Constitution Carnival
Take a look at the film of this summer's Constitution Carnival and see how you can involved with the project...

Saw Swee Hock Student Centre
Join the celebrations as we mark the official opening of LSE's newest building.

Konni Deppe

Konni has had a number of roles during her time at LSE, but her talents extend far beyond her work in the Residential and Catering Services Division...

 Research

 LSE in pictures

 Events

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 Notices

LSE Director announces Global Health Initiative

LSE Director Professor Craig Calhoun has announced the formation of a new School-wide Global Health Initiative.

Matteo said: “Each delegate I met was an interesting and unique character. We were offered a coaching session and had plenty of opportunity to practise speaking in front of audiences. I definitely feel more confident about my public speaking skills.”

Professor George Gaskell

Last week LSE Director Professor Craig Calhoun hosted a reception to mark Professor George Gaskell’s end of tenure as Pro-Director for Resources and Planning at LSE. Colleagues toasted Professor Gaskell’s seven years of service on the sixth floor of the Saw Swee Hock Centre, a project in which Professor Gaskell was greatly involved. Professor Gaskell expressed his thanks to colleagues for their hard work and support over the years, and claimed it had never felt like a day of work. He remains at LSE as Director of LSE100 as well as a Special Advisor to the LSE Director.
 

Professor John Van Reenen jointly awarded the 2014 EIB Prize for Excellence in Economic and Social Research

Professor John Van Reenen, Department of Economics and Centre for Economic Performance, received the European Investment Bank Institute’s 2014 ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ at a ceremony in Berlin on Thursday 25 September. The accolade, jointly awarded to Professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, recognises academics whose research is related to innovation, market structure and competitiveness.

In a lecture to mark his award, Professor Van Reenen examined the challenges Europe faces and said: “Major improvements are possible and desirable if opportunities are seized through structural reforms. However, these structural reforms must be accompanied by accommodating monetary and fiscal policies.” 
 

A Liberian Minister visiting LSE last week issued a direct appeal to the international community to help the country deal with the outbreak of Ebola as he revealed that the number of people affected by the disease has exceeded 3,000.

Axel Addy, Liberia’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, warned that the numbers succumbing to the epidemic could ‘explode beyond control’.

Last month, the LSE Language Centre held a conference on campus looking at ‘The Future of the Multilingual City’. The conference was the culmination of a two year research project called LUCIDE (Languages in Urban Communities Integration and Diversity for Europe) that looked at the impact of multilingualism in the city and its implications for education, the economy, civil society and urban planning.

Constitutional Carnival film

On Monday 26 June, LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre hosted Constitution UK’s Constitutional Carnival. Featuring special guests including Peter Tatchell, Martin Lewis, and Baroness Joyce Quinn, amongst others, this special one-off event brought together members of the School and of the general public in order to create LSE’s very own constitutional moment in the run-up to the project’s second stage: hacking a written constitution for the United Kingdom. A film of the event can be seen here.
 

Since April 2013, researchers in receipt of a grant from Research Councils UK (RCUK) (ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, AHRC) have been required to ensure their papers comply with the RCUK Open Access Policy. The RCUK policy requires that research outputs are made available as open access no later than 12 months after publication.

During September 2014, the Library reported on the first 15 months under this policy, identifying 141 LSE authored papers that were wholly or partially funded by RCUK in that period. Out of those, 123 were made available via open access, achieving a level of compliance of 87 per cent, way in excess of RCUK’s first year target of 45 per cent.

Over the past year DMT and LSE Advancement have conducted a review of all fundraising activity at the School. One outcome of this in 2014-15 is that the Annual Fund will focus solely on raising funds and the stewardship of its donors. Funds will now be allocated through the School's budgetary processes to strategic priorities as identified by the strategic review process in line with Annual Fund donor preferences.

Paper presentation proposals are invited for the IMA's 'International Conference on Barriers and Enablers to Learning Maths: Enhancing learning and teaching for all learners' to be held from Wednesday 10 June - Friday 12 June 2015.

LSE's Meena Kotecha, Department of Statistics and Management, is co-chairing the organising/scientific committee at the conference and will be leading two special sessions which will each consist of four papers. These sessions will look at 'Enhancing student engagement with mathematics and statistics' and 'Addressing mathematics and statistics anxiety'.

Meena would welcome submissions on these two themes which are interdisciplinary and will hopefully interest a number of departments.

An extra special LSE Chill will take place on Friday 24 October from 2-4pm to celebrate the Saw Swee Hock opening ceremony.

A new Pilates class for LSE staff is starting on Tuesday 7 October at 1-2pm in the Faith Centre, second floor of the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre.

The class includes a range of exercises to strengthen and tone the whole body, particularly the core abdominal muscles, and is great for improving balance, alignment, flexibility and posture. The class is a suitable for all levels, including complete beginners, and is £5 drop-in.

LSE Rejoice - keeping God in full view

Roll your chair back and step away from your desk. Why? A new ‘outlook’ is starting at LSE with LSE Rejoice. Will you make the time to join us? Someone might just become aware of God’s work in the world – just because of you.

You are invited to a Praise and Worship session with LSE Rejoice on Friday 10 October at 12-1pm in the LSE Faith Centre on the second floor of Saw Swee Hock Student Centre. There will be a session at the same time and location every Friday. For further information, please email rejoice@lse.ac.uk or call 07904 656 122 or 07898 677 874.
 

More for less - special offers for LSE staff

LSE staff can now get a special discount for Alexander Technique lessons taking place at the Bloomsbury Centre, just a five minute walk from LSE.

If you spend a lot of time sitting or standing, reading or using a computer then how you use yourself in these and many other daily activities can have a profound effect on how well you function.

Lessons can relieve back pain, RSI, help improve posture, lessen depression and anxiety and make you sound better. Improvements in these areas lead to a better general appearance and enhance your confidence generally.

This week's picture features BAFTA award winning film maker Roger Graef in conversation with Conor Gearty to celebrate the opening of the new Media Studio, which is on the roof of Tower 2.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

Should we lower the voting age to 16?

Sixteen year olds in the UK can't drink, drive, get a tattoo or watch an R-rated film. Why should we give them voting rights? Sean Kippin, Managing Editor of Democratic Audit at LSE, sought a range of views on this subject.

Sex and fertility versus health in AIDS stricken Africa

How do you reconcile the basic sexual and fertility needs of 25 million Africans with the stark reality of HIV/AIDS? Roughly 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. That’s about half of the total population of England, to put it into perspective. The impact is devastating and extends way beyond a health crisis, with far reaching effects on the African workforce, family, education system and the economy in general.

'The Paradox of China's Peaceful Rise' - on Tuesday 7 October at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building with Professor Barry Buzan (pictured) and Professor Arne Westad

Despite the widespread view that China does not have a coherent grand strategy, China has already articulated one that is based on the home-grown idea of ‘peaceful rise/development’. The key issue is whether the logic of this grand strategy, and the contradictions within it, are fully understood, and whether China has sufficient depth and coherence in its policy-making processes to implement such a strategy. More
 

'Inequality and the one per cent: what goes wrong when the rich become too rich' - on Tuesday 7 October at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building with Professor Danny Dorling

It is widely accepted that high rates of inequality are damaging to society, though some sceptics remain unconvinced. The most damaging form of economic inequality now appears to occur when the very richest one per cent take more and more, even if the other 99 per cent are becoming more equal. So what exactly is it about inequality that causes most harm? More
 

'Improving basic services for the bottom 40 per cent: lessons from Ethiopia' - on Wednesday 8 October at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building with Dr Qaiser Khan (pictured), Marta Foresti, Peter Hawkins, Dr Andy Norton

Dr Qaiser Khan will be joined by a panel to discuss Improving Basic Services for the Bottom 40 per cent: Lessons from Ethiopia, which examines Ethiopia's model in delivering basic services and why it appears to be succeeding. More
 

'The History Manifesto' - on Wednesday 8 October at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building with Professor David Armitage, Dr Jo Guldi (pictured), Professor Simon Szreter

How should historians speak truth to power - and why does it matter? Why is 500 years better than five months or five years as a planning horizon? And why is history - especially long-term history - so essential to understanding the multiple pasts which gave rise to our conflicted present? The History Manifesto is a ‘call to arms’ to historians and everyone interested in the role of history in contemporary society. More
 

The Systemic Risk Centre and Financial Markets Group are organising a special seminar with Hyun Song Shin, Economic Adviser and Head of Research at the Bank for International Settlements on Monday 6 October. Mr Shin will present on the topic of 'The changing face of financial intermediation and the second phase of global liquidity'. The seminar will be held at LSE from 12–1pm, with guests having the opportunity to stay until 2pm for lunch and further discussion with Mr Shin.

Launch of LSE Entrepreneurship

LSE Entrepreneurship is a new unit designed to encourage debate about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking. It is holding its launch event and reception on Tuesday 7 October, with a speech to be given by successful LSE alumnus and entrepreneur Erich Spangenberg. Everyone interested in finding out more about LSE Entrepreneurship is very welcome to attend. Email entrepreneurship@lse.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday 3 October to book a place. Seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. More
 

'Lessons for Democratisation Theory from the Arab World: Insights from a paired comparison of Egypt and Tunisia' - on Thursday 9 October at 1pm in Room 9.04, Tower 2 with Dr Eva Bellin

Eva Bellin will explore and question the differential experience of Egypt and Tunisia in the years since the overthrow of Mubarak and Ben Ali in 2011. Why has Tunisia succeeded in the process of democratic transition while Egypt has failed? More
 

'The Thirteenth Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek crisis' - on Wednesday 15 October at 6.30pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building with Yannis Palaiologos

Yannis Palaiologos will present his new book The Thirteenth Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek crisis. More
 

'The Impact of European Employment Strategy in Greece and Portugal' - on Monday 20 October at 6pm in Cañada Blanch Room, Cowdray House (COW1.11) with Sotirios Zartaloudis

Sotirios Zartaloudis will present his new book The Impact of European Employment Strategy in Greece and Portugal. More
 

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Growth, Policy and Institutions: lessons from the Indian experience
Speakers: Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Professor Lord Stern
Recorded: Thursday 25 September 2014, approx. 80 minutes

Formality Bias: the habits holding Africa back
Speaker: Dayo Olopade
Recorded: Friday 26 September 2014 approx. 62 minutes

How to Build the Future
Speaker: Peter Thiel
Recorded: 26 September 2014, approx. 54 minutes 

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

• Administrator, Information Management and Technology
• Assessment Regulations and Appeals Manager, ARD: Student Administration
• Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy
• Assistant Space Planning Manager, Estates Division
• Country Programme Director, International Growth Centre
• Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Department of Social Policy
• Marketing Coordinator, Academic Registrar's Division
• Academic Registrar's Division, Finance Division