LSE Review of Books shares serious learning and good writing

A new blog to engage the public with the best writing about the social sciences has been launched at LSE.

Do you have questions about the forthcoming REF and how it will affect you?

Non-professorial academic and research staff are invited to an informal 'town hall' meeting on Wednesday 2 May.

Dr Simona Milio

Dr Milio, of LSE Enterprise’s Social and Cohesion Policy Unit, wishes she could go one day without chocolate, cakes and coffee... 'I have tried and it lasted half a day, I was grumpy and had no energy!'

The first major university guide of the year has ranked LSE as the second best university in the UK and the best university in London.

The Complete University Guide sees LSE rise from fourth in last year's 2012 rankings to second for this year.

The Guide also places LSE in the top ten for all twelve of the subjects it offers and rates it as the top place in the UK to study accounting and finance, economics and social policy.

Professor Janet Hartley, pro-director for teaching and learning at LSE, said: 'We are pleased that LSE is highly regarded in so many areas, including both teaching and research quality. The School puts a lot of energy and investment into the student experience, as well as making sure we keep producing some of the very best social science research in the world. We are also delighted that so many of our students go on to the rewarding jobs which they deserve. Although league tables come with a health warning, it is always nice to be appreciated.'

LSE Review of Books launches with a mission to share serious learning and good writing with the world

The best writing in the social sciences is the focus of a new LSE Review of Books blog which launched this week with the aim of increasing public engagement with all the social sciences.

The blog publishes free and timely reviews of scholarly and serious books and ebooks. Its reviewers not only have academic expertise from LSE, but also include ‘thinkers and doers’ from business, the media, government and beyond - many with alumni or other LSE connections.

Professor Patrick Dunleavy, the blog’s general editor, said: 'Modern academic communication is becoming faster, more interactive and more open. A growing, well-read and well-informed public is now consuming masses of serious non-fiction about how our increasingly globalised societies work. As yet there has been no effective free-to-read forum to stimulate and respond to this demand in the digital age.'

Amy Mollett, the blog’s managing editor, said: 'This project will thrive on public engagement - from writers, readers, reviewers, and practitioners using social science ideas in business, government and civil society. We already know there is an appetite for bold ideas and good writing and the LSE Review of Books will bring them together for the benefit of us all, with new reviews every day.'

Find the blog at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/.
 

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place this summer and many members of staff from across the School are getting involved:

• Catherine Bennett, Department of Media and Communications, is working with the Event Services Mobility Team based at ExCeL London.
• Rachael Elliott, Residential and Catering Services Division, is one of the Mayor of London's London ambassadors in Leicester Square.
• Chris Hunt, Residential and Catering Services Division, has a volunteer role as a crowd first responder in the Athletics Stadium for the Olympic Games.
• Derek King, PSSRU, will be based at Heathrow Airport working as a London ambassador.
• Sooraya Mohabeer, Conference and Events Office, is volunteering in the National Olympic Committee Services Team based at the Athletes’ Village, Stratford, London.
• Jamie Moss, Department of Management, will also be working as a London ambassador in Leicester Square.
• Margaret Perkins, PSSRU, will be based in Covent Garden working as an Olympic ambassador and has also been offered a place as a dancer at the Paralympic opening ceremony.
• Justine Rose, Office of Development and Alumni Relations, is working in the transport team at the Olympic Park Fleet Depot.
• Edgar Whitley, Department of Management, is working as a venue entry team member for both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Two LSE students have created an app that allows people to replace all coupons and loyalty cards with their phone. The app - called Stocard - has been featured by Apple as one of the best apps of 2011 in Germany and Austria and has just been launched in the UK.

Postgraduates Björn Goß and David Handlos (pictured) aim to help people remove clutter from their wallets, while still receiving loyalty prices, with the help of their phone. The free app uses your phone’s camera to scan the card’s bar code. Stocard will then create a new card for you, thus turning your phone into a digital loyalty card. At the checkout, you just show the phone to the cashier and have the digital loyalty card scanned to receive discounts.

The two students developed the app with the help and feedback of fellow LSE students, mentors and professors. 'The weekly events of the LSESU Entrepreneurship Society proved to be especially helpful. We were able to get feedback and exchange ideas with like-minded entrepreneurs, who helped us refine our idea and encouraged us to keep up the entrepreneurial spirit when we hit inevitable bumps in the road,' said David.

LSE academic awarded NUS-Stanford University Distinguished Fellowship

Dr Tim Forsyth (pictured), reader in the Department of International Development, has been awarded the Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford University Distinguished Fellowship on Contemporary Southeast Asia for the 2012-13 academic year.

The fellowship, which is awarded once every year, is based at Stanford University, California, and the National University of Singapore and includes a three month residency at each institution.

Dr Forsyth's work during the fellowship will concern how global environmental norms and expertise are interpreted and implemented in policy in Indonesia and Thailand.

Dr Forsyth said: 'This research will contribute to new initiatives that will make climate change policy work more successfully in developing countries, and provide multiple benefits for local development as well as the global environment. Singapore and Stanford are excellent places to conduct this work.'
 

LSE research article is most cited in 2010 in top management journal

Research jointly authored by Professor Saul Estrin (pictured), professor of management in the Department of Management, has been named as the most cited article in 2010 in the Strategic Management Journal.

The article, Institutions, Resources, and Entry Strategies in Emerging Economies (2008), investigates the impact of market-supporting institutions on business strategies by analysing the entry strategies of foreign investors entering emerging economies. Combining survey and archival data from four emerging economies (India, Vietnam, South Africa and Egypt) it shows how resource-seeking strategies are pursued using different entry modes in different institutional contexts. More
 

Brain drain, brain circulation and brain exchange

On Monday 16 April, Dr Simona Milio of LSE Enterprise’s Social and Cohesion Policy Unit presented the findings of a study on 'Brain Drain, Brain Circulation and Brain Exchange' to Italian prime minister Mario Monti in Rome.

Dr Milio says: ‘The biggest problem for Italy is not simply the negative balance between incoming and outgoing talent, but also the high qualifications of emigrants compared to immigrants. The report proposes that the government considers concrete proposals for both the circulation of talent and to attract highly skilled people.

'Presenting in front of the prime minister and seeing his interest in this topic has made me realise that, although people think that in Italy nothing will ever change, that is not true. There is a governing class interested in how to improve the country.'

The report's findings and recommendations have been welcomed and are already the object of attention from the government. It plans to set up a task force that can develop a road map to implement the necessary steps for improving overall brain circulation and exchange. More
 

New patterns in learning and teaching mathematics and statistics

On 12-13 April, Meena Kotecha (pictured), a teacher in the Department of Mathematics and Department of Statistics at LSE, presented a paper on 'New Patterns in Learning and Teaching Mathematics and Statistics' at the STEM Annual Conference 2012 at Imperial College, London.

The paper discusses how some first year undergraduate students seem to associate mathematics/statistics with unpleasant learning experiences which adversely affects their perceptions of the subjects, obstructing their engagement. These negative associations can manifest themselves as a series of emotions that act as barriers to student engagement with the subjects. Teaching and learning strategies designed to successfully address these areas/barriers should enhance student engagement, enthusiasm and the learning climate in teaching rooms as demonstrated in the paper.

A copy of Meena's paper can be found here.
 

LSE is committed to high standards among its staff, and to ensuring their achievements are recognised and rewarded.

Committees considering contribution awards:

• Academic support, research and teaching staff, bands 1-9: Academic Support, Research and Teaching Contribution Committee (ASRTCC).
• Academic staff (lecturers, senior lecturers and readers), bands 7-9; and LSE fellows, bands 5 and 6: Non-Professorial Contribution Committee (NPCC).
• Senior staff, band 10: recommendations to the Remuneration Committee are made by the Senior Staff Contribution Committee (SSCC), excluding those reporting directly to the Remuneration Committee.

Current session deadlines:

Thursday 19 April: SSCC
Individual contribution statements sent for comment to the relevant colleague:

• Head of department
• Research centre director
• Service leader
• Director’s management team member

Heads of department/research centre directors contribution statements received by HR, for Director’s comments.

Wednesday 2 May: SSCC
Statements received by HR with comments added. Staff considered directly by the Remuneration Committee contribution statements received by HR, for Director’s comments.

Tuesday 8 May: NPCC
Friday 11 May: ASRTCC bands 8-9
Tuesday 15 May: ASRTCC bands 1- 7

LSE Garrick
8am-7pm Monday-Friday

Fourth Floor Restaurant
9am-7pm Monday-Friday

Fourth Floor Café Bar
11am-8pm Monday-Friday

Plaza Café
9am-10pm Monday-Friday
12noon-6pm Saturday and Sunday

Café 54
8.30am-6pm Monday-Friday

NAB Mezzanine
10.30am-4pm Monday-Friday

Staff Dining Room and Café Bar (members only)
Café Bar 10am-4.30pm Monday-Friday
Dining Room 12.30-2.15pm Monday-Friday

Do you have questions about the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) and how it will affect you?

The School's two REF coordinators, professors Nick Barr and Barry Buzan, will be holding an informal 'town hall' meeting specifically for non-professorial staff next week. The meeting is open to all non-professorial academic and research staff.

Nick and Barry will explain how the REF works, who can be submitted and what academic and research staff can do now to prepare for it. They will also answer any questions you may have.

LSE Catering will be promoting another Feel Good Food Day on Wednesday 2 May in the Fourth Floor Restaurant.

The menu will aim to demonstrate that using healthier ingredients, seasonal vegetables and limited meat, dairy or egg-based dishes can benefit your health, the environment and animal welfare.

Staff and research students are invited to the next informal Information Systems and Innovation Group cross-departmental monthly meeting, which looks at ICTs and development.

At the next meeting, which will take place on Thursday 3 May from 1-2pm in room NAB 8.03, Carla Bonina will be speaking on ‘Organising Technology in Mexico’s Foreign Trade Regulations: mixing modernisation discourses’.

LSE Annual Fund funding deadline

Get your project off the ground with an Annual Fund grant. Visit apply for funding where you will find details on applying, including guidelines, contact details and the link to the online application form.

Please submit your application by Wednesday 9 May at 5.30pm - late submissions will not be accepted.
 

Applications are invited from LSE PhD students for mobility bursaries to visit one of the School's institutional partners (Columbia University, New York; The National University of Singapore (NUS); Peking University, Beijing; Sciences Po, Paris; or the University of Cape Town, South Africa) in order to work informally with an advisor on their PhD thesis, research and/or on related publications and presentations, and to introduce them to the academic culture, professional contacts and employment opportunities of another country/region.

For 2012-13, up to ten bursaries are on offer to visit one of the above five partner institutions. For any one partner institution, up to two flat rate bursaries of £2,500 are available.

Students registered for PhD studies at any LSE department and who have already been upgraded to full doctoral student status are eligible to apply. Each visit should be a minimum of two months and a maximum of three months in duration.

New Students' Centre news

The LSE Estates April newsletter for the New Students' Centre project is now available, click here.

The newsletter includes progress information and photos and details of the Centre achieving BREEAM Outstanding Status.
 

Any LSE Catering customer using their card as a method of payment and spending £30 or more a month will be entered into a prize draw with five lucky winners each month getting £10 added to their loyalty purse.

The winners of the prize draw for March were:

• Nandini Mathur
• Vicente Cunat
• Gerd Inger Aarnes
• Daniel Cramer
• Keith Tritton
   

The Photographers' Gallery, London, is organising a major public art project to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Celebrating London as a place where people from all parts of the world live side by side, the project brings together specially commissioned photographic portraits of 204 Londoners, each originating from one of the nations competing at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Katherine Wallis of LSE Cities has been working as a volunteer on the project, interviewing a number of the portrait sitters and recording their life stories. So far 198 portraits have been taken but there are six nations from which the Photographers' Gallery is still searching for portrait sitters: American Samoa, FS Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau.

Large flat in Crouch End, London, available June to September 2012

The flat is light and spacious, fully furnished and carpeted, with high ceilings. It is old fashioned but has been newly-renovated, with two double bedrooms and two bathrooms. It includes a private garden-patio area with table and chairs and BBQ.

It has a large living room with dining area and a fully equipped kitchen (dishwasher, fridge/freezer, washing machine/dryer, microwave, cutlery and crockery). Includes TV, radio and DVD, bedlinen, towels, vacuum cleaner, and free wi-fi access.

There is parking on the street and it is only a one minute walk to Crouch End village. Alexandra Palace, Highgate Woods and Hampstead Heath are all nearby. It is also within reach of London Underground stations and has good access to central bus routes.

Must pay own utilities and local tax. Full-time students local-tax-exempt. For more information, contact Jonathan Stanley or Susan Goldblatt at jonathanstanley@virginmedia.com or europehome@virginmedia.com. More details and photos can be found at www.sabbaticalhomes.com (listing 46465).

This week's picture features students and staff making the most of the multimedia resources and foreign language newspapers in the LSE Language Centre, based in Clare Market Building.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

This year’s planned increase in the national minimum wage will leave it lower than it was in 2004 after inflation is taken into account, according to a new report by LSE professor Alan Manning for the independent think tank the Resolution Foundation.

The minimum wage will rise in cash terms from £6.08 to £6.19 this October, its third successive below inflation increase, leaving it 6 percent below its 2009 peak in real terms.

New events just announced....

Dial M for Murdoch
On: Wednesday 9 May at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Martin Hickman, news editor at The Independent, and Tom Watson (pictured), MP for West Bromwich East.

Advancing Global Trade and Employment Together: shared opportunities and responsibilities for the United States and the European Union
On: Tuesday 22 May at 12pm. The venue will be confirmed to ticket holders.
Speaker: Ambassador Ron Kirk (pictured), United States trade representative.
LSE students and staff can request one ticket via the online ticket request form after 10pm on Monday 14 May.

End This Depression Now!
On: Tuesday 29 May at 6.30pm in the Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street
Speaker: Professor Paul Krugman (pictured), professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University.
LSE students and staff can request one ticket via the online ticket request form after 10pm on Thursday 17 May.
 

Other events include....

Breakout Nations: in search of the next economic miracle
On: Monday 30 April at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley.

After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East?
On: Tuesday 1 May at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Dr Amnon Aran, senior lecturer at the Department of International Politics, City University, Roger Cohen, columnist for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times, and Professor Anoush Ehteshami, professor and joint director of the ESRC Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, University of Durham.

Come and watch our talented students and staff perform at the LSE Chill open performance evening. The next session is this Friday (27 April) from 5.30pm in the Fourth Floor Café Bar and the event is open all.

The line up for the evening is as follows:

6-6.30pm David Lewis
Described by Sing Out as 'a writer and singer worth getting to know', and his work as 'smart song-craft' (CD Now), David Lewis has recorded and released three CDs of acoustic folk-rock since the early 1990s. His most recent release is 'Ghost Rhymes' (2007).

6.45-7.15pm The Teesside Specials
The Teesside Specials are a three-piece student pop rock band that have played at a number of LSE events and several LSE Chills. They call themselves 'the best (and possibly only) pop-rock trio at LSE'.

7.30-8pm Konni Deppe and Martin Slade (Le Swing Electrique)
Konni Deppe (Vocals) and Martin Slade (Guitar) will be performing an eclectic range of jazz standards. Konni shares her time between working for LSE Residential Services and a professional singing and teaching career in the UK and Germany. Martin has spent many years gigging in indie, rock, blues and jazz bands, when not whizzing across campus to fix broken network outlets.

How to Cope With a Terrorist Attack? Challenges to Political and Administrative Leadership

On: Tuesday 1 May from 1- 2:30pm in room KSW 3.01, 20 Kingsway
Speaker: Professor Tom Christensen (pictured), professor of public administration and organisation theory at the University of Oslo.

At this event Professor Christensen will describe the pattern of reaction and handling of the political and administrative leadership, describe their contrasting challenges and explain why their actions draw such differentiated reactions from the public, media and involved stake-holders. More
 

On: Tuesday 1 May from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Dr Robin Murray, co-founder of Twin Trading, and Dr Gavan Titley (pictured), a lecturer in media studies at the National University of Ireland.

Like desperate King Canutes, our political leaders continue to implement austerity cuts and trumpet the free market, despite an apparently worsening global financial crisis. Their reasoning? There is no alternative.

Academics and activists, Dr Murray and Dr Titley argue otherwise, countering the dominant discourse with examples of existing alternatives from the social economy and from the perspective of the alternative media.

On: Wednesday 2 May from 10.30am-1.30pm in room COW 1.11, Cowdray House

The speakers at this event will include Miquel Salvador, associate lecturer at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Juan Carlos Belloso, advisor in city branding, City Council of Barcelona, and Joaquim Llimona, director of international relations and cooperation, City Council of Barcelona.

The workshops will be chaired by Professor Henry Overman, director of the LSE Spatial Economics Research Centre, and Dr Simona Iammarino, reader in economic geography and regional science in the LSE Department of Geography and Environment.

The Politics of Squares

On: Wednesday 2 May from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Professor Helmut K Anheier, dean at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Professor Mary Kaldor, director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE, Ahmed Naguib, activist and co-founder of the Council of the Trustees of the Revolution in Egypt, and Laurie Penny (pictured), journalist and feminist activist.

To mark the launch of the tenth anniversary edition of the Global Civil Society Yearbook, two of the founding editors will discuss this blossoming radicalisation of civil society with Ahmed Naguib and Laurie Penny, and ask what is new about the current Politics of Squares. More
 

On: Thursday 3 May from 1-2pm in room NAB 2.14, New Academic Building

Speaker Rapahel Mokades is the founder and managing director of Rare Recruitment, an organisation whose mission is to 'help the best employers in the world build workforces of brilliant people that reflect society's diversity.' His clients include Barclays Wealth, Google, EDF Energy, City Year and L'Oréal.

To hear his thoughts on this subject and to pose your questions, email embrace@lse.ac.uk by Monday 30 April to book your place.

On: Thursday 3 May from 6-8pm in room NAB 2.04, New Academic Building

EMBRACE is holding an evening conference to mark the first anniversary of the launch of the Black and Asian Ethnic Minority (BAME) staff network at LSE.

The conference covers experiences of BAME people in higher education in relation to the Equality Act 2010. It will start with a critique of the act, followed by different speakers, discussions and networking. Most people would support the view that a modern, tolerant, liberal society is one in which citizens should not experience unfair discrimination. However, discrimination as a concept is not straightforward.

Speakers will include:

Dr Chaloka Beyani, senior lecturer in law at LSE, will chair the event.

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Citizens' Privileges or Human Rights? The Great Bill of Rights Swindle
Speaker: Shami Chakrabarti
Recorded: Tuesday 20 March, approx 87 minutes
Click here to listen

Poor Economics: barefoot hedge-fund managers, reluctant entrepreneurs and the surprising truth about life on less than $1 a day
Speaker: Professor Abhijit Banerjee
Recorded: Monday 26 March, approx 85 minutes
Click here to listen

Training for staff

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• English Through Film

• Quality Papers: writing journal articles

• Getting to Grips with the Office 2010 Upgrade

• Recruitment and Selection

For a full listing of what is available and further details, including booking information, see www.lse.ac.uk/training.
 

Software Surgery

The Software Surgery is a drop-in service where both staff and students can get training on specific software and web applications. We cover:

• Statistical software: SPSS and Stata

• Qualitative analysis: Alceste, Atlas.ti, and Nvivo

• Microsoft Office: Access, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Word

• Learning technologies: Moodle, lecture capture, electronic voting systems, etc

• Library technologies: Endnote, e-journals and online data sources

To avoid disappointment, book in advance via the Training and Development System and you can be sure that your question will be covered. A member of the team will be on hand to help you learn what you need to solve your particular problem.

• Ensuring quality in all you do
  Tuesday 8 May, 10am-5pm
• Getting the most from meetings
  Tuesday 15 May, 10am-5pm
• Developing yourself as a manager
  Tuesday 15 May, 10am-5pm
• Managing change
  Wednesday 23 May, 10am-5pm
• Equality and diversity for non-managers
  Tuesday 29 May, 9.45am-1pm
• Performance Development Review: making it happen and doing it well
  Tuesday 29 May, 10am-1pm

HR Organisational and Lifelong Learning has developed two highly interactive workshops that will focus on the behavioural skills of promoting and practising diversity to understand how bias and prejudice occur, challenging inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, and further promote LSE’s diversity values.

The dates for these workshops are:

• Equality and Diversity for Non-Managers
  Tuesday 29 May from 9.45am-1pm
• Equality and Diversity for Managers
  Tuesday 26 June from 9.45am-1pm

Below are some of the vacancies currently being advertised to internal candidates only, as well as those being advertised externally.

• CEP research assistant (productivity and innovation programme), Centre for Economic Performance
• CEP research assistant (Management Survey), Centre for Economic Performance
• Conference manager, LSE Cities
• Deputy head of alumni relations (maternity cover), ODAR: alumni relations
• Development associate (maternity cover), ODAR: major gift fundraising
• Employer engagement adviser, LSE Careers Service
• Faculty administrative assistant, Economics
• Fundraising research and data analysis officer, ODAR: research and academic liaison
• LSE fellow in government (two posts), Government
• LSE fellow in urban and development geography, Geography and Environment
• LSE100 class teacher (GTA), LSE100 The LSE Course
• LSE100 teaching fellow, LSE100 The LSE Course
• LSE fellowships (up to three posts), Law
• Lecturer in social psychology/organisational psychology, Social Psychology
• MSc management and exchanges programme manager, Management
• Marketing and communications coordinator, LSE Careers Service
• Programme administrator and compliance coordinator, International Relations
• Programme office manager, IT Services: MIS
• Research fellow (economics of climate risk), Grantham Research Institute
• Research officer, PSSRU
• Research officer (part-time), PSSRU
• Research officer, LSE Health and Social Care
• Research supervisor, Teaching and Learning Centre
• Student enquiries coordinator, LSE Careers Service
• Web producer (corporate websites), Communications
• Widening participation manager (maternity cover), ARD: student recruitment

Nicole wants to hear from you!

Do you have some news, an achievement, or an aspect of LSE life that you would like to share? If so, then I would love to hear from you, contact me at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk or on ext 7582.

The next edition of Staff News is on Thursday 3 May. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Tuesday 1 May. Staff News is emailed every Thursday during term time and fortnightly during the holidays.