clears the mind, and makes me physically relax for the rest of the day, and makes me feel calmer all week. I love that cold water, tingly refreshing feeling, it’s amazing what the human body can do. It’s a physical and mental challenge and there are fewer of them as you get older. It’s good to grab one.”

“I’ve always been a swimmer, but open water swimming is so much more than exercise. I love the different challenges, how cold the water is, how long can I stay in, can I go without a wetsuit, can I do my wetsuit up? I love the calmness (even in choppy water); being ‘in nature’ where the ducks and birds think that you are one of them! The water is so invigorating, and it is all you think about for the time you are there. The pre and post swim chat and hot drink with friends and meeting other friendly and enthusiastic swimmers with ideas of where to try next is also such a big part of the overall feeling of mental and physical wellness.”

My advice for anyone considering OWS would be to go for it! It has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s helped me in ways I never thought possible. In practical terms, you do need to be a competent swimmer and some venues insist on you using a tow float or swimming in groups of two or more – wearing a brightly coloured swimming hat is also a must. There is a great Facebook group called ‘Leicestershire Open Water Dragonflies’ who are a really friendly group, and like most Facebook groups you can ask questions and get supportive responses.

So, after reading my story are you ready to take the plunge? If you’re curious I am happy to talk to anyone interested in learning more, you can contact me here.

Happy swimming!

Ali Freer
Head of Brand, Creative and Print Services

Useful websites:

• Racehub | Wattbike, OW swim, cafe and retail
• Stoney Cove Open Water Swimming
• Kit: www.wiggle.co.uk

This Week at Loughborough | 28 February

Featured: Spring Careers Fest

Finalist Futures: Preparing for interviews and assessment centres

1 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Learn about what employers look for and how to prepare. Watch the differences between good and bad interview answers, and understand what assessment centres are all about.

Find out more on the events page.

Starting a side hustle – with Loughborough Enterprise Network

1 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Calling all entrepreneurs! Want to start a side hustle but not sure where to start? Join our workshop for advice on where to start on your entrepreneur journey.

Find out more on the events page.

Mock Assessment Centre

1 March, 6pm – 8pm, Online

Delivered by the Careers Network and staff from a range of top companies, you’ll hear first-hand what to expect and learn how to prepare effectively. Join online and gain as much practice as you can before your first real assessment centre. Sponsored by Druck.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers In HR

2 March, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Want to know more about what HR is and what skills and experience can help you get your first job? Is it just about ‘working with people’ or is there more to it than that? Join this session with a panel of expert speakers to find out.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: How to find and keep your focus

3 March, 2pm – 3pm, G Block (G0.07)

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Getting into Psychology

3 March, 6pm – 7.30pm, Online

Join us to hear from psychology professionals, gain an insight into training routes, find out how to gain relevant experience and investigate possible first roles for new graduates.

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

4 March, 2pm – 3pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Engaging with the Literature (Social Sciences/Science)

4 March, 2pm – 3pm, Bridgeman Building (BRI.2.08)

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Legal Masters Classes – External Opportunity

1 March, 1pm – 3pm, Online

Legal Masters Classes – Join our friends over at Imperial London to build your knowledge on the legal aspects of starting a business!

This week’s event is ‘An introduction to being an employer’.

Find out more on the events page.

Postgraduate Virtual Open Event

2 March, 4pm – 6pm, Online

Thinking about a master’s or a PhD following your undergraduate degree, or to further your career or start a new one?

Our open events are the ideal opportunity to find out more about studying with us and life as a postgraduate student at our London campus. You can also find us at a variety of UK and international virtual study fairs or speak to us at one of our web chats.

Find out more on the events page.

Ash Wednesday Service

2 March, 1.15pm, Chapel (EHB)

A short service to mark the beginning of Lent. The service will include the imposition of ashes as a sign of repentance.

Find out more on the events page.

Arabic Calligraphy Workshop

2 March, 4pm – 6pm, G Block (G006)

AExperience the beauty of the Thuluth script, the most iconic form in Arabic Calligraphy preserved and cherished over hundreds of years. The 2 hour workshop is a rare insight into the essence of classical Islamic Calligraphy, the centuries-old practice of writing beautiful letters of Arabic origin (Hüsn-i Hat) in precise measurements and proportionality whilst breathing divine aesthetics of masters leading back to the early days of the seventh century.

Find out more on the events page.

MEC seminar: Neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematics

3 March, 2pm – 5pm, Online

Dr Mojtaba Soltanlou,’Neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematics learning in children with mathematics disabilities’, (University of Surrey)

While arithmetic training reduces fronto-temporo-parietal activation related to domain-general processes in typically developing (TD) children, we know very little about the training-related neurocognitive changes in children with mathematical disabilities (MD), who seek evidenced-based educational interventions.

Mr Adel Shaban, ‘Developing a User-Centred Cognitive Application to Improve Working Memory for Children with Learning Difficulties’, (Teesside University)

Children with learning difficulties (LDs) often have limited working memory (WM) capacity, meaning that they fail to meet the required amount of information needed to be processed and held while learning new skills. As soon as those children are able to overcome their WM limits, they would be able to learn as effectively as their peers.

Find out more on the events page.

Creatures of the Lines: Screening and Discussion

3 March, 6.30pm – 8.30pm, Online

Nottingham Contemporary present a screening of Sonia Levy’s film Creatures of the Lines, commissioned by Radar, followed by a discussion between Levy, Heather Swanson and Filipa Ramos.

Creatures of the Lines is produced in collaboration with the environmental anthropologist Heather Swanson. It explores how the desire for economic growth and linear progress has produced straightened forms in England’s watery terrains and asks what risks are associated with the conversion of once-curvy and braided worlds into a linearised landscape.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Being the Best version of yourself – Empowerment series

28 February, 6.30pm, Online

This is a five-part series which explores how to be the best version of yourself.  The course will consider the impact of your thoughts, how to break patterns of behaviour, establish goals, and value yourself.

We are starting off with a bang, with an opportunity to come to Loughborough to see arrow breaking and glass walking – amongst other things! The session will consider mindset, and how you consider your knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits

Find out more on the events page.

Open Mic Night: 90’s & Noughties

1 March, 6pm, The Lounge

Throwback to that decade of tartan and grunge, Teletubbies, Discmans and ironic nostalgia, with a visit to 90’s & Noughties night.

Re-enter the era that birthed Alanis, Green Day, The Chili Peppers and Nirvana, then evolve into the next century, with your best Foo Fighters or Coldplay classic, all through the power of song.

Find out more on the events page.

Food Business Talk

1 March, 6pm, The Treehouse

We have invited some established Loughborough Alumni and student food businesses to come in and talk about their business journey, as well as time for you to ask any dying questions you have. If this isn’t tasty enough, you will be treated to some FREE delicious brownies from Bobbies Brownies!

Find out more on the events page.

Education Forum

1 March, 6.30pm, Online

We would like to invite you to the third Education Forum – a place for all Students or Researchers to raise a question, voice concerns, or bring ideas to a small panel of University and Union staff.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

2 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

4 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

6 March, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Queerness and the Literary Canon

Author: Dr Ellen Nicholls

Is being queer and studying the straight white canon an inherently political act? To begin reflecting on this question, I want to look at a text by one of the most canonical poets in the English language, writing in one of the most traditional poetic forms:

‘To Lady Eleanor Butler and the Honourable Miss Ponsonby,
Composed in the grounds of Plas-Newydd, Llangollen’

A stream to mingle with your favorite Dee
Along the Vale of Meditation flows;
So styled by those fierce Britons, pleased to see
In Nature’s face the expression of repose,
Or, haply there some pious Hermit chose
To live and die — the peace of Heaven his aim,
To whome the wild sequestered region owes
At this late day, its sanctifying name.
Glyn Cafaillgaroch, in the Cambrian tongue,
In ours the Vale of Friendship, let this spot
Be nam’d, where faithful to a low roof’d Cot
On Deva’s banks, ye have abode so long,
Sisters in love, a love allowed to climb
Ev’n on this earth, above the reach of time.

_{By William Wordsworth}

As a researcher of Romantic poetry— who usually scrutinises every detail and critical inference of poetic form— it pains me to start this post with a refusal to closely read Wordsworth’s 1824 sonnet. Well… almost a refusal. Though this is by no means the best example of Wordsworth’s poetic capabilities, it contains all you would expect from poetry of the Romantic period. We have here a picturesque depiction of stylised nature; a landscape that has not only been shaped by the hands of ‘fierce Britons’ (3) but also further removed from its natural source by being filtered and recreated through the mind of the poet, ‘Along the Vale of Meditation’ (2). We also see the typically Wordsworthian trope of the ‘sequestered’ (7) and ‘pious hermit’ (5), who much like the manmade stream, lives and flows peaceably alongside the untouched natural landscape. The proximity and distance between man and nature is a recurring theme throughout much Romantic art and literature. What perhaps is less in keeping with Wordsworthian poetics is the shadow of queerness which haunts the life and legacy of the ladies to whom this sonnet is addressed.  

Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby or the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’: two Irishwomen whose same-sex intimacy and rejection of the patriarchal institute of marriage was deeply unacceptable to their families. After two failed attempts, Butler and Ponsonby successfully eloped to North Wales where they settled into an alternative domestic life in their gothic ‘low-roof’d Cot’ (11) named Plas-Newydd. ‘Sequestered’ (7) together in this remote cottage for 50 years, Butler and Ponsonby became somewhat of an attraction to prominent Romantic visitors, including Byron, Shelley, Anne Lister, and of course Wordsworth. With their top hats, gentrified appearance, intense ‘female friendship’, and succession of pet dogs named ‘Sappho’ (Wills, 2020), the ladies of Llangollen were not only a source of celebrity gossip, and speculation to the great thinkers of their day but remain a curiosity to contemporary critics who seek to define the nature of their queerness. Is this a case of intense but platonic female intimacy— nothing more than sororal affection or ‘Sisters in Love’ (13)? Or is this lesbianism that exists in a mere ‘Vale [Veil] of Friendship’ (10), hidden from view?

While much speculation exists when defining the sexuality of the Ladies of Llangollen, comparatively little critical attention has been given to Wordsworth’s sonnet. When preparing to write this blog post, I asked four different colleagues who specialise in Romantic poetry what they knew of this poem. Nobody could tell me much and some had never heard of Butler and Ponsonby. Similarly, a search for criticism on Wordsworth’s sonnet in Loughborough University library contains little that is worthy of noting. Of course, the LGBTQIA+ community are not unfamiliar with the invisibilisation of queer figures or indeed being written out of history altogether. Is it really so surprising that there has historically been little space for the queer community in the white British literary canon?

It may not surprise you to learn that growing up as a gay kid in my own ‘sequestered region’ (7) of Norfolk, I struggled to fit in. Fiercely playing at straightness and refusing to acknowledge my complete disinterest in boys, my sexuality was indeed a source of playground speculation that led to some dreaded years of social isolation. The only place I thrived at secondary school was in the classroom where I could escape into the complex nuances of literature and music. This safe space away from the gossip of my peers was where a spark was ignited in me which burnt all the way through to the completion of my Ph.D. And yet, these same classrooms were also haunted by the dark shadow of section 28 which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality from 1988-2003. The institute of education which I so respected was also responsible for deciding who was not seen and what was not represented on the venerated pages of the literary canon. This meant learning Shakespeare without acknowledging that 126 of his sonnets were addressed to a male lover. Studying Wilfred Owen while ignoring the love letters he sent to Siegfried Sassoon. This also meant sitting in biology and learning how teenagers grow out of same-sex attraction once their crazy hormones calm down. It took me to the age of 21 to realise that my hormones had nothing to do with it.

So for me, the literary canon represents both my inclusion and exclusion from the privileged world of art and literature. Much like the Ladies of Llangollen, I find myself divided between being on the inside and outside of the literary elite. Privileged and well-represented as a highly educated, white, cis-gendered woman. Marginalised and under-represented as a lesbian. This has led to some tricky professional moments. A postgraduate symposium where I was somehow expected to defend ‘high art’ and its historic exclusion of black people. An implicit expectation to shoehorn post-colonial readings onto canonical texts rather than creating a platform for marginalised authors and artists of colour. I have often been left wondering whether there is a need to justify my right to be both gay and a researcher of the white Romantic canon. Am I duty-bound to declare my positionality and reconcile the two in some gloriously cogent intersectional reading? Is being queer and studying the canon an act of conformity to the straight white majority or is it politically subversive?

The truth is, I do not have answers to these questions. I am queer and I enjoy reading canonical Romantic texts. I know I need not conform to the expectations of the critical establishment by demonstrating my prowess in researching and closely reading poetry, squeezing out every facet and implication of the language of these revered authors. And yet, here I sit next to my wife— in our own (rather urban!) cottage with our neurotic dog (sadly not called Sappho)— and I just can’t help myself.

References

_{Wills, M. (2020). Who were the Ladies of Llangollen? [Online]. Available at: https://daily.jstor.org/who-were-the-ladies-of-llangollen/ [Accessed 20/02/2022].}

_{The image comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom. Refer to Wellcome blog post (archive).}

‘Fanny and Stella’: Victorian Cross-Dressing in LGBTQ+ history.

by Amy Cope

One of my second-year history modules, ‘Victorian Values’, was a module that captured my attention and focused my learning onto the fascinating case of ‘Fanny and Stella’ aka Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park. After learning about the pair for the first time in this module, my coursework enabled me to delve deeper into their lives and uncover more about this duo. Fanny and Stella made headlines in their lifetime, but until recently remained relatively unknown. The story of their trial, a consequence of their sexuality, is important to tell as a crucial part of LGBTQ+ history.

A photograph of them can be seen on the website of the Essex Record Office:

I have always been a historian that likes to focus on social and cultural history of people and places. The topics of gender and same-sex relationships in this module really interested me because this was an aspect of Victorian social history that is not often taught in other educational settings. ‘Fanny and Stella’ were a case study presented during a lecture on Victorian sexualities and same-sex relations, and I decided I needed to know more, and so I centered my ‘biographical reassessment’ essay on them. They are key examples of gender-fluid people in an era supposedly dominated by conservatism, religion and prejudice. It is important that we as historians discuss important figures like this, endeavouring to make ‘forgotten’ LGBTQ+ history more visible to the public.

Using Neil MacKenna’s leading text Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England, my essay explored homosexuality and cross-dressing.

I began my essay by providing an overview of the seemingly outward dismissal of same-sex relationships in Victorian England, the criminalisation of homosexuality or ‘Buggery’ in England in 1533, later followed by the ‘Offences Against the Person Act’ in 1861. This legal reform pushed homosexuality and private relationships, particularly those between men, into what was known as the ‘public sphere’, making it a matter of society and law. Boulton and Park fell victim to these patriarchal [or what we might now call “cis-gendered”] laws after being caught cross-dressing in public. They mainly performed as ‘Fanny and Stella’ on the amateur dramatic stage, as women, kissing and expressing romantic affection for those of the same gender identity. I argued the point that men dressed as women was accepted in Victorian England in the context of stage performance. It was only when ‘sexual deviance’ came off the stage and came into public life that some argued it was deceitful and abnormal compared to the heteronormative values of the time.

I used MacKenna’s book to give a shortened biography of Boulton and Park, how their childhood experiences of cross-dressing, open-minded parents/siblings and exposure to the LGBTQ+ culture of their time, may have influenced their openness in their cross-dressing and their creation of the public-facing duo ‘Fanny and Stella’. I then focused in on the reception in the media at the time, as the pair were a sensational hit across tabloid papers in the 1870s albeit being reported in a negative light. However, the pair, after being subjected to illegal rectal exams by the police, presented no signs of sodomy or buggery and were freed without charge. This is where my interest became heightened because they were celebrated in the streets by some of the public upon their release, suggesting that Victorian society may not have been so wholly homophobic and conservative as first thought. That said, their case did provoke those with conservative attitudes into further legal reforms. For instance, Henry Labouchѐre was part motivated to amend the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1885 to punish members of the LGBTQ+ community even more harshly in years to follow.

I studied the impact of this Act by comparing the treatment of Fanny and Stella to the high-profile case of Oscar Wilde, who was prosecuted for engaging in same-sex relations in 1895. Wilde is different to Boulton and Park in that he has been much more widely remembered, and for much longer, subsequently becoming a significant figure in gay history. I argue in my essay that this was possibly due to his pre-existing ‘celebrity’ status as a well-known author and playwright, and subsequent reputation as a gay rights activist. I argue that it is likely Fanny and Stella faded from public memory faster than Wilde because — whilst they had captured public attention with their scandal — having no charges pressed meant they were able to return to their private lives. They continued to cross-dress on the amateur stage and live their lives behind closed doors, and thus faded from collective memory.

I wanted to draw attention to key LGBTQ+ figures that pre-dated Wilde and show how genderfluidity, transgender people, and people with fluid sexualities existed in a society that was often not very welcoming of difference. I also relied on another example of a person who is scarcely written about. Dr James Barry, born Margaret, was an early nineteenth-century surgeon who lived as a man for over 50 years of their life in order to be an army surgeon. I chose to include Barry in my essay to demonstrate how there could conceivably have been hundreds of others like Fanny and Stella who lived lives as members of an historical genderfluid, perhaps even transgender, community but are simply not known about or are omitted from history. Knowing more about them and the context in which they lived and loved demonstrates the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility in academic studies like history.

As MacKenna points out, LGBTQ+ history was often written about by straight white men which expresses some of the past limitations of historical writing about gender and sexuality. I stand as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and think we as a society need to bring more attention to the diverse political, social and cultural history of LGBTQ+ figures, presenting the histories of real people like Fanny and Stella to challenge previous heterosexual, cis-gendered interpretations and writings about history.

Bibliography:

Burroughs, Andrea. “The Story of Boulton and Park: aka Fanny and Stella” (LGBTQ+ History, University of Bath. 5th March 2019) Accessed 28/12/2020. https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/kaleidoscope/2019/03/05/the-story-of-boulton-and-park-aka-fanny-and-stella/

Holland, Brynn. “The Extraordinary Secret Life of Dr. James Barry” Accessed 28/12/2020. https://www.history.com/news/the-extraordinary-secret-life-of-dr-james-barry

McKenna, Neil. Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England. 2, Croydon: Faber and Faber Ltd, 2013. UK Parliament “1885 Labouchere Amendment” Accessed 05/01/2021. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/sexual-offences-act-1967/1885-labouchere-amendment/

I have always been a keen historian, and a History degree at Loughborough University has pushed me to explore and research in different ways, expanding my breadth and depth of historical knowledge. Although on a single honours course, I have also been able to take Politics and International Relations modules as well as languages. I feel this has enabled me to expand my skill set massively and apply different schools of thought to historical topics. I have found that I really enjoy researching and writing about topics that interest me and have been inspired to do an MA in eighteenth and nineteenth century history following the completion of this degree.

Image by Francesco Ungaro on pexels

Soil: The final 60 Years

Conscious Planet is a Global Movement intended to initiate a conscious approach to soil and the planet.

The feeling of helplessness when it comes to doing something for the earth and our environment has always stuck with me. I used to think ‘how can I alone make a positive impact?’ but when I came across Conscious Planet, its goals and that the year of 2022 was going to be dedicated to rejuvenating our soil, my perspective on almost all aspects of life changed. I started seeing that all things around me needed soil and without it there is no life! The feeling of helplessness changed into an ocean of enthusiasm and wanting to give as much as possible.

If someone asked you ‘what is the largest concern for the world today?’ I can guarantee many would say Global Warming or Climate Change. But what about our soil, the very basis of our life? During Covid people started panicking because of a shortage in a few essential products and while this had a short term impact, now imagine experiencing a global serious food crisis in 30 years’ time, this is inevitable if we do not act now!

We all have busy lives, hence what will happen in the near future may fail to grab our attention or maybe it is because most we will not be here to experience the devastating effects, but what about our future generation? When I started researching soil extinction, I came across so many shocking and scary facts. By 2050 90% of the Earth’s Soils could be degraded unless we act now (UNCCD, 2020). If you find it difficult imagining all the way up to 2050, then imagine food production falling by 40% in only 20 years if soil extinction is not prevented (World Economic Forum). Soil extinction is at its tipping point, and it is now in our hands to ensure this opportunity of Saving Soil does not slip!

In 2020 Netflix released ‘Kiss the Ground’, a documentary that explored the degradation of soil, its impact on the climate and how some simple changes to land management can save our soil. Now I know you’ll being thinking that a documentary on soil is going to be boring but it’s not. As with most documentaries it tends to focus on one side of the story and you may wish to do some more research on the data, but this is still a great and engaging introduction to the topic.

The aim of Conscious Planet is to inspire at least 3.5 billion people to support environmentally conscious governance decisions. To make this happen, on 21^st March there will be a 100-day movement kicking off to ensure people understand the issue, speak about it, and stand up for Save Soil. We need to make Save Soil the talk of the town to urge governments across the world to create the necessary policies to revitalise soil. Remember, without soil, there would be no life! We all have a voice so let us come together and make it heard! 

How can YOU save the soil?

There are numerous ways you can get involved, volunteer and support the movement, either in person or virtually. You choose!

1. Become an Earth Buddy and sign up here:

This involves dedicating only 10 minutes every day to spread the word on your social media and inspire others around you to join the movement.

2. Be a Planet Champion – to make a bigger impact!  

Here you can connect and share ideas with the other local volunteers in your community. You could also look to hold presentations or virtual awareness sessions about Conscious Planet in schools, colleges, local communities or even at work.

3. Join the Conscious Planet team

If you have got a particular skill set and want to put it to use e.g., graphic design, language translation or content creation then you can find a role that inspires you here!

4. Sign up for 1-hour live sessions on Wednesdays and Saturdays to find more about how we can Save Soil and how you can be a part of the change. Sign up here: savesoil.eu/youth or scan the QR code below!

Reflections on LGBT+ History Month

I grew up in a small place half the size of Loughborough and, since I was 13, I used to keep a note in my bedroom where I would cross out the months I had left until I could leave that town. I wanted to move to a bigger city on my own.

I spent my teenage years dreaming of Barcelona. I hoped, like many members of the LGBT+ community do, that leaving my hometown for a bigger place would change everything. At the age of 18, I managed to move to Bilbao to study at a university, and that was my first experience with (sexual) mobility and migration. Like many individuals from our community, I also felt like I needed to leave my town to try to find my place in a bigger city.

My second migration occurred in 2014 quite unexpectedly. I travelled to Brighton to visit a friend and right from the start, I was amazed by this seaside town. Those little streets in The Lanes, the pebbled beach in the interminable seafront, the elegant houses with plants and flowers in their front gardens, the parks with squirrels, the extraordinary views, the hills, and the cliffs. And then, something happened that really made me want to stay there.

I walked into the public library, and I saw a very big rainbow flag hanging from the ceiling. Not only that, but there was also a selection of LGBT+ novels welcoming every visitor at the entrance, and a whole section of LGBT+ books further in the room – yes, it was LGBT+ History Month! I’d never seen anything like it. Certainly not in a public space. I was astonished and all I wanted to do in that moment was to learn English well enough so I could read those books. I wanted to live in a place where these kinds of public libraries existed.

My first months in Brighton included a great number of hours entering whole sentences into Google translator and searching for innumerable words in online dictionaries. I would go to the library every day after my shift. Ali Smith’s brilliant retelling of Iphis and Ianthe’s myth, Girl Meets Boy, was the first novel I managed to finish. Then, Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Patricia Highsmith’s Carol, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Anne Lister’s diaries, Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues, Alison Bechdel’s graphic novels, and many others, followed.

These books not only accompanied me during my most challenging months, but they still provide me with understanding, hope, and strength now. These accounts of reality and fiction have the power to bring us closer to our histories and stories, and to transgress and thus transform our reality.

Fortunately, Brighton did not just provide me with literature. Soon I learned more about its historical uniqueness for queer people and the rest of the LGBT+ community and I found all kinds of spaces and events. This seaside town had been a refuge for historical figures such as Oscar Wilde and Anne Lister, and for hundreds of others who still migrate there for similar reasons. There were performances, poetry, reading groups, music gigs, drag shows, remembrance days, parties, the trans pride movement, research groups, film nights, stand-up comedies, and plays that brought us together and remembered our stories.

In 2020, I left this colourful bubble with ever-rising housing prices and tricky connections to pink capitalism – yep, Brighton isn’t perfect – for what has been recently called the least LGBT+ friendly country in the EU.

I moved to Poland with my partner, who is Polish, to finish writing my PhD thesis there. We arrived in the middle of the tumult. The President was basing his campaign on attacks aimed at the LGBT+ community, and around 100 municipalities had declared themselves ‘LGBT (ideology) free zones’ in the southeast of the country. The Education Minister (Przemysław Czarnek) had said that ‘deviants don’t have the same rights as normal people’, and there were constant attacks from the government-aligned media, the Polish Catholic Church, the far-right, and some citizens towards LGBT+ individuals and communities.

We participated in every event and demonstration organised by the LGBT+ community and met people who struggled with their families and neighbours and can’t even imagine a reality in which we are not second-class citizens. These were months of being even more afraid of being an openly lesbian couple in the street. We needed to recalibrate our knowledge on how to navigate the public spaces as LGBT+ individuals. As the philosopher Paul Preciado pointed out in the taking down of colonial statues from the public spaces, it is a bourgeois fiction that the public space is neutral and egalitarian.*

But these were also times in which numerous people showed solidarity, support, hope, and resistance in their speeches, by hanging flags and signs in their windows, wearing rainbow bags on public transport, and joining big demonstrations. I will always remember the defiant teenagers dancing and shouting in the streets of Poznań.

Looking back to my teenage years, I am surprised by how things have changed for our community in so many places, including my hometown. This gives me the strength to carry on fighting for equality and reminds me of how important LGBT+ History Month is.

LGBT+ History Month and similar initiatives give us the opportunity to connect with other people, groups, and communities, and with those from the past whose lives and loves were nearly impossible but managed to leave us traces that sometimes took the shape of artworks.

A shelf with books, a talk, a performance, and celebrating LGBT+ History Month has the power to make someone feel that they are not alone, that there is a space for them, and that their lives are possible. They have the transformative potential to create different realities.

Dr Itoitz Rodrigo Jusué (she/her)
Graduate University Teacher, School of Social Sciences and Humanities

*“What has until now been called public space is in reality a space segmented by lines of class, race, sex, sexuality, and disability, where only the white, male, heterosexual, abled, and national body may circulate as a full-fledged subject” – Paul Preciado (2020), When Statues Fall.

‘We love gay’: Yassification and Appropriation in Mainstream Culture

The sheer number of queer media and cultural references generated in the past year feels historic in proportion. In terms of representation, queer individuals, and the perspectives they generate, appear to have found themselves nestled at the centre of mainstream culture. Television shows like Queer Eye and RuPaul’s Drag Race have garnered national and international followings, and on social media, queer language seems to have seeped into the very fabric of English slang with queer TikTokers at the core of many of the past year’s most popular trends. However, I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that as a relatively well-adjusted gay man, something about these translations of queerness into mainstream culture feels empty.

What encapsulates this emptiness for me is a video posted by comedian Meg Stalter on Twitter back in June 2021. Captioned ‘Corporations this month:’, the video opens with Stalter addressing the camera directly with an exaggerated smile saying ‘Hi gay! Happy Pride month.’ She goes on as her character in this fictitious commercial to enthusiastically offer deals and discounts specifically for LGBT+ individuals while awkwardly mixing and mincing queer slang. At one point, she even goes so far as to say, ‘We love gay and it’s awesome.’ Although the portrayal could be taken as a light-hearted exaggeration of well-intentioned support by companies during Pride Month, for me, it’s the reduction of queer identity for consumptive purposes that presents itself as the much greater issue.

However, this reduction of queerness for the purpose of palatable consumption is not only limited to corporate communications but extends into the greater professional and user-generated culture and entertainment industry. Language and cultural tropes are often taken from queer communities, many of which whose marginality is intersectional such as along the lines of race, class, and gender, and stripped of their meaning to be consumed and enjoyed for their novelty and productive possibilities in the general population.

Some of these moments of appropriation are blatant like the white celebrity Shawn Mendes, who identifies as straight, using the phrase ‘It’s giving… Cher’ recorded as a soundbite while getting ready for the Met Gala with his girlfriend Camila Cabello. This is a clear appropriation of language and iconography that is emblematic of the centuries-old ‘ball culture’ established by many poor, black and brown, queer individuals in New York City. However, other problematic adaptations of queer culture are more pernicious such as the original series and eventual franchising of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Although RuPaul’s Drag Race appears as a distinctly progressive and queer representation that has helped broach real topics aligned with queer identity, and drag specifically, it still falters in the face of capitalistic pressures. Economic privilege is required to support the makeup and clothing that contestants need to compete, straying from the lower economic class roots of the practice. In addition, the definition of drag itself is often reduced to a specific form of heightened femininity which ignores the other categorical possibilities for performance across conceptions such as ‘realness’ and the drag kings.

Yet, a clear classification of whether queer media influences or is appropriated by mainstream culture is oftentimes impossible to accomplish. Nowhere is this more evident than in the debate within the queer community about ‘gay media for straight people.’ This media is defined by some as queer representations that are made to fit heteronormative forms or adhere to stereotypical expectations of queer life for mass consumption. However, other queer individuals claim that these mainstream acceptance of some forms of queerness represents a progressive step in the direction of wider acceptance for LGBT+ people.

For myself, I agree that it could be possible that ‘gay media for straight people’ has a certain progressive element to its influence. The key pin here is that this type of media must actually produce some form of ‘yassification’, meaning to make something queerer, rather than just fit itself to the standards and expectations of the mainstream, heteronormative culture. And how this can be accomplished, is through the widespread sharing of queer culture in a way that maintains its fullness and roots to the radical and intersectional heart of what it means to be a part of the queer community. Both as queer individuals and allies, I believe, we must fight for the retention of the radical possibility and creativity that has been historically provided by queerness and continues to be provided today.

National Student Money Week: Sustainable Spending  

The Student Advice and Support Service (SASS) share their tips on looking after your money and the earth as part of National Student Money Week (21-25 February). 

Whether we’re supporting you to waste less food, or helping you choose to spend your money with companies that share sustainability values, SASS is here to show you how to make choices that are beneficial to the environment and your bank balance. 

Our ‘Managing your Money’ webpages are a great place to start as they give you an overview budgeting, banking and money saving tips. 

How to shop for food sustainably 

• Set aside time to plan your meals for the week. You can download a meal planner or make your own. This will help you to only buy the food you need, avoiding food waste and unnecessary purchases. 
• Track what you have in your cupboards and your fridge before you do your food shop so that you don’t accidentally buy something you already have. 
• Consider cashback apps – Save the Student’s web page has advice on the best supermarket cashback apps. 
• Find out when your supermarket reduces the price of food and time your shopping trip to match. 
• Look out for bargain sections and yellow labels. 

• Compare each supermarket to find the best deals by using My Supermarket Compare. 
• Make use of Loughborough’s excellent outdoor market and zero-waste shop.  
• Take advantage of Loughborough’s own Fruit Routes trail. There are over 150 trees on campus that bear fruit and nuts that you can harvest for free.  

Reducing your energy usage 

Small changes can make a worthwhile difference when it comes to reducing your energy usage. 

Students Organising for Sustainability have some practical and achievable advice for student renters.  

If you need help with working out if you are being billed correctly or need help to keep track of your energy usage in a shared student house with inclusive bills please contact us for advice. 

We can also check your housing contract before you sign to see if rent with inclusive energy bills is really your best option.  Book an appointment to get your contract checked with SASS before you pay or sign anything. 

How to avoid fast fashion 

Fast Fashion has become a term we’ve started to see more of over the past few years.  

It refers to fast changes in trends, with shops producing a large amount of goods within a short amount of time. Often these items of clothing are only worn a couple of times before being thrown away. 

You can reduce your contribution to fast fashion by shopping second hand. There are a number of charity shops in Loughborough or you can use apps like Depop and Vinted.  You can also use Loughborough Vintage, run by current students including Michael Vincent who said:  

“I think you should buy sustainably because it’s cheaper, it supports small businesses, all the items are unique. There’s loads of clothes in circulation so buy sustainably and buy vintage!” 

Recycling on campus  

Look out for Give ’n’ Go, an initiative run at the end of the academic year as students begin to move out of halls. The aim is to repurpose and recycle as many items as possible that would otherwise end up in general waste and landfill. 

Loughborough University have a 25p surcharge for every drink served in a disposable cup when purchasing from cafes and outlets on campus. However, there are three types of reusable cups available for purchase in the campus retail outlets – the Loughborough Cup, the rCUp (created by alumnus Dan Dicker) and KeepCup.  

Sustaining yourself  

Plan your finances to meet your needs. We have advisers who will be happy to help you work out a budget. Book an appointment to meet with one of them in a confidential environment.  

For unexpected financial hardship, you can make an application to the Hardship Fund. The application form is on our website and you can get advice and check your application before you submit it.  

National Student Money Week is run by the National Association of Student Money Advisers. More information on the campaign is available here. 

This Week at Loughborough | 21 February

Featured

Academic Success Group Coaching: How to find and keep your focus

23 February, 6pm – 7pm, The Start Up Lab, STEM Building

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

FDM – Top Tips for Video and Virtual Interviews

24 February, 11am – 12pm, Online

Do interviews make you nervous? Do you want to prepare in the best possible way so that you can secure your future role in tech? Join this session to find out more about what to expect at both video and virtual interview stages of the FDM recruitment process.

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Networking for success

24 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Finalists, did you know that networking can help with your career plans? Join this session to understand what networking is and where and how to do it. Making new connections can inform your choices and unlock hidden opportunities.

Find out more on the events page.

Access Job Fair 2022

24 February, 2pm – 8pm, The Access Group, Armstrong Building, Oakwood Drive

Join us to find out why we Love Work and Love Life. Receive advice on your CV, get your professional photo taken for LinkedIn, learn about the different industries you could support at Access, and more.

Find out more on the events page.

Improve your Skills: Psychometric testing with Cima

24 February, 6pm – 7pm, Online

Psychometric testing has become increasing popular with employers in the recruitment of their internships, placements, graduate roles as part of a wider assessment process.

Join Cima on this interactive session aimed at better preparing you for undertaking these tests.

Find out more on the events page.

LGBT+ History Month

LGBT+ History Month: Illumination of Hazlerigg Building

21 February, From 5.30pm, Hazlerigg Fountain

Join the University’s LGBT+ Staff Network, Loughborough Student Union’s LGBT+ Student Association, the Vice-Chancellor, and colleagues as we celebrate the closing of LGBT+ History Month.

For one night only, Hazlerigg building will be illuminated in rainbow colours. Words will also be said by the Chairs of each LGBT+ group, as well as the Vice-Chancellor.

The ‘switch on’ is scheduled for 6pm. Refreshments will be available from 5.30pm.

Find out more on the events page.

My Queer Journal

25 February, 12pm – 2pm, Martin Hall Exhibition Space

Journaling is all about telling stories, creating an identity, understanding and appreciating yourself. Does it sound gay? Definitely. In this workshop we will open some unexplored pages of LGBT+ history and see how fun and queer journaling may be.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Augmented Reality

21 February, 7pm, John Cooper, JCR001, Towers Way

Create your own augmented reality asset and learn more about the possibilities of augmented reality. In this workshop you will not only learn how to use the different platforms available to create augmented reality but also delve deeper into why we augment our surroundings and what value this technology can create.

This workshop will focus on marker based AR, and as a group we will create an augmented reality exhibition. All skill levels are welcome.

Find out more on the events page.

Book Club: Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi

22 February, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Join our regular Book Club for an online discussion of Lola Olufemi’s 2020 book which aims to ‘reclaim feminism from consumerism’.

Find out more on the events page.

Counter-hegemonic leadership for democratic alter-politics in our times

23 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

This presentation sets out to grapple with strategic challenges facing democratic alter-politics in our times, dwelling on the question of leadership to explore ways of overcoming the frailties and risks that beset grassroots collective agency for democratic renewal.

Find out more on the events page.

International Development Round table

23 February, 4pm – 6pm, Online

Traditional ways of understanding International Development, which draw primarily on Western ideas, practice and interests, have been widely seen to have further disempowered peoples and communities in the Global South rather than increasing their agency and prosperity. How is and should international development evolve into the future? What kinds of graduates are needed for a more just and sustainable world?

Find out more on the events page.

Fellowship Inaugural Lecture: Dr Emine Simsek

24 February, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

My ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship: A 12-month research journey to explore factors relating to students’ understanding of mathematical equivalence.

In this talk, Emine will draw on her PhD research and current work which explore factors relating to students’ understanding of mathematical equivalence. She will also share my pathway to secure an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. She will talk about challenges that she faced during the application process, the organisational structure of the fellowship, how Covid-19 affected my research activities and the outcomes from the fellowship. Finally, she will highlight my collaborative involvement in one of the projects being conducted at Loughborough University.

Find out more on the events page.

Year in Enterprise Briefing Session

24 February, 3pm – 4pm, Online

Spend your placement year self-employed with our support!

Are you thinking of setting up your own business? Our Year in Enterprise Programme is designed to give students the chance to set up their own business during their placement year. With a training session plus mentoring and plenty of peer support, we aim to help you to maximise your business success.  

Find out more on the events page.

Commoning populism or popularising the commons: Issues of transformative strategy

25 February, 4pm – 5pm, Herbert Manzoni, Room K105 & Online

This presentation by Alexandros Kioupkiolis will explore strands of ongoing research into the theoretical and political intersections between the commons and progressive egalitarian populism when these are grasped as political logics and practices which aim for counter-hegemonic struggle and democratic transformation.

Find out more on the events page.

Commoning populism or popularising the commons: Issues of transformative strategy

25 February, 4pm – 5pm, Herbert Manzoni, Room K105 & Online

This presentation by Alexandros Kioupkiolis will explore strands of ongoing research into the theoretical and political intersections between the commons and progressive egalitarian populism when these are grasped as political logics and practices which aim for counter-hegemonic struggle and democratic transformation.

Find out more on the events page.

Explore Sport

25 February, 5pm – 8pm, Ground Floor, Loughborough Unviversity London Campus

Are you a fan of sports and want to get involved by playing, volunteering, coaching or spectating?

Come down to the Loughborough University London campus where we will be hosting our first ‘Explore Sport’ event where local clubs, teams and sport companies around the university will come in and showcase themselves so that you can see what sports and activities you can get involved in.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Being the Best version of yourself – Empowerment series

21 February, 6.30pm, The Basement

This is a five-part series which explores how to be the best version of yourself.  The course will consider the impact of your thoughts, how to break patterns of behaviour, establish goals, and value yourself.

We are starting off with a bang, with an opportunity to come to Loughborough to see arrow breaking and glass walking – amongst other things! The session will consider mindset, and how you consider your knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

23 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

25 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Guinness Six Nations

26 February, 2.15pm, John Coopers – Sco v Fra

26 February, 4.45pm, John Coopers – Eng v Wal

27 February, 3.00pm, John Coopers – Ire v Ita

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

27 February, 4.30pm, The Basement

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

27 February, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Navigating work and parenting

When I was asked to write a blog, I was initially quite apprehensive. Having never written one before, I wasn’t quite sure where to start, so here goes.

As some of you reading will know I’m Lisa and I have worked at Loughborough University for seven years. I’m based in the Village Park working in student accommodation and I love what I do. 

But what some of you may not know is that after work each day, I am lucky enough to go home to the most wonderful human! My son, Freddie. Freddie is eight years old, and he is autistic. The way he sees the world is slightly different to a lot of people, but it is utterly incredible. 

The reason I wanted to write this blog was because I think it’s important to know the people behind their jobs. Often we go to work, do our job and nobody really knows what goes on in each other’s lives.

Working and parenting an autistic child can be a juggling act at times. Freddie thrives on routines, and any changes to that, such as sickness or holidays, can cause him a fair bit of anxiety. 

So, this leads me to talk about working… working whilst things are difficult at home.

Trying to navigate each path of the different routes. Work can feel like an ‘escape from the chaos’ sometimes, but is it really? There are many times I’ve turned up to work subdued by the battle that withheld me from turning into work late because Freddie was having a tough time and refused to go into school. Then I’ll feel guilty when I haven’t been able to give 100% one day due to being exhausted from lack of sleep. 

I am however extremely lucky to have supportive staff around me. My managers are able to accommodate my needs if problems arise. They are willing to listen if I need to speak out about needing support. This is the part that helps me by, the times when I need it most; having the option to work flexibly knowing that school holidays are approaching and how difficult it’ll be to sort childcare for a child who is heavily reluctant to change. 

Whilst I am technically classed as a ‘carer’ for my son due to his disability, to me, I am his parent, not a carer. I juggle life because I like to strive and give everything my utmost best. I want to show my abilities to be capable of what’s expected of me.

When I look into the future, I would love the opportunity to work within the University’s Disability Support Service to provide support to students. I completed a job shadowing role there and it’s a field I would consider as I feel awareness could be spread in many ways. Not only that, but as a parent to an autistic child, I’d feel such ease knowing through higher education my child was fully supported at university. 

Finally, I’d like to end with some quotes that really stick with me. Anyone that knows me knows that I talk positively about autism, I think it’s truly amazing and unique. 

• Autism doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a parent who never gives up 
• I like to see autism referred to as a spectrum
• Autism affects people in all different ways 
• Every person with autism has their own strengths and weaknesses 
• If you have met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism 

Lisa Sandell-Watson
Hospitality Assistant

The University recognises that there are many reasons why colleagues may need additional paid leave related to family circumstances. The Other Family-Related Leave policy aims to give managers greater ability to support and cater for the needs of their team. You can read more about the policy here.

This Week at Loughborough

Featured: Spring Careers Fest

Kickstart your Career: Know Yourself – Self Reflect to Promote Your Skills

15 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

This presentation covers the importance of self-awareness and how it can enhance your employability. Get the low down on why employers favour self-aware graduates who are reflective and have a strong sense of their values. Know yourself to promote yourself!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Planning your career

15 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Learn about the various options available to you after graduating. Firstly, discover the importance of understanding yourself. Then find out how to investigate the possible options and feel ready for action!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Job hunting

16 February, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Learn about the various options available to you after graduating. Firstly, discover the importance Wondering where to look for roles for after you graduate? Join this finalists’ session to hear about the wide range of companies you can apply to. Understand what factors are important to you and learn about the best places to find those vacancies.

Find out more on the events page.

Securing a professional job in the UK as an International Student

17 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

This event will cover the differences in CVs and interviews in the UK to those in Asia and the tools available to assist you with your search.

Find out more on the events page.

Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) Talk

17 February, 5pm – 6.30pm, Online

Hear from Matt, Stephen, James and Rebecca (three of them are Loughborough alumni). Matt has recently qualified as a doctor through the GEM route; Stephen, James and Rebecca are currently training at the University of Nottingham Medical School.

Find out more on the events page.

USA Summer Camp Webinar

18 February, 13.30pm – 2.30pm, Online

The best summer of your life is waiting for you in America! USA Summer Camp has helped send over 40,000 people to work at camp in America. Are you next?

Find out more on the events page.

Hackathon

15 February, 6pm – 8pm, The Treehouse

A Hackathon is an intensive brainstorming session where teams collaborate to form a solution to a problem.

This event will bring together students from different subject areas and backgrounds to work collaboratively in teams. It will help you gain skills and experience in collaboration, creative thinking, team working and more. All of which can contribute to your future employability. Plus, there are cash prizes to be won!

Find out more on the events page.

NT Live: The Book of Dust – The Belle Sauvage (screening)

17 February, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

This gripping adaptation revisits Philip Pullman’s fantastical world in which waters are rising and storms are brewing.

Find out more on the events page.

Self Portraiture and Queer Identity Workshop

18 February, 1pm – 3pm, Martin Hall Exhibition Space

During this workshop, we will be discussing these questions and more while we explore the topic of queer identity in art, using these conversations to influence the creation of self portraits.

Find out more on the events page.

Lightning Wheelchair Basketball Firsts Home Game

19 February, 6pm Tip off, The Netball Badminton Centre

A brand new side for 2022, Wheelchair Basketball are the latest addition to Loughborough Lightning’s increasing portfolio of world class female sports teams.

Competing in the British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s Premier League, Lightning are one of four sides set to compete in the world’s first ever female para-sport league. Boasting a wealth of Paralympians, internationals and rising talent the 2022 squad are gearing up for their inaugural campaign and have their sights set firmly on making history and being the first side to lift the trophy.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Hey Ewe: Valentine’s Love Shack

16 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND ft. Special Guest

18 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

We also have a very special guest who you won’t want to miss…

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Darts Championship 2022

19 February, 6pm, The Basement

Are you ready for a night of competition, beer and athleticism? Darts and Cue Sports is back for the Darts Championship 2022! Come see the society athletes battle it out for who is the better dartist. Starting from 6pm and ending at 10pm, come and experience a night you won’t forget!

Find out more on the events page.

OUT: LSU’s LGBT+ Night Out

19 February, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

20 February, 4.30pm, The Basement

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

20 February, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cas

h prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Two Parallels

In the last five years or so (and probably, without realising, longer), I have endured periods of mild to moderate depression, and when I’ve explored the different strategies to manage it, a number of them focused largely on identifying and acknowledging a specific event which may have triggered it.

But I couldn’t really pinpoint a particular time or event in my life that may have caused or even contributed to it.

Other strategies suggested to incorporate mindfulness into my life: to be fully present and aware of what’s going on in the moment and what I’m doing, without judgment. The intention is to relax both the mind and the body. The scientist in me however was still confused as to where ‘this all came from’.

In parallel, my own son was curious about some of the thoughts and feelings he had been experiencing and some of the difficulties he was having as he transitioned into his own university life, to the point where he self-diagnosed himself with ADD and related anxiety. In January 2018, I went along with him to see an expert and as the meeting went on, some of the themes discussed felt all too familiar as the consultant confirmed an ADD and anxiety diagnosis. Therefore, in September 2018, I underwent the diagnostic tests myself and somewhat unsurprisingly, it was discovered that I too had ADD. Many of you may not know, but anxiety is a common condition associated with ADD, alongside mild to moderate depression.

Realising all of this made everything full circle for me and although I was never fully conscious of ‘struggling’, it was very clear to me that there are several strategies that I use (and have, without realising, been using for years) to help me.

One of these is always having a busy diary so I’m kept occupied throughout the day. Although this has led to conversations about me ‘always being busy’, I’ve always been happy to shuffle things around to suit others. Coincidently, I recently read something online from someone who articulated the same strategy and I liked the words they used: ‘things become easier to manage when you stop trying to do things the way you feel like you should be doing them (like ‘everyone else’), and start finding ways that work for you, no matter how ‘silly’ or ‘unnecessary’ they seem, especially to me or to others”.’

A key aspect of those experiences is how others’ behaviour can affect you, especially if they don’t know much about you and become frustrated or worse about the ‘silly’ and ‘unnecessary’ things. This can have quite a negative effect, triggering anxiety and making you feel quite bad. So, I think raising awareness and talking more openly is critical.

I think it is fair to say that my feelings were, and remain, somewhat complicated and often confusing about this diagnosis, and I still don’t always find it easy to talk about. However, in October 2021, I read something online that really resonated with me and which has inspired me to write this blog article. The article was about Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston who revealed he had been diagnosed with ADD a year after his son had received a diagnosis which mirrored my own experiences.

I’ve never personally been a fan of using the terms ‘disability’ and ‘neurodiversity’. Instead, I like to think of it as ‘diverse abilities’, which essentially is what the human race should consist of. To me, ADD is just a string of letters used to describe some of my characteristics. It absolutely does not define me; it is just part of me, and a part that is very much more of a positive than a negative – some describe it as a superpower as per this webpage. I don’t want to steal their thunder, and I will not list everything, however the following features really resonated with me:

• Divergent thinking, creativity, generativity through flexibility of thought, movement, and emotion
• Intuition and connection to emotion
• Perception, observation, curiosity
• Low tolerance for tedium, leading to wanting to try a thousand new things with risk of failure, then doing the one thing everyone else is doing
• Social influence, charisma, and leadership such as tendency to be direct and succinct and say some things that others might not say
• The ability to hold multiple problem-solving tasks and a keen sense for group dynamics due to strong emotional intuition.

I am going to finish by coming back to the point of raising awareness because that is important to the individual but also the folks around them. Without understanding, we might be making it harder for people to be successful. As mentioned earlier, one of the key negative impacts for those with ADD is on their mental health so raising awareness of male mental health conditions is something that’s always been important to me, which is why some of you may have noticed my moustache growth last November and in previous years. I hope that it gets noticed and prompts thoughts on why I do it.

Professor Mark Lewis
Dean of the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences

Any staff member with a physical or hidden disability is welcome to join the Staff Inclusivity Group, which advocates for equality in the workplace for colleagues with physical or invisible disabilities. The group is also a place to seek support from one another and challenge University policies and practices.

Meet the Loughborough London EDI Committee

During the 2020/21 academic year an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee was established on the London campus. Now in its second year, the committee’s purpose is to set the EDI agenda for our campus, understand the needs of groups within our university community with protected characteristics and those groups who are minoritized or marginalised, and work to ensure that the London campus has an inclusive culture in which all staff and students feel valued, respected and engaged in line with the university’s People and Organisational Development Strategy. 

According to the university’s EDI website, the terms Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion are all distinct with their own meanings. The university defines each term as follows: 

• Equality: treating all people as equals, with equal dignity and respect.
• Diversity: recognising that we all benefit when our community comprises people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives and experiences.
• Inclusion: ensuring that everyone within our University can feel like a part of its community.  

The London EDI Committee is comprised of a Committee Chair (Dr Andrea Geurin), the Associate Dean for Research (Prof Aidan McGarry), the Associate Dean for Teaching (Prof Jo Tacchi), the Associate Dean for Enterprise (Graham Hitchen), a women’s representative (Dr Emily Hayday), an LGBT+ representative (Prof Aidan McGarry), a BAME representative (Dr Angela Martinez Dy), a carer’s representative (Dr Ksenija Kuzmina), a disabilities representative (Jennifer Wong), a mental health representative (Dr Debbie Eagle), a campus Athena Swan representative (Dr Anna Grosman), a student support representative (Limahl Macfarlane), a London HR representative (Miranda Bioh), a university HR representative (Nadine Skinner), a PGT student representative (Jad Bseiso), and a PGR student representative (Happy Singu Hansen).

The committee meets up to six times throughout the year to discuss EDI issues impacting our London campus community and to engage in EDI-related education and training activities. Additionally, members of the committee help to plan and host a variety of EDI-related events, such as the upcoming University Mental Health Day activities scheduled for Thursday, 3 March. Please keep an eye on your email for more details about that event and others that will take place later in the year!

We would like to thank Andrea Geurin for sharing this blog with us.

What I spend in a week as a student at Loughborough

Hi! I’m Sophie, a final year Management Sciences undergraduate student at Loughborough. One of the things I’ve struggled with at university is keeping track of what I’m spending. This is a common problem for students because a lot of us are living away from parents for the first time. During my time at Loughborough, I’ve managed to get a better grasp of where I spend money and ways to help reduce this. In this blog, I’m going to take you through my typical week of spending and share some tips on easy methods to save money.

This isn’t a guide for how much you should spend, but it will hopefully give you an idea of the main costs and how to stick to your budget!

Sunday

Weekly food shop: £35

I tend to do my shopping on Sunday to set myself up for the week. Doing one big shop usually helps me spend less on food and also stick to a budget. Make sure you plan your meals in advance to avoid needing extra trips. If you don’t live close to a big supermarket for your weekly shop and don’t have a car, I would recommend doing an online shop with some of your flatmates. This way you can share the delivery cost and it’s easy to see how much you’re spending! Using loyalty cards to take advantage of deals and collect points is important to help save some money. Additionally, buying supermarket own brand items will also be cheaper.

Monday

Bouldering: £7.50

I started bouldering this year at The Climbing Station and love how challenging it is. It’s also really fun to go with friends and help each other out when facing tricky climbs. Although you can get bouldering memberships, I don’t go enough to make it worthwhile. When buying a membership, you should be realistic about how much time you have to actually use it. You can calculate how often you would have to go to make the membership cheaper than paying each time and determine if a membership would be the better option. Lots of gyms or clubs also offer taster sessions for you to try them out before committing.

Tuesday

Takeaway: £12

I wish I could say I cooked home meals every night, but my flatmates and I definitely splurge on a big takeaway every now and again! I typically get a burger and if there’s a dessert, I will always go for it. Again, buying with friends means you can split the delivery between you. If you haven’t ordered in a while as well, the food delivery apps tend to send you money off codes to use which always helps. Buying at the beginning of the week can also be cheaper than towards the end, as restaurants will offer more deals to help boost demand on these slower days.

Wednesday

Drinks at pub: £12.80

Going to the pub with friends for a fun evening of chatting and catching up is always great to do mid-week when you want to go out but don’t want to be up too late so you can wake up for lectures the next day. The drinks prices in Loughborough are generally cheaper than pubs in big cities which helps if you’re on a budget. Being aware of which pubs are doing happy hour and order your drinks during that time to save yourself money. The most difficult part for me is not ordering lots of food once I’ve had a few drinks!

Thursday

Working out at home: £0

I’m really lucky that my student house has a garden, so I can exercise without taking up space inside. Although I’ve bought gym memberships previously, since lockdown I’ve gotten into working out at home, mostly using YouTube videos as well as putting together my own routines. It makes it a lot easier to do a quick workout and is great if you sometimes feel uncomfortable at a gym. For something different, the My Lifestyle section on the Lboro Sport app offers free sports sessions such as tennis and boxing. Furthermore, cycling, walking, or running outside is always an option.

Friday

Night Out: £6

There’s nothing better than going out at the end of the week. Apart from buying a ticket, I normally don’t spend any more money on a night out. I enjoy having a few drinks at pres before leaving, which typically keeps me going throughout the evening. Although drinks at the Students’ Union and other Loughborough clubs are fairly cheap, especially with the drinks deals, this is an easy way for me to save some money. Plus, if you stop drinking earlier it definitely helps reduce the after-effects of drinking the next day. I also make sure that I have some sort of carb-loaded food at home to eat when I get back, to save on buying fast food whilst helping avoid a hangover.

Saturday

Movie Night: £0

Usually, after a night out, we’ll just want to have a chill day so finding a movie on one of the streaming sites to watch is a must. Again, I’ll make sure to have included some snacks in my weekly shop to have on nights like this. I only go out to a nightclub about once a week, which may be a lot less than some other people, but it means less of my week is disrupted by late nights and I avoid spending money on more tickets. Although going out is great, there is a lot more to uni life than nights out, so for me once a week is plenty.

Transport: £5

I only drive to go to the supermarket and may occasionally get a taxi or Uber from a pub or nightclub if the weather is bad but split between 3-4 people this doesn’t amount to much. I also have a student railcard as part of my student bank account package which gives me a third off train tickets. Bringing your bike up to uni is a great option as well, to get around campus and travel to the town centre.

Accommodation: £112

Our accommodation payment includes gas and electricity as well as broadband.

Extra Spend: £18

This includes the occasional online retail therapy as well as subscription payments to streaming services, my car insurance and phone bill.

Total Spend: £208.30

We’ve all got different amounts to spend, based on student loans, savings, and income from jobs. I mostly use savings from my placement year plus any additional income from work as a Student Ambassador. Getting a part-time job is great to give you some extra cash; if you’ve got a heavy workload, more flexible jobs such as online tutoring can help you earn money whilst working when it suits you.

If you know how much money you have to spend for the year, you can then determine how much you have each week and allocate money to different areas of spending within that budget. There are some great apps you can download to help you do this and track your spending. Remember that some weeks you might spend more, for example, if it’s a friend’s birthday that week, and some you may spend less. As long as you’re keeping an eye on money going in and out, you’ll be able to stay on top of your finances.

The life of a 1st-year student in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Hi, I’m Krishna, a first-year student within the School of Science, studying the Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree. Wow, that’s a mouth full right! The first response I usually get is “Woah! that’s mad” well science is a bit of madness, with great possibilities. Though I’m just scratching the surface in the world of science, I can’t wait to go on and use my chemistry degree to revolutionize healthcare.

Stepping into Chemistry 👣👩🏽‍🔬

There’s always this pressure of what are you going to be when you’re older or what are you going to do?

I felt the pressure too, however, I was inspired by the magic of science. Have you ever noticed something change colour or the explosiveness of a firework and thought wow how does that happen? My curiosity opened the door into science for me; I started to question more and became fascinated the more I learnt. Science being so broad gave me opportunities to really play with what exactly I wanted to do in the future which led me to Chemistry.

In 2021 I started my journey onto Chemistry. The Covid-19 pandemic affected all students in many ways, it cut my final year of sixth form short which meant I was unable to sit my A level exams.

My journey in discovering what I wanted to do in the future meant I couldn’t tailor my A-levels to the grading requirements straight into Chemistry. Immediately I thought panic, but just like Dory I kept swimming.

I realised I could find other ways to achieve my future aspirations.

This brings me onto my foundation course for Chemistry at Loughborough. On my foundation course I had modules of biology, maths, economics, and chemistry. In each of these modules I was taught how to apply my skills which gave me the leg up I needed for my first year. I was so thankful that with the right guidance here at Loughborough I was able to continue into my first year on to the Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree.

Prep & day in the life of a chemistry girl – lab edition

Labs, otherwise known as practical work, are the most exciting to experience as a first-year student at university. My favourite part about studying Chemistry at Loughborough is working in the STEM labs. This is the one time of the week where I can utilise the practical aspect of my degree and train myself for a future in the laboratory world.  

THE PREP 📒 

The preparation of labs is the most important, so we don’t look like lost puppies when handling dangerous volatile substances. This is to train us for industry standards.  

My lab prep begins when I book a room in the library. I use the library rooms as they are so spacious for spreading all the books I need; the library really helps me get in the work zone. 

The first part of lab prep is to read the lab manual provided for the experiment. An experiment I conducted was purification by crystallisation, in other words making crystals.

After reading the lab manual, I then write up a lab script in my lab book for me to follow to conduct the experiment. This includes the experiment title, date, and a carefully drawn reaction mechanism; this is to show exactly what we want to be formed from the reactants to products.  

A little bit of research is also done so I get some background information on the experiment.  

My favourite section of the lab script is the table for chemicals and their hazardous properties. I think it’s amazing that we get entrusted to use such chemicals; it’s a massive step up from a classroom science lab, and so much more fun!  

The main part of a lab script is the method. This will help me conduct the experiment so it’s important I’ve done this correctly and highlighted the appropriate weight I need to measure out for the chemicals.  

Finally, I need to add a section for my results table and any analysis necessary after I’ve made the product.  

My final task is to complete a short pre-lab quiz, this is to make sure I’ve understood the quantities of the reagents & hazards and the key processes because we don’t want to end up making explosives! 💥  

Now the most essential part: sleep. A good night’s sleep is exactly what I’m going to need for a 9am till 5pm lab day tomorrow. 

LAB DAY: Wake up in the mornin’ feelin’ like P Diddy 🎶🎵 

I wake up at around 7.30 to brush my teeth and shower.  

Alongside a cup of morning tea, I pack my backpack making sure I’ve got my lab book, lab coat & goggles.  

I make my way to the next destination: the kitchen where I meet my breakfast, tell me otherwise but nothing tastes better than eggs in the morning.  

Shortly after, I will walk to the STEM labs. I’m always breaking the record for how quickly I can get there as the fear of being late beats me.  

I cram all my belongings into the locker and put on my lab coat – giving me that Dr. Nefario look once I put on the goggles too.  

A quick briefing is given, for hazard checks – such as substances that could burn down the lab if not neutralised (normal for a day in the life of a lab student).  

THE EXPERIMENT 🥼

Now for the most exciting part, being let loose on extraordinarily expensive equipment for 8 hours.  

For the first step of the experiment all the apparatus must be set up. For a crystallisation experiment, this would typically consist of rubber tubing, a Büchner flask (fancy flasks), funnel and filter paper. Before I get too excited about the filtration process, the reagents must be weighed as close to 4g as possible – my recording of 4.001 seems impressive to me. With excessive stirring and heating, the product is formed which we can vacuum filtrate, using the equipment we set up earlier to get those glistening crystals.  

When I started to get more familiarised with my labs, I realised it was a lot more independently conducted at university as we have individual equipment and work under our own fume hood. This is such a plus as you really get to learn more on your own and whatever product you form is your own creation. However, we still get opportunities to work with others, and luckily for me I have a witty lab partner to make those long labs not so long. This gives us that speedy lab finish because who doesn’t want an early finish so we can get our Friday night party on!

All in all, chemistry labs are just like cooking, however, I highly recommend you don’t lick the spoon!  

If I can do it, you can do it too

I think there is still so much out there for me to discover, and I’m excited to make new experiences and challenge myself further and find there’s always a new expedition awaiting the world of science.

I am proud to be a girl in science, to breakthrough conventional stereotypes such as the powerful women in science before me:

Marie curie: Physicist and Chemist, the first woman to win two Nobel prizes (that’s a pretty big deal).

Alice Ball: an African American woman who cured leprosy using her scientific findings.

Maybe science is a pathway for you as females can also pave the way onto the next generation of engineers, biologists’ mathematicians, doctors, astronauts, physicists, chemists and much more.

A quote I live by is “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” by WALT DISNEY

Magic and curiosity inspired my journey into science what will inspire yours?

The Benefits of being a Student Ambassador

Hi, I’m Hannah and I’m a postgraduate student here at Loughborough studying a part-time degree in MA Creative Writing and the Writing Industries.

I chose to work alongside studying for my master’s degree in order to support my living costs, and one of the roles that I currently have is as a student ambassador for the University. I applied to be a student ambassador in the second year of my undergraduate degree and have then continued the role into my MA. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work at such a wide range of events across campus, including open days, departmental visit days and graduation, as well as smaller events and tasks such as helping out with food deliveries for isolating students during the pandemic, and putting together blogs like these!

Since starting the role, I have been able to hone my skills in public speaking by leading large groups of visitors on campus tours and improve on my presentation skills, which has undoubtedly benefited me in my course too. Working alongside studying has meant that I’ve also needed to improve on my time management skills. There can be no leaving an essay until the night before when you’ve got a shift scheduled at work. This is one of the many benefits of working as an ambassador as it gives you the flexibility to choose your own shifts and say when you are available to work. I’ve been able to fit in shifts around my contact hours, which means I can relax in an evening knowing that I’m earning the money to cover my bills whilst being on campus and not having to miss out on lectures in order to do so.

Being an ambassador can also help to enhance your employability prospects alongside your studies. Since I began this role, my family and friends have noticed how much my confidence has grown, and I now actively put myself forward to try new things that I wouldn’t have dreamt of before. The role can require a lot of problem-solving, adaptability and taking initiative when things don’t go to plan. My personal favourite events to work are the departmental visits days where it was actually speaking with an ambassador on my own visit day that convinced me to ultimately choose Loughborough. It’s very strange to me that things have come full circle and that I actually get to represent the department on visit days myself now.

The role has also allowed me to connect with so many other ambassadors from across the University who I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet otherwise. I have been fortunate to meet many of my close friends through the ambassador scheme, and we often meet up outside of our shifts to socialise and support each other through our respective courses, but also just in day-to-day life. It is crucial to build in periods of rest and downtime to your schedule when balancing work and study, as sometimes it can feel that you should be utilising every free moment you have to focus on your academic work.

Studying for a postgraduate degree entails a lot more independent study than at undergraduate level, and with that comes a much greater need to have a healthy work/life balance. Being an ambassador is such a fantastic way to support yourself whilst studying, and I would encourage anyone who is thinking of applying to become an ambassador to go for it as it has had such a hugely positive impact on both my personal and professional development during my time at Loughborough.

Find out more about the University’s ambassador scheme.

This Week at Loughborough | 7 February

Featured: Spring Careers Fest

Meet Unlocked and Play their Buzzer Game

8 February, 10am – 4pm, Outside The Place

Come and say hello to the Unlocked Graduates recruitment team. Play our interactive buzzer game and get your hands on some freebies!!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: CVs, covering letters and application forms

8 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Finalists, book onto this session for great tips on CVs, covering letters and application forms. Learn how to tailor your applications to make you stand out to graduate employers and show you have what they are looking for!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: How to find and keep your focus

8 February, 2pm – 3pm, LDS.0.03 Design School

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Engaging with the Literature

9 February, The Start Up Lab STEM Building

Social Sciences/Science, 2pm – 3pm
Engineering, 6pm – 7pm

11 February, LDS.0.03

Arts/Humanities, 3pm – 6pm

Group coaching involves working with your peers and an academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive your dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Becoming Resilient: How? And what does this mean?

10 February, 6pm – 7.30pm, Location TBC

Knowing how to support your mental health is a really important area to focus on while at university and will help you immensely as you progress through life. We will look at ways to build resilience, look at creating support networks, learning how to cope if you lose, problem solving and more.

Find out more on the events page.

Mock Assessment Centre

10 February, 6pm – 7.45pm, Online

Knowing how to support your mental health is a really important area to focus on while at university and wiDelivered by the Careers Network and staff from a range of top companies, you’ll hear first-hand what to expect and learn how to prepare effectively. Join online and gain as much practice as you can before your first real assessment centre. These events are sponsored by Druck.

Find out more on the events page.

Alumni Masterclass: Amy Ward

7 February, 5pm – 6pm, Online

This is a series of Masterclasses, showcasing the careers and opportunities experienced by Alumni. Amy Ward will be sharing her advice and tips on how to navigate and choose a career in the graduate employment market.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Comedy Club

7 February, 7.30pm – 8.30pm (doors open 7.10pm), The Basement

Three fantastic stand-up comedians handpicked just for you by Leicester Comedy Festival!

Loughborough Students’ Union hosts a very special one hour show featuring three fantastic stand-ups handpicked just for you by the Festival organisers! Hosted by Jon Pearson, featuring Sam and multi-award winner Lauren Pattison.

Find out more on the events page.

LGBT+ History Month: Fight Among Ourselves or Fight for Change?

10 February, 1pm – 2.30pm, Online

Three fantastic stand-up comedians handpicked just for you by Leicester Comedy Festival!
Some people perceive a conflict between the needs of feminists and the trans community but, like the distrust of immigrants sown among the working class, this is a conflict contrived by those who actually hold the power who would prefer marginalised groups fight among themselves than work together for systemic change. This webinar looks at why these groups should resist this divide-and-conquer tactic and work together to break down gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms.

Find out more on the events page.

What is a Hackathon?

10 February, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Three fantastic stand-up comedians handpicked just for you by Leicester Comedy Festival!
Find out how to get involved in LU Arts and LSU Enterprise’s first ever Hackathon! As this is the first time we’ve run an event of this kind, we’re hosting an online drop-in to help you decide whether this event cFind out how to get involved in LU Arts and LSU Enterprise’s first ever Hackathon! As this is the first time we’ve run an event of this kind, we’re hosting an online drop-in to help you decide whether this event could be for you. Come along and find out more about what a hackathon is, what will happen on the day and the challenges that teams can choose to respond to. There’ll be plenty of time for your questions too.

Find out more on the events page.

Pitch and Mix

10 February, 5pm – 6.30pm, London Campus & Online

Pitching is an essential skill in a growing number of businesses.  Being able to put across your skills, experience or ideas succinctly takes practice.  Our Pitch and Mix events give you a safe space to test and hone your pitching skills.

Find out more on the events page.

Plate Decorating Workshop (for International Women’s Day)

10 February, 7pm, Online

Create a plate celebrating a famous person for International Women’s Day.

Loughborough Women’s Network and LU Arts invite you to join artist Sarah Taylor Silverwood in creating a bespoke plate that will form part of a unique event in which members of Loughborough Women’s Network and related groups will sit down to dinner with Senior representatives of the University.

Find out more on the events page.

ReLondon Sustainability Hackathon

11 February, 10am – 5pm, Online & London Campus

Join a team of likeminded students and look to create solutions to a real-life problem, this hackathon we will be working with our friends at ReLondon on ‘creating sustainable solutions’

Find out more on the events page.

Romeo and Juliet Drop In Auditions

12 February, 1.30pm, Council Chambers, LSU

Auditions for Shakespeare Society’s Semester 2 production of Romeo and Juliet, all acting abilities are welcome and everyone who auditions will receive a role, just drop in and read for a part.

Find out more on the events page.

FA Vase 5th Round Proper: Loughborough Students FC v Abbey Hey FC

12 February, 3pm kick off, Loughborough University Stadium

Loughborough Students FC have progressed further than ever before in the Buildbase FA Vase Competition. They have now been drawn at home to Abbey Hey in the Fifth Round Proper which leaves the Scholars just three games away from the final held at Wembley Stadium.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Refreshers x LGBT+: Re-Meet and Greet

7 February, 7pm, The Treehouse

We’re kicking off our famous LGBT+ History Month events and letting you know about all the incredible things we have coming up, as well as giving you the opportunity to get to meet and get chatting with other LGBT+ people in our community!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x VGS: Crab (Squid) Game Night

7 February, 7pm, Online

Come and join VGS for a night playing Crab Game, a game based off the popular Squid Game franchise which is intended for anyone with a computer!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x Harry Potter: Transfiguration

8 February, 6pm, D102 – James France

This magical class will give people the opportunity to let out their inner wizard! We will be transfiguring junk into Harry Potter related items, places, and people.

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x Krishna Consciousness

8 February, 6.30pm, James France

KCSOC’s first event of 2022, where we’ll be diving into philosophical questions such as ‘What makes us truly happy?’. We’ll be joined by a monk who will enlighten us on his thoughts, as well as answer any questions you may have. Join us to meet some like-minded people who you can have meaningful conversations with!

Find out more on the events page.

Loughborough’s Got Talent

8 February, 6.30pm, The Basement

Do our performers have what it takes to impress our three judges? Come to Loughborough’s Got Talent to find out!

Even the audience members have a chance to win some fantastic prizes by taking part in our raffle – all proceeds from the night will go directly to Barts Cancer Institute, so what’s your excuse? Book your ticket now!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x VGS: Pub N Grub

8 February, 7pm, The Phantom

VGS’s weekly pub night at The Phantom is a great way to meet new people with similar interests, come along and join in the fun!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x KPOP: Dance Class

8 February, 8.30pm, William Morris Dance Studio

Learn your favourite KPOP routines in a fun and safe environment! Meet friends with similar interests and have a great time!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x DCS: Darts and Snooker Taster

9 February, 2pm, Spot On Leisure

A free session for anyone who would like to try out Darts or Snooker. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never played before or are a regular, give it a go!

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers x LSU Classical: Orchestra Taster

9 February, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

All members and aspiring members welcome! If you play a musical instrument, then come along for an evening of fun!

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

9 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

If you fancy a break, JC’s Bar is open and serving up fresh slices of pizza from Loughborough’s very own Papa Simon and there’s a hatch outside where you can get hot food from our oriental restaurant Manchuhan.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Rag Take Me Out

10 February, 6.30pm, The Basement

NO LIKEY, NO LIGHTY

Is your friend always out of luck with love? Do you want to laugh at lonely singles whilst you’re smug in a happy relationship? Or do you want to just feel the fondness radiation through the room?

Find out more on the events page.

Indie Club

10 February, 10.30pm, The Basement

Get on your dancing shoes and dust off your bucket hat for The Indie Club! Our resident DJs will be playing your favourite indie and alt-rock anthems throughout the night.

Expect to hear artists including: Arctic Monkeys, The Wombats, Two Door Cinema Club, Bastille, The Vaccines, Sam Fender, The 1975, Bombay Bicycle Club, Scouting for Girls, Vampire Weekend, The Libertines, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and MORE!

If you fancy a break, JC’s Bar is open and serving up fresh slices of pizza from Loughborough’s very own Papa Simon and hot food from our oriental restaurant Manchuhan, served from their hatch in JCs Garden.

Find out more on the events page.

FND

11 February, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

If you fancy a break, JC’s Bar is open and serving up fresh slices of pizza from Loughborough’s very own Papa Simon and hot food from our oriental restaurant Manchuhan, served from their hatch in JCs Garden.

Find out more on the events page.

Selecta: 002 // Chase & Status

12 February, 10pm, The Basement

After a huge debut SELECTA is back at LSU and this time we’re bringing one of the biggest headliners we’ve ever booked!

You asked, we listened! The one and only Chase and Status will be headlining Selecta 002.

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

13 February, 4.30pm, The Basement

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

13 February, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

13 February, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

World Cancer Day

This day (4 February) has been recognised by the Union for International Cancer Control to raise awareness of cancer globally, with the aim of encouraging prevention, early detection and treatment for cancer.

What is cancer?

Cancer is a disease in which cells divide uncontrollably and can lead to the development of a lump or tumour. If left untreated the cancerous cells can spread to other parts of the body.

The body does not detect cancerous cells as foreign and so there is no natural defence to fight cancerous cells from the immune system. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the body and there are more than 200 different types of cancer.

It is estimated that 1 in 2 people will get cancer in their lifetime.

Thankfully as more research is conducted, medicine evolves, and public awareness and early detection of cancer have resulted in more people surviving cancer than ever before. In the UK, we have better access to early cancer screening services, more cancer awareness campaigns, as well as more treatment options, so approximately 50% of people now survive their cancer for 10 years or more.

The best way to fight against cancer is through prevention and early detection so that treatment can be more effective before cancer spreads to other parts of the body. Cancer can be detected early by attending screening appointments when invited and also by being aware of what our bodies look and feel like through self-examination.

How can cancer be prevented?

We now know that 40% of cancer cases could be prevented through lifestyle changes. Cancer-related deaths that could be prevented are caused by tobacco use, high body mass index (BMI), alcohol use, low fruit and vegetable intake, and a lack of physical activity.  

Tobacco use

Approximately 22% of cancers are caused by smoking or chewing tobacco, making it the largest cause of cancer in the UK. Kicking the habit can be challenging, but there are many resources available for free via the NHS, your local pharmacy or even mobile apps which can help you to take your first steps towards being tobacco-free. From just three months of being smoke-free your lung function increases by 10%.

Obesity

Obesity is the second largest cause of cancer in the UK and results in approximately 6% of all cancers. Being overweight can cause 13 different types of cancer including breast, bowel and pancreatic cancers. Being more physically active and eating a balanced diet can help maintain a healthy body weight.

Physical inactivity

As a population, we are becoming less physically active and spending more time sitting, increasing our risk of developing diseases such as cancer. Only 6% of men and 4% of women meet the minimum requirement of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intense physical activity per week as outlined by the Department of Health and Social Care. Being physically active and routinely completing moderate to vigorous physical activity can reduce the risk of developing cancer by 10-24% depending on the type of cancer.

Diet

Diets low in nutritional value such as those with a high intake of processed meats, red meat and salts and those which are energy-dense, nutrient-poor (eg saturated fats, sugars and alcohol) can increase the prevalence of many cancers. On the other hand, a healthier balanced diet with foods high in fibre, fruit and veg could prevent 1 in 20 cancers.

How can I prevent my risk of developing cancer?

Taking those first steps towards a healthier lifestyle can often be daunting, but you don’t have to run a marathon, join a gym or give up all your favourite foods. You can begin by making small changes throughout your day and gradually build on your new habits.

We are all getting busier, and our diaries are quickly filling up now that we can socialise more, so finding the time to be active or more mindful of our food can be challenging. But, planning our meals, setting goals and moving more or sitting less throughout the day can make all the difference.

Here are a few simple tips that may help you make those changes:

• Use your smartphone or a fitness tracker to monitor your steps or activity. We should all aim to hit at least 10,000 steps per day. Try getting out for a walk over lunch or suggest a walking meeting with colleagues instead of being sat at your desks.

• Setting plans or goals to be physically active at the start of your day increases your chances of meeting those goals. Knowing what, when and for how long you intend to be active makes it easier to get moving. For example, ‘I will go for a walk before my 12.30pm meeting for 15 minutes’. Set your goal and put it in your diary.
  
• Keeping a record of our food intake or physical activity can help us to monitor what we are doing. If you have access to a smartphone, you could track your diet and physical activity using apps such as MyFitnessPal.

Visit the NHS website for more information about how to live a healthier lifestyle and prevent your risk of cancer.

If you have been impacted by cancer you can find further information and support at Macmillan Cancer Support or Maggies. You can also seek support through the Employee Assistance Programme.

Follow this link for more information about World Cancer Day.

Dr Kajal Gokal
Senior Research Associate– The Centre for Lifestyle Behaviour and Medicine (CLiMB)
Kajal completed her PhD at Loughborough University which explored behaviour change and the promotion of physical activity for those diagnosed with breast cancer. Following a Research Associate role at Coventry University joint with Public Health Warwickshire for three years, Kajal returned to Loughborough where she leads the Prevention and Treatment of Diseases theme within CLiMB.
Kajal continues to explore health-related behaviour change interventions to empower individuals to make positive changes to their health and wellbeing. She has a strong interest in optimising digital health and promoting the self-management of physical activity for both the prevention and management of cancer.

MSc International Management & Emerging Economies – An (almost) unique programme

Since its launch in 2019 our MSc International Management & Emerging Economies has become one of the most distinctive master programmes in our school. It reflects the vision and ambition of our Institute for International Management (IIM) as a whole.

Rather than teaching international business as an abstract phenomenon that takes place outside of time and space, in IIM we study international business as a contextual phenomenon. That means taking context seriously: Doing business in London is not the same as doing business in New Delhi, Shanghai, Moscow, or Abuja. Each country has its own history, culture, traditions, and institutions. Future managers need to be aware of these differences and be agile enough to adapt their behaviours and strategies to these diverse contexts. Therefore, rather than learning abstract economic theories of management, we teach our students to understand and deal with institutional differences across countries. This contextual approach to international management is at the heart of our MSc IM and Emerging Economies.

Now in its third year, I have asked a few former students why they chose this programme and what they liked about it.

A unique programme

Malo – who will graduate in December 2021 – found that this programme is “[…] very unique and not many universities offer MSc programmes like it. […] In my search for a postgraduate course, I wasn’t able to find many business courses with such a focus on emerging markets. I personally think modern international business degrees have to acknowledge and understand how business is conducted not just in advanced, but also in emerging economies, especially as these economies will continue to grow and continue to play a larger role in the global economy.”

Christian, an alumnus from Germany, confirmed the uniqueness of the programme:

“Since I wanted to have a nice mix of business administration, political science and economics, I quickly came across Loughborough University in London. At the time of my research, Loughborough London was the only university that offered the specialized field of Emerging Economies in the way I wanted and also had the right professors from the research areas I was aiming for.”

Indeed, students on the programme acquire a wide range of valuable transferable skills and an in-depth understanding of how emerging economies function based on the research that IIM faculty do in these countries.

Lukas – also from Germany – echoed that feeling:

“When I heard that it was possible to combine Business Administration with Emerging Market Research at Loughborough University London, I immediately signed up for it.”

Work experience through the curriculum

Malo also told me that the opportunity to interact with ‘real world’ organisations during his studies and thus acquire valuable practical skills through our Collaborative Project was a big pull factor:

“I was looking to get some kind of work experience as I hadn’t done a placement year during my undergrad, and the collaborative project was a great opportunity to acquire some experience with exciting partners.”

Lukas too praised the combination of research-driven teaching with exposure to practical aspects:

“One thing I enjoyed most was the mix between real-life management practice and high-level academic research. […] In our lecture hall, we were often able to welcome managers and board members from a wide variety of companies: whether from Visa, KPMG or Google. We even had the CEO of an Indian medium-sized company on site, with whom we discussed export regulation until late at night.”

Malo had particularly warm words for our Future Space team who help students with careers advice and entrepreneurial ideas:

“I would say that the thing the school does best is offer support to its students. I don’t only mean academic support but with employability, entrepreneurial ambitions, skills and experience, the team has done a fantastic job in helping students out.”

This combination of practical and academic skills provides students with a very solid basis for their professional careers. Lukas told me that “the management but also the research skills I acquired in London help me over and over again to tackle tricky questions in my daily work” as a strategy consultant back in Germany.

Studying in East London

Our MSc IM EE alumni also told me more generally about their experience studying at HereEast the building of our London Campus on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. More specifically, Malo explained the role London played in his decision to study at IIM:

“[T]he campus being in London had a large role to play. It’s an international city with lots to do […]. As an added bonus, HereEast is an innovative and exciting area which you as a student actively get to interact with and be a part of, and it offers fantastic opportunities”

Lukas had some practical tips for prospective students at HereEast:

“[I]f your head is smouldering like a chimney because of studying and learning, then take a leisurely walk through the Queen Elizabeth Park, or drink a beer or two with your fellow students on the Canal Side. The year of study goes by very quickly, so take as much with you as you can!”

Linda, an alumna from Nigeria, simply said:

“I would say IIM and LU offers great and diverse opportunities if you are willing to work hard. This is the best decision to make, so don’t miss out in being a part of something phenomenal!”

As the IIM continues its strategy to establish itself as a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary research in international management and emerging economies, more opportunities for our students to immerse themselves in the study of emerging economies are being created almost daily. With the pandemic hopefully under control by next academic year, we are also working on developing our partnership with universities in emerging economies to offer our students even more opportunities for hands on experience in these countries.

Call for Papers – Special issue in the Journal of Institutional Economics

Crisis and Persistence: Dynamics of institutional changes at the interface between formal and informal institutions. Edited by The Friday Association for Institutional Studies

On behalf of the Friday Association for Institutional Studies (a collective including members of the Birkbeck Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies (CPEIS), the Centre for Comparative Studies of Emerging Economies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES UCL) and the Institute for International Management (IIM) at Loughborough University London), we are pleased to announce the following call for contributions to a special issue in the Journal of Institutional Economics.

This call follows up on our 4^th annual London workshop on institutional studies (which was held online on 23 and 24 September 2021). Papers presented at the workshop, as well as new submissions will be considered.

More information and instructions on how to make a submission can be found here

joie_si_cfp_institutional_change_final.pdf

joie_si_cfp_institutional_change_final.pdf

SUBMISSION

Full papers should be submitted by 23 June 2022 through the journal submission platform, specifying the paper is to be considered for this special issue (SI: Crises). We aim for a hard copy publication in early 2024, but accepted papers will be published online within a few weeks of acceptance. Our objective will be to select enough papers for reviews to produce a full issue in the JOIE, i.e. 8 to 10 papers accepted for publication. We will aim to have no less than 20% of the articles selected for the review process by authors from any one gender.

JOIE attempts to establish a forum for ongoing conversation on key institutional issues. In this way, it aims to make contributions to scholarship cumulative, rather than fragmented and less consequential. Therefore, JOIE asks that authors refer, where relevant and appropriate, to previous contributions published on its pages, as well as from elsewhere. It is possible that your paper will be sent to referees who have published on your topic in JOIE. They may note any failure to cite their work.

QUERIES

For any queries, please contact the guest editors: Dr Elodie Douarin (e.douarin@ucl.ac.uk) and Dr Gerhard Schnyder (G.Schnyder@lboro.ac.uk)    

This Week at Loughborough | 31 January

Featured:

Talk Sport Student Conference 2022

3 February, 11.45m – 4.45pm, Online

Attend career-focused presentations led by industry specialists, including BBC Sport, Adidas, Chelsea FC, English Institute of Sport, Manchester City FC, The FA and many more. Listen to four inspirational female leaders at our Women in Sport session. Ask questions to leading figures in the sports industry at the Q&A panel.

Find out more on the events page.

LGBT+ History Month

1 – 28 February

The Univeristy and LSU celebrate the diversity of our students, alumni and staff throughout February for LGBT+ History Month. There are a variety of online events to get involved in throughout the month.

External Legal Masters Classes – Imperial London!

31 January, 1pm – 3pm, Online

Legal master classes for start-ups and businesses.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Hand drawn logo design

31 January, 7.30pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

Learn sketching techniques to create your own custom logo. Turn your drawing digital using free software!

This supportive, friendly workshop led by artist Ryan Heath will guide you through the process of hand-drawn design. We’ll be using pencil and paper to get our ideas down. Then we’ll move into Inkscape – a free, open-source software which enables you to transform hand-drawn images into high quality artwork for web and print.

Find out more on the events page.

Professor Jo Tacchi Inaugural Lecture

2 February, 5pm – 6pm, LDN.1.04 Loughborough University London & Online

About this event: Ethnographic (per)versions and social change

Professor Jo Tacchi was introduced to social anthropology and ethnography as a way of making sense of the world during her undergraduate degree in humanities. This led her to train in social anthropology at masters and doctoral levels. Over the past 25 years she has applied this way of thinking to all her research projects, in multiple geographic and social contexts and in collaboration with colleagues from many other disciplines.

Find out more on the events page.

The onset of instabilities in partial differential equations

3 February, 1 – 2pm, Online

From a mathematical point of view, the description of natural phenomena that evolve through time and space is encapsulated as solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations. Given that the task of finding explicit solutions is very difficult, a more qualitative approach often allows us to predict the behaviour of the phenomena without having to exhibit a solution for the equation. We are particularly interested in stability, a central problem in the field of nonlinear wave propagation, and a fairly broad subject.

Find out more on the events page.

The onset of instabilities in partial differential equations

3 February, 1 – 2pm, Online

From a mathematical point of view, the description of natural phenomena that evolve through time and space is encapsulated as solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations. Given that the task of finding explicit solutions is very difficult, a more qualitative approach often allows us to predict the behaviour of the phenomena without having to exhibit a solution for the equation. We are particularly interested in stability, a central problem in the field of nonlinear wave propagation, and a fairly broad subject.

Find out more on the events page.

This Week at Loughborough | 24 January

Featured:

Holocaust Memorial Day

27 January

Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) is recognised annually across the world to remember the six million Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other people killed from 1933-1945 under the Nazi persecution and in genocides across the world since. There are a range of events taking place for staff and students to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The sessions will take place on-campus in Room EHB.1.10A (Edward Herbert Building) on 27 January. Please note attendees will also be able to join the sessions online if they are unable to attend in person.

Find out more on the events page.

—

The programme for the day is as follows:

9am – 9.10am – Introduction

9.10am – 9.50am – Antisemitism and the uncivil civil society by Dr Cristian Tileaga

This talk will explore some forms of antisemitism that reveal its contemporary intersectional and multidimensional nature. It will look at how civil society, which commonly embraces tolerant spaces, actors, and institutional forms, may also support illiberalism (misogyny, racism, anti-intellectualism) and manifest hostility towards liberal democracy and some of its practices.

10am – 10.50am – Every day matters by Amanda Harrington (online only)

This interactive workshop will begin with some reminders of the early warning signs of the Holocaust. The attendees and the facilitator will then talk and listen to what they observe around them today. Participants will be invited to share ideas about practical and realistic actions to recognise the opportunities to ensure it doesn’t happen again. 

11am – 11.50am – Alfred: How one man survived World War ll with a false identity by Anthony Gimpel

This is the story of Alfred Adler, a Jew. He survived WWII under the German Occupation in Holland and Belgium with a false identity. His story raises questions about our current treatment of and assumptions about so-called illegal immigrants.

12pm – 12.50pm – Chaplaincy Service led by the Centre for Faith and Spirituality 

1pm – 1.50pm – 23 August 1939: The Nazi-Soviet Pact and Mass Killing in Eastern Europe by Dr Paul Maddrell

On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact, enabling Adolf Hitler to wage war on Poland without fear of a war with the Soviet Union. Both armies invaded Poland in September 1939 and by doing so, made the Holocaust possible. This lecture will demonstrate that the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin was a mass killer; it will show that the Soviet conquest of Eastern Poland led to mass killings on the part of Stalin’s regime which formed part of the huge death toll it exacted as it sought to impose a Communist society in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

2pm – 2.50pm – Creative writing workshop by Char March (online only, however, guests can watch the workshop from EHB.1.10A)

This workshop will be led by award-winner writer Char March, who will focus the group on one particular day in history and how attendees can write powerfully and positively.

4pm – 5pm – Commemoration at Queen’s Park

A ceremony to remember all the victims of genocide. The Borough will share their Act of Commitment, and those present will be invited to place a pebble on the commemoration stone. Please note this event is not led by Loughborough University.

If you would like to sign up for any of the events, please fill out the online booking form here.

In addition, on Friday 28 January staff and students are invited to visit the National Holocaust Centre and Museum. A coach will leave the University at 9am and arrive back at Loughborough at approximately 4pm. The overall cost is £6.20 per person, which covers the transport and the entry fee of the museum. Please note there are only a small number of places available so bookings will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Register your place here. 

Keep Calm: LSU Advice Drop-In Sessions

24 – 28 January, 11am, Exec Hub

If you have any questions or concerns about mitigating circumstances, academic misconduct or anything else affecting your degree and your education, feel free to drop in and chat to LSU Advice until 3pm every weekday! We can put your mind at ease, and point you in the right direction if you need any further support.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Scribble and Focus (mindfulness workshop)

24 January, 7pm, RT 037, Michael Person Boardroom

Take a break from everyday stresses and pressures and use drawing to focus on the here and now.

This workshop will look at how we can combine drawing, mark making and mindfulness techniques. This will channel feelings, bringing in positive ones and accepting negative ones.

Find out more on the events page.

Study Café: Wolfson

25 January, 3pm, RT 037, West Park Teaching Hub

During exam season, you may notice that the library and study spaces are filling up. We are here to provide another place to work!

Study Café is a dedicated session in which students can have a supportive and friendly environment to work with focused working sessions and breaks. Attendees are encouraged to set manageable goals at the start of the session which we will support you in.

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm: Puppy Petting

26 & 28 January, 10am, The Treehouse

De-stress with dogs! What better way to take your mind off your exams than making some fluffy new friends?

Our puppy petting sessions will each run for 30 minutes with a maximum of ten people at a time, so book your timeslot to avoid missing out!

Find out more on the events page.

BERG Seminar 3: How (not) to run a field trial

26 January, 4pm – 5pm, RT 037, Sir Frank Gibb & Online

Please join us for another seminar organised by the Building Energy Research Group (BERG). This month’s seminar is on field trials in domestic energy demand. We have three excellent speakers with a range of experience in this area: Prof Victoria Haines (Loughborough), Dr Jenny Crawley (UCL), Prof Richard Buswell (Loughborough).

Find out more on the events page.

Refreshers Big Match

26 January, 7pm, Holywell Football Stadium

Come down and support the Women’s 1’s Football team take on Northumbria University 1’s in an end of season fixture, one that the team goes in to unbeaten in the season, and as league champions. Kick-off is at 19:00, and the function room will also be open for food and drink, for a night under the lights!

AI for Interdisciplinary Scientific Discovery

27 January, 10am – 3pm, Loughborough London Campus – LDN.1.04

Following a successful launch event in November, the IAS Annual Theme ‘AI: Facts, Fictions, Futures’ continues with a hybrid event based at the Loughborough London Campus.

Our Fellows share fascinating stories of scientific discovery made possible by Artificial Intelligence, from the design of engineering materials to drug molecules. They explore how AI techniques transcend discipline boundaries and open a new world of discovery.

Find out more on the events page.

NT Live: Leopoldstadt (screening)

27 January, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

Tom Stoppard’s Olivier Award-winning new play Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance.

Filmed live on stage in London’s West End, ‘Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is magnificent’ (Independent) and should not be missed.

Find out more on the events page.

Study Café: SSEHS

28 January, 3pm, EHB

During exam season, you may notice that the library and study spaces are filling up. We are here to provide another place to work!

Study Café is a dedicated session in which students can have a supportive and friendly environment to work with focused working sessions and breaks. Attendees are encouraged to set manageable goals at the start of the session which we will support you in.

Find out more on the events page.

Rhea Mode Revisited to Drawing and Dialectic

Edwin VanGorder

In our traumatized world of covid isolation it is interesting to consider the ethos in which Duchamp existed under his own European sense of time management while in NY : Just as for example the Monastery Angelico made museum to a hybrid spiritual ontology between art and religion was there ordered in time bites large and small reflective of ecclesiastic calendar orders so the salon visiting of Marcels Duchamp and Proust were conversant moment by moment with friendships as an ontological order within their art and for this reason Duchamp’s extreme influence in America had to do with his conversational dialectic or dialectic conversation .. after all it is somehow laughable to think of Duchamp in a “gallery”…. No? Dove’s sudden interest in embedded objects stems from Duchamp just as Duchamp’s suddenly mystic abstract searches into color tinge and hinge on Dove, likewise the Network of Stoppages appears to reflect contact with Gorky teaching camouflage at the New School per his escape from persecution and so on (including Duchamp’s roto relief researches becoming embedded in early black hole mathematics by the appreciative Penrose) Dali however is the artist who was most Duchamp’s disciple, recognizing the artists method of apostrophes or paintings allegorical to his primary glass Dali likewise made almost all of his work also referential to specific of these and he would be an original example of illustrating the Green Box of which I continue in my way the Vox. Michael Leja in his book comparing Duchamp and Eakins “Looking Askance” observes “vision is transitive”… the phrase transcends the book ,just as the phrase from a movie no one remembers managed to posterity “the past is a foreign country -they do things differently there”… with Physicist Bohm of Rhea mode or finding relevance be “levanting” or raising to view for another look… In the drawing enclosed a sliding glass motif considers a time element transposing successive fields which shred in passage an identity which reconstitutes as a freedom of extension at the transitive vision.

Slow Notes to the Quick

Edwin VanGorder

According to health as it were ones reading of Pi is an example of adding one’s transitive state to the successive divisions ie from a brane or the portals of one own steps and this is very reflective of the creative process. In sickness, as in long term covid the body may read sensation as threatening after the threat has passed.

On an abstract level then the interference patterns of nature are wave lengths that distorted in their own progression as for example the integers place variance in the proportions they describe (i.e. you will get variance in the arrival of “reciprocals”..) This variance being a lensing which in turn can particularly envisioned to unity in the harmonic series. The notes then by Natalie Walchhover relating the dimensions of string theory ( by which freedom of extension as dimension links to progressions thus within the harmonic and integer distortion via brane portal to next level : lead me to observe towards the relation then the gravity sympathetic constant of .1389 what I will render per .1382 as a fluctuation level of the golden section ( link between square roots of two and three embedded in square root of 5 of which the section is a wing reciprocal) the difference of .0074 is that of the universal constant A…. : .1382 is the reciprocal of the square root of 5 at one quarter and this fall back can be considered dimensional transpose describing orbits or complete arrivals in integers ie .618 .718 etc as advancing of which the relation of square root of three has in reciprocal the tripartite seeds of two and these embedded dimensions particularly play on 7.888 from which the description of 1.8, 1.888 and ,118 are reflected in the .618 series as describing two and three, center and edge as the numbers of perception…

The creative result is that it becomes easier to see and harder to say…

In the drawing I have developed a scale of the section at .09 as its 4th dimension in a mode of center to edge and edge to center transpose….

Drawing Rebus in Advance of the Implicate Whole

Edwin VanGorder

A Relationship (of all things) In Advance of the “IMPlicate Whole”…
In the advanced Modular type of harmonic grid I devised originally in an architects office (Gwathey’s Guggenheim addition makes reference to it)) one group of numbers is like space itself, another like the space of space time, another like time, and a harmonic surge linking like steady or open and closing stops on violin or the Philipp Glass and Bach propensity to stage a soft background then become itself an architectural thing to another ground… In this Glass to Glass Bob and Alice we then may as well approach Duchamp well approached as a rhetor of phase transitions between rhetoric itself, drawing arts and knowledge kinds in their mathessis of poetics I find interest in commenting per my own gambit of generally illustrating Green Box and Project Apostrophes by appreciating the article by Douglas Cushing in Academia.edu An Exit :Marcel Duchamp and Jules La Forgue which relates Duchamp’s simply liking the poet to synthesis threshold of the Cabaret salons of artist launching pads against the provost via as much as argot, neologisms, café song shout Sad Young Man( I relate to Dylans Symbolist affectionate late train tour in odd makeup with his early entourage in an odd mime to music rebus en train entranced de-entrance… I mentioned Dylan’s sympathy and in an odd conversation he gave me his riddling conversation opening and closing with “where do you come from” (Art for Arts sake= I am going not back again and the rebus for me is our Neo Space Renaissance paradoxical to an intensely collapsing society…where yet again the transitive culturization finds paradox the gambit…(Dylans’ dropping in to get a musical degree while the movement advocated dropping out gives him real Duchampian credentials……parenthetically)…

Exam Season top tips from students

Exams and deadlines can be a stressful time for students.

To save you the stress, we thought we’d share the tips that we have learnt over our time at Loughborough to help you out in this exam season.

Lucy Phillips – Psychology

As a student who over-stresses and unnecessarily revises too much for exams, one thing I wish I always told myself is that there is such thing as ‘over-revising’. In first year, I would revise for a ridiculous number of hours every day and still even try to cram revision in the hour before the exam. I have come to learn that this doesn’t help, and if anything; tires your brain out, resulting in poorer exam performance. It’s important to start revising weeks before the exam and working through content at a steady pace, ensuring that your brain isn’t receiving a heavy load of information all in a short period of time and to enhance memory and recall.

Nicholas Radford – UG Systems Engineering

As someone who always had exams with numerical answers my top tip for exam season is to read all the questions in the paper first. The questions that you know you will find easier are the ones you tackle first, giving you a confidence boost going into the harder sections. Remember to highlight all important data in the questions as well.

Millie Steel  – Economics

My biggest tip for exam season is to make sure you set aside time to relax. It’s very easy to wake up and continue working all day until you go to bed, but you’ll find that you very quickly run out of steam and lose all motivation. If you set aside times for productivity, say 9am until 6pm with regular breaks throughout the day, then you have all evening to relax and do something you enjoy. This means the next day you’ll be refreshed and ready to start the day!

Nyasha Mukonoweshuro – History and Politics

While it seems obvious, I wish I’d made more of an effort to remember it’s not possible to memorise and remember every single thing, and that’s okay! It can be tempting to try and squeeze in those last-minute cramming sessions the night before, especially when you feel like there are so many little things you need to go through. However, you give yourself the best chance of being able to tackle exam questions when you have enough rest to think straight. So, make sure to get a good night’s sleep! After your exam, have some time off doing something you enjoy. You deserve it no matter how you think you did. Exams can be a bit of a rollercoaster so remember to take care of yourself and look after your mind, you’re doing just great by showing up – keep going and believe in yourself!

Rebecca Pearson – English

My top tip for dealing with coursework or essay questions would be to brain-dump all of your ideas and initial thoughts about the topic or question onto a piece of paper before you start to research and answer it. This is something that has helped me massively with building arguments for my essays and responding to questions, keeping my thoughts in mind without worrying that I’ll lose track of my ideas under pressure. I find there’s something therapeutic about putting thoughts to paper, taking them out of my busy brain so that I can focus more clearly! I would also say that, if you have the time, leave your essay or response for a day or so before you submit it – that way you can view it with a fresh pair of eyes.

Emily Rigden – Media and Communication

When it comes to revision my best tip is to start early and plan ahead. The library have great resources for planning that I use when it comes to my revision covering daily, weekly and termly timetables. I use the timetables daily and weekly, ensuring that I cover all topics I need to, and nothing can get forgotten about. By timetabling my days like this, it also ensures I can add some time off revision to have some downtime to do things like gym, going food shopping, and relaxing. Click here for the library resources: Link

For more information about 2021/22 Semester 1 exams please visit the student handbook.

Why Might Number Board Games Boost Children’s Early Number Skills?

Written by Ella James-Brabham and edited by Dr Francesco Sella and Professor Tim Jay. Ella is a Research Associate at Loughborough University. Please see here for more information about Ella and her work.

Board games are a frequent family activity, with 81% of families, with children under 14 years, reporting playing board games at least once per month. Not surprisingly, several research studies have investigated whether board games can improve learning in childhood. Specifically, certain types of board games may support the development of early numerical skills. Effective interventions to improve early numerical ability could significantly impact society, resulting in an annual saving of £1.6 billion of government funds. This large figure is perhaps less surprising when we consider that children’s early numerical ability predicts future academic achievement, time in education, employment, health, socioeconomic status, and quality of life. 

Many board games entail some numerical components such as counting dice and dots, or recognising numbers (e.g., dominos, snakes and ladders, and UNO). In particular, number board games that involve moving counters on a visual number line (1-2-3-4-5; similar to snakes and ladders) have shown some effectiveness in improving early numerical skills. The number line is a powerful tool to present numerical information as numbers are ordered in increasing magnitude from left to right (in Western cultures), and the distance between numbers directly reflects their magnitude relation. Children’s performance on number line tasks, where typically children are asked to place numbers in the correct location on the number line, is related to a range of important early numerical skills, which include their ability to recall numbers, compare numbers(e.g., is two bigger than five?), and carry out arithmetic. 

Several studies have investigated whether playing a linear number board game improves children’s early numerical skills. Siegler and Ramani (2008) measured low-income preschoolers’ numerical ability and then randomly allocated the preschoolers to either play a linear numerical board game where they spin a number spinner and move counters across the number line board, or a colour game where they spin a colour spinner and match colours. Preschoolers played the game they had been allocated four times per week for two weeks and then their numerical ability was measured again. They found that children who played the number board game became better at placing numbers in the correct position on the number line in comparison to children who played the non-numerical colour board game. Interestingly, the linear presentation of numbers in a board game appears crucial to improving numerical skills, as when the same game in a linear format was compared to a circular format, the linear format was significantly better for improving number skills. Linear board games have also been found to improve a range of other numerical skills in low-income and middle-income preschoolers, including counting, identifying numbers, and comparing the magnitude of numbers. Linear board games show promise for decreasing gaps between low-income and high-income children as children with initially lower number knowledge show the greatest benefits from linear board games. What is particularly encouraging is that linear board games are both practical and effective within a classroom context. 

While most of the linear board games involve counting forward, recent research by Dr Francesco Sella, at Loughborough University, has highlighted how the ability to count backwards may reflect a more advanced understanding of counting. Accordingly, children develop a better understanding of number magnitude when they understand the relationship between set size and number words. For example, removing one item from a set means that the set size is reduced by one. The child can identify how many items are in this new set, if they move one along the number line. See the graphic below.

In this light, a linear board game, which encourages counting forward and backwards (i.e., bi-directional), may become an effective tool to improve early numerical skills. Over the next year, Dr Francesco Sella, Professor Tim Jay, and Ella James-Brabham at Loughborough University are undertaking a research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation to co-develop a bi-directional counting board game with teachers and children. The project will test whether playing a bi-directional number line board game is more beneficial than a forward-only linear board game for improving developing numerical skills. The findings could have implications for the tools schools use to help support the development of children’s early numerical skills. More information about the project can be found here.  

The project has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation’s.

A new chapter where you can create your narration

Hello, 2022. Where do we even begin?

It’s January and the first month of the new year – a time commonly dedicated to New Year’s resolutions, intentional lifestyle changes, and adopting a ‘new year, new me’ attitude. However, for many of us, the ‘positive hat’ we all wish would automatically go on as the new year enters does not always come as easily as we hope.

2021 was a challenging year for us all, and so experiencing feelings of burnout and exhaustion – even after a Christmas break – is completely understandable. However, a New Year does provide a great opportunity to reflect and strive to adopt a positive mindset for the year ahead.  

Whether you are feeling energised this January, or you are still rebuilding your routine after the Christmas break, I hope this piece encourages you.

The clock strikes midnight on the last day of December, there’s a feeling of relief as we look back and remember 2021 – a year of ups and downs and highs and lows, feeling ready for a new year and the opportunity to grow. The world lifts its voice to say, ‘Happy New Year’, and 2022 is welcomed with a united cheer. It’s an opportunity to start afresh, to reflect on things and give it our best. To set new goals, tackle the challenges and kickstart the rest.

However, whilst it is easy to assume each one of us will be raring to go, remove the rose-tinted glasses to see that some may feel low. Feelings of demotivation, flatness and ‘cba’, most commonly known as the ‘January Blues’. The joy of Christmas is over and it’s that time to open our laptops again, reply to emails and pick up loose ends. Deadlines and demands can be overwhelming, and the idea of routine does not feel so compelling.

Take the time to rest and be kind to yourself, explore the outdoors or reach for your bookshelf. Call a loved one or reach out to a coursemate, and encounter the connections this will create. Treat them with kindness, and the heaviness of the January blues will dispel into lightness.

So, if you’ll allow me to leave you with one thing, may it be this: a new year is exciting, but allowing yourself time is the ultimate key. January can be a hard month for a multitude of reasons, but there are pockets of good in every season. Set yourself goals and aspirations, 2022  is a new chapter where you can create your narration.

Here are a few practical tips and tricks to help us all kickstart 2022 in the best way:

1. Shift the focus

Take some time to reflect on your lifestyle during 2021 and think about areas that you could change this year. Do you need to make more time for yourself and focus on things that make you feel good?

Perhaps make a conscious decision to find little joys in each day (even if it’s something as simple as really appreciating your morning coffee!)

2. Routine Check

In the aftermath of the Christmas break where all routine is non-existent, take time this month to get yourself into a routine that makes you feel good. Prioritise your sleep over scrolling through your phone (we are all guilty of it!), try to eat three fulfilling meals a day, and leave space for downtime each night.

Perhaps try and wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual and use that time to do something you love (eg a walk, run or reading a book). This will start your day off well.

3. Treat your body

It is no secret that getting outdoors is highly beneficial for both our physical and mental health. Try and find some local walking spots nearby, or if walking is not for you, perhaps try out some gym classes or take up jogging. Whatever it is, the one requirement is that it makes you feel good and gets your body moving!

4. Realism is key

For some of us, setting specific new year’s resolutions works well and propels motivation to reach our goals. However, for others, it may be more beneficial to keep it relaxed and adopt a mindset to make little positive changes here and there throughout the year (a go with the flow approach!). Whichever style suits you, be realistic about the goals you set and do not expect to feel 100% motivated, 24/7. Setting goals in January that will sustain for the year will not work if you expect too much from yourself.

5. What inspires you?

We all experience days where adopting a positive mindset is tough, and so it is important to find sources of inspiration which will both encourage you and boost your mood.

Podcasts, books, motivational speakers or even following positivity-focused influencers is a good place to start.

6. Reach out

Sometimes, it will feel impossible to find the motivation to adopt a positive mindset, and that’s okay. It’s important to reach out to people, as well as utilise the resources around us!

Here are a few resources that may be of use if you are finding this month particularly challenging:

University services:

• The LU Wellbeing app – a digital toolkit that uses a holistic approach to positively influence your wellbeing, incorporating mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) amongst many other techniques.  
• Togetherall – designed to help people get support to take control of their wellbeing and feel better. It provides 24/7 peer-to-peer and professional support (from experienced clinicians who are always online), plus a range of courses and tools to help people self-manage their wellbeing. 
• The Yellow Book – an online resource with various tools and techniques to help combat stress in written and audio format. The e-book features poems, songs, readings and artwork to help with your mental wellbeing (sign-in required). 
• Chaplaincy – a place where students and staff are welcome to reflect, explore and express faith and spirituality. It is a place to pray, to meditate and to meet others. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Staff-specific support: 

• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) – confidential, unlimited support on any matter that might be of concern to you which is available to access 24/7.  
• My Healthy Advantage app – complementing the EAP, the app provides an enhanced set of wellbeing tools and engaging features to help the user’s mental and physical health. 
• Mental Health First Aiders – Loughborough staff MHF Aiders are trained to listen, reassure and respond, even in a crisis – and can potentially avert a crisis from happening. They can do this by recognising warning signs, and they have the skills and confidence to approach and support someone experiencing poor mental health. 

More information can be found on the Staff Wellbeing pages.  

Student support: 

• Student Services – providing emotional and wellbeing support as well as advice on any financial or accommodation concerns you might have. 

Author
Abbie Coburn, Graduate Management Trainee at Loughborough University

This Week at Loughborough | 17 January

Happy Mondays: Express yourself through journaling

17 January, 7pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

Learn how to explore and express yourself using collage, sketch and watercolour.

In recent years journaling has really taken off, with many people finding it a mindful activity that has mental health benefits. So, why not come along to this hands-on workshop, suitable for all abilities, and find out what it’s all about.

Find out more on the events page.

Graduate schemes workshop

18 January, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

In this workshop you will get an overview of what graduates schemes are and when to apply.

Find out more on the events page.

Virtual communication and collaboration workshop

18 January, 4pm – 6pm, Online

In this workshop you will get an overview of how to communicate and collaborate virtually.

Find out more on the events page.

Ambiguous Standards Institute: A Travelling Exhibition

18 January, 4pm – 5pm, Martin Hall (MHL.0.03) & Online

As part of our Open Programme, Associate Professor Selçuk Artut will be giving a public lecture to launch the opening of an exhibition on Ambiguous Standards.

Dr Avşar Gürpinar from the School of Design and Creative Arts, together with Istanbul architect and designer, Cansu Cürgen, founded the Ambiguous Standards Institute (ASI) in 2014 to investigate how standards develop and their impact on daily life. ASI reveals the latent or invisible networks of standards – codes, quantities, or qualities – embedded in the objects and interactions that we use on a daily basis, ranging from birth control pill packets and carry-on bags to hand gestures, kitchen utensils, and objects used during public protests.

Find out more on the events page.

Drawing and Time

Edwin VanGorder

Space plus space itself = space and space itself…a noumenon gnomon (there is a slim difference between the cosmological constant and space itself prior particles. How slim is the limm? (for example the hypothetical and I think not likely graviton if found and exploded to size of atom would find the atom size of a galaxy…. I think rather that as gravity is distortion via extreme space time eventua it is peculiar in not being a field but the differences between all in a disequilibrium so small as to act like an equilibrium with the difference that it will fill out the berms and wales of space time between any two fields and this binary and tertiary status informs us in a way we that does not leave us totally unknowing up along the way of all intrigue. That spin and interference transpose across centers leaves the quantum effect of counting from the bottom and the staged velocity to the phase of that dimension… i.e. as in up and down quarks which as well indicates the reason implicating violation of enantiomorphic chirality posed to centers.

A new year, a new you… Or is it just a new you for a month?

For many people, the new year is an opportunity for them to reflect on the past year and start to think about making changes for the next one.

Some of your resolutions might be one of the following:

• “I am going to do more exercise.”
• “I am going to cut out junk food.”
• “I am going to eat less meat.”
• “I am going to reduce my screen time.”
• “I am going to go to bed earlier.”
• “I am going to lose weight.”

The list goes on and on, and most of the changes are probably linked to improving your health and wellbeing. However, research suggests that most people who decide to make a change in the New Year are not able to keep doing it, often stopping within a week.

But these positive changes are usually important. The question is: how do we set a goal and keep to it?

Well, we should focus on changing habits. Evidence suggests that if we can change habits, we are more likely to keep making the changes.

A habit is something that you do automatically. Things like brushing your teeth when you get up after breakfast, having two biscuits with your cup of tea, or finishing your plate at dinner. Now there is not necessarily one single effective way to change habits, but I have pulled together the best available evidence in this blog post.

First of all, you need to set a goal. What would you like to do? Is it to be more physically active, eat healthier foods, or take your Vitamin D?

Once you have set your goal, you then need to monitor your behaviours. Self-monitoring to a goal is one of the most successful ways to change behaviour.

Let’s look at an example from one of the studies I conducted about helping people to reduce the indulgences they ate. The goal was to say no to indulgences seven times a week. In the brainstorm diagram below, the statements show the typical times and settings participants would consume their indulgences.
 

Have a go at brainstorming in the same way for your goal to help you identify the habit changes you need to make in order to succeed. Once you have identified them, the next step is to try and break them. The best tip is to focus on the one you believe is easiest first.

There are potentially three ways you can change your habits:

1. Introduce good habits

By introducing a good new habit, it may push out some of the bad habits. For example, if you wanted to go to the gym before work but always feel too tired in the mornings, the new habit would be to go to bed earlier. This might mean you get more sleep and therefore feel refreshed and more likely to get yourself to the gym.

2. Untangle the habit

There are three different things you can do here. First, you could remove the prompt that makes you perform the habit. For example, if you grab a coffee on the way to work and pick up a treat at the same time, instead prepare your coffee at home or find a way to make a coffee at work. This will reduce temptations.

As well as removing the prompt of the behaviour you can also make the behaviour harder to do. Many of our participants reported that they didn’t have biscuits or ice creams in the house. But if they were easily accessible, they would eat them. If you don’t have them in the house, you either have to go to the shop to buy them or bake them yourself (which requires you to have all of the ingredients).

The other thing you can do is what we call adjusting the motivation. If you increase the mental effort required, then you are less likely to want to do it. For example, by recording what you eat, you’ll be required to increase your mental load then just simply eating the indulgence.

3. Swap a habit

If the first two options don’t work for you, then you can try and swap to a different habit; however, sometimes it is quite difficult to find another habit to change to for an indulgence as they are normally quite desirable. You have to choose something that you like doing and is easy and fun for you. Consider dedicating one hour you’d usually spend mindlessly scrolling on your phone to read a new book, call a friend, or go for a walk.

I encourage you to have a go at changing your habits and seeing if this supports your 2022 goals. I wish you the best of luck and don’t forget, social support in the form of friends, colleagues and family can also increase the likelihood of achieving your ambitions. Happy New Year!

Dr Claire Madigan
Senior Research Associate for The Centre for Lifestyle Medicine and Behaviour (CLiMB)

Prior to her academic career, Claire worked in public health, commissioning weight management services and working on the childhood obesity strategy in Hampshire. She completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2014 and then went on to hold positions at the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford. Claire has expertise in weight management and clinical trial management with experience in behavioural and investigational medicinal trials. She has supervised two PhD students to completion.

Additional resources

• Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B J Fogg
• Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Bob and Alice Through the Green Box Glass :Drawing as a Theory of Everything

Edwin VanGorder

The nature of what we might call drawing as itself a theory of everything proceeds from the general intimation by which Duchamp quotes Joseph Wright of Derby’s painting Allegory of Alchemy in the forms of the Nude Descending Staircase and Philosophy and the conceptual “derby” Duchamp mentions in is his notes which may as well include of course the Wright brothers in which the end of history ethos is as a bonding per Duchamp’s recasting the Phaedrus to the neo- space of his n dimensional chess bridging Davinci and Einstein( note that Duchamp’s roto reliefs via Roger Penrose and wife’s own book on these objects mark them as highly influencing early black hole mathematics just as one also hears the French artist’s voice in “ cosmic censorship” as term for “singularity”!…..
With Frank Lloyd Wright’s similar ethos ‘bringing the outside inside’ we can appreciate then in particular the Bottle Rack as implicating a Klein bottle or dimensional mobius strip as indeed became Hawking’s model for the prime motion of the universe to coin a phrase for this “Strange Loop” Hofstadter ie Goedel Escher Bach years since GEB publication finds at this moment a Renaissance in physics and cosmology in others which in so doing also becomes in sense bonded to the viewer…
Dialogue of Robert Smithson and Duchamp: Smithson: “you are an alchemist” Duchamp: “yes” … ( especially note how his answer is open ended…)…
Drawing as a theory of everything studies between “ delimiting” as “I bound, I enclose” in Latin to the Graphos of Greek as “ I draw, I write”… through which Bob and Alice through The Glass arrive in my illustrations to the Green Box via the transitive moment that is drawing…which is as to view through the lens of illustrating the Green Box : I am interested here in the new solutions to the Three Body problem… Just as the Nude may be standing on a space time escalator the position of one body considered entirely as velocity serves as a state of equilibrium by which the others unknown histories may resolve to proxemics of the math. Similarly in a drawing ambit I embark on an allegory of the problem of relating the primordial state of space itself as a low energy infinity of quantum expansion these states may become the occulist witness or state of equilibrium become closed one it yet surpasses.

Being kind to yourself and others during exam season

Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding

Dr An Jacobs, Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance (IDIG) and Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and Dr Katerina Krulisova, Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, have published a policy brief on gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding with the LSE Centre for Women Peace and Security.  

The peace engages with debates on gender mainstreaming in operational environments. It presents initial findings based on over 15 interviews with peacebuilders deployed to EU and UN missions in Mali, Central African Republic, Niger, Kosovo, and Georgia. The policy brief identifies three key challenges to successful operationalisation of gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding, including the reliance on personal convictions, the ‘add women and stir’ approach, and negative connotations associated with the terms ‘gender’ and ‘feminism’.  

The policy brief then provides four recommendations to help tackle these challenges and enhance successful implementation. The recommendations focus on improving pre-deployment and in-deployment training, enhancing data collection and analysis, and working towards a better understanding of gender issues.  

Read the full policy brief on the LSE Centre for WPS website here.

One Drawing

Gagan Singh

One drawing is all it takes sometimes. maybe not. but i drew this as a base for something i am about to write. It’s about knowing something in a moment. That in one glance, we experience something which gives us something back.

What i am about to share will create a chill which will run through through your spine and out from your toes. Get ready for pain and pleasure. Like having ice and fire at the same time. Imagine you are sitting on an ice cube and someone puts your head in the fire oven. How would you feel ?

Well, thats what you are about to get !!!

I have humbly ordered a shawarma roll from a road side store at the same junction where i wrote the earlier post https://gagansingh.net.in/2021/10/30/a-trip-to-goa/ . This time it was night time and i witnessed in front of me a series of red stars. These red stars are paper sculptures about 12 inches in diameter placed in a row which extends from this T junction (where i was standing) till a round about ahead on a curvy road.

Get ready for the lightning bolt. Get ready to be shocked !!!!

I saw the first star and within that 1 to 2 second window with a slight turn of my neck muscle and cervical vertebrae i witnessed the whole row. By placing the same star in a row with no change of scale (they are all identical) and with light inside all of them with a black back ground ( the night sky ). I could witness the miracle of scale, distance, depth, perception, vision all at one go !!!!!!

I KNOW YOU GOT THE LIGHTNING BOLT JUST NOW !!!!!! 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok, sorry about giving you this shock. 

Explanation

I can explain this in a bit more detail. please make your self some hot beverage such as coffee / tea and read further on. ( avoid fried food ).
When i saw the first star it was of a certain scale but as i moved my eye gaze ( looking & seeing ) from the first star to the last star, i could not believe my own eyes. I had to ask my head, or sorry, my head had to ask my eyes, that are you seeing what i am seeing ? The eyes replied by saying. yes, i see what i see. But the wise head said, No, what you are seeing is not really there. In the correct vision. All the stars should be visible. There should be no blur. Everything should be of the same size because all the Red stars are of the same size. No change, because if i walk on this road, I can cross check that no star is smaller than the other.
The Eye sight lies, because in reality this is not what is there. And that was the discovered moment.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

The Discovered moment

The sky could not give me this sense of depth. but by placing an object. In this case, maybe it was almost hundred stars i saw, and that too in a line, this installation allowed me to experience this. It is a human thing. It’s not by nature. I have never seen clouds align like this or 1000 birds of the same size sitting on a wire and that too static. But this man made object ( Christmas decoration ) gave me a chance to keep seeing this line back and forth. What my mouth said to my brain.

Mouth: ‘that is all that it took’

mind: what ?

mouth: just one slight movement of the head and eyes and i got it !

mind: oh yes 🙂

Smithson./Duchamp:Duchamp Smithson Anastrophic Pause

Edwin VanGorder

along the lines of illustrating the Green box the relation of trope and entropy as crystal and knot interest me as a Smithson /Duchamp much forwarded in Duchamp’s case by Roger Penrose’s intellectual use of the roto reliefs on the one hand and Smithson’s sense of entropy as a plasma or equilibrium we can now read as quanta efficient as well…towards drawing as a bow and lyre bolero in which string theory has critical presence toward our siting in neo renaissance personae of our new cosmological advances and inevitable rhetor @ Bob and Alice…

Smithson./Duchamp:Duchamp Smithson Anastrophic Pause

Edwin VanGorder

Or Korai Anastrophe (stepping aside)) in that:
One may see in Heraclitus’ “ fated necessity “ that nature obeys nature and corresponding “I went in search of myself” the one off of Duchamp’s “Wanted”…(poster)…

: Repeated dialectically in the Smith Duchamp /Duchamp Smith conversation Smithson you are an alchemist: /Duchamp :Yes
Thus the Duchamp Smithson/Smithson Duchamp enantiomorphic mirror was paused in Duchamp’s answer in which the agreement was left open rather than closed and a demonstration of sorts verbally of how matter and anti-matter may have in a residual equilibrium that extra we recognize to the universal constant and in that slight plasma the chiasma linking crystal and mud between trope and entropy per Duchamp and Smithson…

: The elements of the Glass were very directly expropriated from Davinci studies as a tricolon of specific codex sheets on Statics/Gravity/and Rotary motion which were prompted in the spirit of the times interest in testing beams.
DaVinci’s own response was to create the Virgin of the Rocks as a view testing interior and exterior reality placed yet again as a painting within a drawing so to speak in the Adoration of the Maggi drawing which was as a presentation drawing to himself…from himself…
Duchamp appears to have been intent on creating a primordial link between “vertical”, “virginal” and “virtual” paraphrased perhaps in the female fig leaf sculpture (a female urinal blocked out and in the either/ or syntax elevating to view the it is or is not of science to the view Penrose in translating Duchamp forwards in black hole physics places the intervention by which “ or” is from the rhetorical root Iora or riddle which has a another level then as “problema” or more complex “lemma” consideration ultimately found in the complex numbers we may extrapolate briefly of symploce complexio sympleptic and asymptotic renditions of DE Sitter and and Non de sitter space and thus in the end also borrowing into those Davinci studies the phrase “ cosmic censorship” which certainly seems expropriated from Duchamp himself!)…
: in summary the Story of H or that level of equilibrium harbored in emphasis and exhortation subsumed within yet again an equilibrium or hypsos like a vacuum drawing sail and wing…

Top Sports Stories from 2021

With the arrival of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, we knew that 2021 would be an amazing year for Loughborough University. Here are some of the defining moments of our fantastic year!

Loughborough Lightning crowned 2021 VNSL champions

Loughborough Lightning made history by claiming their first ever Vitality Netball Superleague title with a triumphant 49 – 32 victory over Team Bath.

In the sixteen years of the franchise’s existence, Lightning had made it to three grand finals prior to 2021 but never managed to cross the line, and after a confident twenty goal win in their semi-final the previous day, Lightning were looking to rewrite history and claim their first title.

Loughborough Sport partner with Sporting Minds UK

In recognition of Mental health Awareness Week (10 May – 16 May), Loughborough Sport further strengthened its mental health support to its student-athletes through a new partnership with Sporting Minds UK.

Sporting Minds UK is a registered charity that seeks to raise awareness and provide support for positive mental health in sportspeople aged 16 to 30 where they can access free, fast and confidential private mental health support.

Cycling Festival a huge success as riders turn on the style

(first major sporting event on campus ‘post-covid’)

The inaugural Loughborough Cycling Festival proved to be a great success with some of the UK’s best cyclists descending on campus for a full day of elite-level competition.

Held in glorious bank holiday sunshine, riders competed on the fast, technical criterium circuit, which included steep hill climbs and numerous 90 degree turns that tested athletes both physically and technically.

Loughborough University launches new Lightning wheelchair basketball team

Loughborough University was selected as a High-Performance Partner for British Wheelchair Basketball in a move that would also see the formation of a brand-new Lightning team.

Loughborough’s unique combination of outstanding sports facilities, world-leading performance support and Para sport infrastructure led to it being the home of British Wheelchair Basketball (BWB) and a BWB centre of excellence for wheelchair basketball teams. 

This announcement marked the launch of British Wheelchair Basketball’s inaugural Women’s Premier League – the very first professional para-sport league in the UK in which the new Lightning side would compete.

Loughborough Lightning joins forces with Northampton Saints

Loughborough Lightning Rugby announced an innovative new partnership with Northampton Saints. 

The new arrangement saw Loughborough Lightning – who have reached the semi-finals of the last two Allianz Premier 15s seasons – become a joint Loughborough Lightning / Northampton Saints elite women’s team, with both partners looking to drive performance outcomes to ensure ongoing success at the pinnacle of professional English rugby.

Loughborough’s Dearing made her “bittersweet” Olympic debut

Alice Dearing made Olympic history by becoming the first British black woman to swim for Team GB.

The current Loughborough student finished 19th in women’s 10km marathon swim in tough conditions in Tokyo Bay. Despite the early morning start, water temperatures still rose to 30 degrees in what is arguably one of the most brutal sports at the Olympic Games.

Dearing’s legacy will certainly live long and following the race she told the BBC that the sport is “available to anyone“.

Superb Peaty wins Loughborough’s first medal of Tokyo Olympics

Adam Peaty made history as he powered to 100m breaststroke gold in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old became the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title as he blew away the field at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre to take victory in 57.37 seconds.

Peaty’s time was the fifth-fastest recorded in Olympic history, with the current world record holder visibly emotional at taking the title.

Alumnus Heath wins Olympic bronze in dramatic fashion

Loughborough University alumnus Liam Heath won a dramatic bronze medal in the men’s kayak single 200m in Tokyo.

In a photo finish, Heath edged out Hungary’s Kolos Csizmadia to secure his third consecutive medal at an Olympic Games in a time of 35.202 seconds.

The 36-year-old also set an Olympic-best time of 33.985 seconds in qualifying.

Brilliant bronze for Loughborough’s history maker Bradshaw

Loughborough’s Holly Bradshaw made history by becoming the first-ever British person to win an Olympic pole vault medal.

In a thrilling final at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Bradshaw cleared 4.85m to make the podium.

Bradshaw – a current student at Loughborough University – was competing in her third Olympic Games and has now written her name in UK athletics’ record books.

Olivia Broome also produced the performance of her life to win a brilliant bronze at the Paralympic Games.

The 19-year-old current University student lifted 107kg in the women’s -50kg powerlifting category to make the podium in her first-ever Games.

In a tough field, Broome completed the third-best lift of the day – edging out her nearest opponent by just 1kg – as Dandan Hu (China) won gold and Rehab Ahmed (Egypt) took silver.

Double gold for Loughborough on Super Saturday in Tokyo

Thomas Young and Sophie Hahn both won stunning gold medals in an unbelievable day for Loughborough at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Competing in the men’s T38 100m, Young produced a determined performance to blow away his rivals with a personal best of 10.94 seconds to take his maiden Paralympic medal.

In the women’s T38 100m, Sophie Hahn powered to a brilliant gold to defend her Paralympic title. In another excellent performance, Hahn edged away from her competitors to finish in 12.43 seconds.

Hahn looked in fine form prior to the final by equalling her own world record in the heats and is now unbeaten in seven years, having never lost a 100m final.

Lane-Wright wins historic hat-trick of medals for ParalympicsGB

Loughborough University alumna Crystal Lane-Wright completed a historic hat-trick of medals for ParalympicsGB by winning silver in the women’s C4-5 road race.

This was Lane-Wright’s third silver medal of the delayed 2020 Paralympic Games following podium finishes in the women’s C5 individual pursuit and the women’s C5 cycling time trial.

In difficult conditions, the 35-year-old remained at the front of the pack throughout the race, eventually breaking away with fellow Briton Sarah Storey to record a GB 1-2.

And last but definitely not least…

We are the Sports University of the Year!

Sport began to get back into action during 2021 following a tough period for all in the sector. And sport at Loughborough has made an impressive return, being named University of the Year for Sport by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022.

This is the third time we’ve received the prestigious title, which has come following yet another impressive medal haul by our students, graduates, and hosted athletes, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Loughborough athletes brought back 35 medals from Tokyo, that’s three more than New Zealand. This included 9 Gold, 12 Silver and 14 Bronze.