LSE Christmas Carol Service

Dates for staff portraits

School photographer Nigel Stead will be holding a staff portrait photo sessions on Thursday 11 December. Just turn up anytime between 2-5pm.

Sarah Slater

Sarah, Senior Disability Adviser and Deputy Head of Student Wellbeing, loves cooking and watching 'Bake Off’.... "There are so many excellent reasons to eat cake!"

 Research

 LSE in pictures

 News

 Training and jobs

Dr Karl Newton (pictured), research manager in LSE Advancement, has been recognised by the Institute of Fundraising with the Outstanding Contribution Award.

This award reflects Karl’s standing within the fundraising research profession and his long and successful record at LSE since joining in 1998.

His work has had a huge impact on fundraisers and researchers across the whole charitable sector, and this award is fitting tribute to his knowledge and ability, and his generosity in sharing these with fellow professionals.

Dr Ruth Kattumuri (pictured), Co-Director of the LSE India Observatory and Asia Research Centre, has received the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Award 2014 in recognition of her contributions and dedication to worthy causes, and her achievements in keeping the flag of India high.

Heriot-Watt University has awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctorate) to Professor Ragnar Norberg (pictured).

Professor Norberg was Professor of Statistics at LSE from 2000-2010 and is now Emeritus Professor of Statistics. He is currently based at the Universite Lyon 1.

Lord Anthony Giddens (pictured), former Director of LSE, has been awarded the European Book Prize of 2014 for his work Turbulent and Mighty Continent: What Future for Europe?

The European Book Prize (Prix du Livre Européen) seeks to promote European values, and to contribute to European citizens' better understanding of the European Union as a cultural entity. This is only the second time a British author has won this highly prestigious award, which is decided by a jury drawn from a variety of different countries.

LSE HR Director becomes new Chair of the CRAC Board of Trustees

Indi Seehra (pictured), Director of HR at LSE, has become the new Chair of the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Board of Trustees.

CRAC is an independent organisation dedicated to supporting career development and active, career-related learning. Working since 1964, key initiatives for CRAC include leading and managing Vitae, a major international programme dedicated to realising the potential of researchers, supporting career decisions at 18, and providing research and careers innovation to a range of sectors and client groups.

The Student Wellbeing Service stall, held outside the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre last Friday, was a great success.

The stall's focus was the Christmas break. Holidays can be a stressful and emotional time of year so it’s important to try and look after yourself as much as possible. Staff from the Disability and Wellbeing Service, the Student Counselling Service, the Faith Centre and Peer Support were on hand from 10am-2pm and mince pies, chocolates and fruit were handed out to passers-by.

People were asked to complete statements including, "Five things I will do to look after myself in the holidays", "I will de-stress in the holidays by…" and "I will look after myself in the holidays by…".

Over the day, 134 people gave suggestions of things they would do to support their wellbeing over the holiday period. Ideas included helping others, watching Netflix, travelling, singing, running, shopping, exercising, eating and (by far the most popular method!) sleeping.

The stall also promoted the "Time To Change" campaign that aims to end mental health discrimination. This year’s campaign is "It’s time to talk". One in four of us experience a mental health problem in any given year and talking about mental health can help us break down barriers and end stigma and discrimination.

New Gearty Grilling online

A new Gearty Grilling video, part of the series of short video debates between Conor Gearty, director of the IPA and professor of human rights law, and leading researchers at LSE, is now online.

Academics abroad

At the end of November, Mareike Schomerus, of the Justice and Security Research Programme in the Department of International Development, gave a paper on the role of international criminal law in peace processes at the The Historical Origins of International Criminal Law conference in New Delhi.

LSE IDEA's John Collins and Professor Danny Quah met Guatemala's Foreign Minister, His Excellency Carlos Raul Morales, and Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Acisclo Valladares Molina on Thursday 27 November to discuss the international war on drugs, in preparation for the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs.

Last week all staff and governors were sent details of this year’s annual Declarations of Interest Survey. Many thanks to all those who have already completed the survey. We have received over 600 responses. However, this is just 19 per cent of all staff and governors.

If you are yet to do so, please complete your survey to ensure we gain a complete picture of the many interests in play at LSE. You should still fill in your survey if you have no interests to declare. If this is the case it will take less than five minutes to respond.

The Research Division are planning a series of workshops for the Lent and Summer terms discussing various topics related to managing a funded research project.

They would like your feedback to help them develop interesting and useful workshops for LSE academics and professional staff, like you.

By completing a short survey, your input will help the Research Division to improve their services. There are only 10 multiple-choice questions and the survey takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. Complete the short survey here.

Call for papers: Resistance or Resilience? New Avenues of active citizenship in Southeast Europe

This workshop, taking place at LSE on 7-8 May 2015, is being organised by the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, and LSEE - Research on South Eastern Europe.

The aim of the workshop is to publish a selection of the papers in a peer-reviewed journal special issue or edited book. For more information, click here.

To propose a paper, please send an abstract (200-300 words) and a biographical note (100-200 words) to Indraneel Sircar at fringe.politics@qmul.ac.uk by Thursday 18 December. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 January 2015.
 

LSE IDEAS will soon advertise and open a call for applications for three post-doctoral positions attached to the Dahrendorf Project in London.

The profile of the research will focus on EU relations with Russia and Ukraine, the United States and China, respectively.

If you're in need of a staff portrait, make a date to go over to G19 in the Old Building on Thursday 11 December anytime between 2-5pm. There's no need to book.

The School’s two-year leave planner/calendar is now available to order.

It comes in two parts: Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec, and is double sided. Side one is for 2015 and side two for 2016. At the end of 2015, you simply turn it over to display 2016.

Planner/calendar features:

• it is laminated so you can use highlighters on it so that text can be later erased if need be
• School closure dates indicated
• comes in A5, A4 or A3 sizes, for either team use or individual use
• each of the two parts is either A5, A4 or A3 depending on size ordered
• term periods shaded so you can immediately differentiate between term time and non-term time
• term dates stated (2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17)

Please click here to view it.

To be in for a chance to win a trip for two to The View from the Shard, and to see your work displayed on campus, submit your photos to the LSE Photo Prize.

Staff and students can enter up to three photos into the competition - submissions close at midnight on Wednesday 28 January. A selection of submitted photos will be displayed around the LSE campus during the Literary Festival, which will be on the theme Foundations, in February 2015.

Message from Professor Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus of Economics

Dear LSE colleagues,
There is to be a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square. This nine feet bronze statue has been sculpted by Philip Jackson, an internationally renowned sculptor.

I have set up a Trust to collect donations for the statue. All statues in Parliament square are paid for by public subscriptions.

LSE start-up launches crowdfunding campaign

Amir Deng, a graduate intern working in the Widening Participation Team, invites LSE staff to follow and support a crowdfunding campaign by LowCost Fitness.

The platform, which is co-founded by Amir, is an online booking and management system for those in the fitness industry. They are trying to raise £12,000 for marketing material and to support the launch of the website, which will be live next week.

To view the campaign, visit http://igg.me/at/lowcostfitness or browse the health category at www.indigogo.com. For more information, contact Amir on a.deng@lse.ac.uk.
 

£5 tickets to Graham Swift (pictured) reads from England and other Stories at the British Library on Monday 15 December from 6.30-8pm

Join Booker Prize-winning author Graham Swift as he reads from his latest collection England and Other Stories. A new series of narratives which depict a richly-peopled vision of England, from world-shaking events to the secret dramas lived out in rooms, workplaces and homes.

This week's picture features the new installation of public art above the main entrance to Old Building. Final Sale is composed of both recycled imagery and materials, and "examines the socio-political and economic effects created by the current financial climate - exploring the realm of modern day economics and its effect on today’s society."
For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

More than half of the children born in the UK at the turn of the millennium have experienced poverty at some point during their first 11 years.

A new study, edited by Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology, also found that more than one in six of the 13,000 ‘children of the new century’ have been brought up in persistently poor families.

Children living in Wales and Northern Ireland were more likely to be poor at age 11 and to have been persistently poor, as were children of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, according to the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).

Adolescents who have poor relationships with their fathers are more likely to fare worse psychologically if they become unemployed as adults says new research from the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE.

According to the research published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, young people aged between 11-15 who argue more, on average, with their fathers are significantly more likely to suffer a much bigger knock to their mental wellbeing and life satisfaction when they experience unemployment later in their lives. They are also less likely to bounce back psychologically from a long spell of unemployment compared to the ‘average person’.

Boys who have a lot of fights with friends at school also seem to suffer more from the worst effects of unemployment. But those who frequently talk to their fathers about ‘things that matter’ seem to be buffered from its worst impacts.

On: Tuesday 9 December from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Costas Simitis (pictured), former Greek Prime Minister

In today’s globalised world, economic, social and political ties between states have become irrevocably entwined; a return to complete autonomy is no longer possible for any country of the Union.

In the EU’s current context the problem is not one of regaining lost autonomy but the formulation of a common European policy fit for modern boundary-transcending conditions and which responds to the needs and particularities of the peoples of the Union.

Costas Simitis will present his new book and will deliver this lecture on the future of the Eurozone.

Other forthcoming LSE events include....

The Tyranny of Experts
On: Monday 8 December at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor William Easterly (pictured)

Democracy, Decency and Devolution
On: Monday 8 December at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Dame Tessa Jowell

Three lectures by Professor Angus Deaton (pictured):
A Menagerie of Lines: how to decide who is poor?
On: Tuesday 9 December at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Getting Prices Right: the mysteries of the index
On: Wednesday 10 December at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Papal Infallibility? Global poverty, and the mystery of global inequality
On: Thursday 11 December at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building

In Conversation with Shirley Williams
On: Wednesday 10 December at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Lady Williams

Lunchtime Concert
On: Thursday 11 December at 1.05pm in the Shaw Library, 6th floor, Old Building
Performer: Wu String Quartet (pictured)

'Everyone is entitled…' The global struggle for women's human rights
On: Thursday 11 December at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speakers: Professor Fareda Banda, Téa Braun, Jane Gordon, and Saraswathi Menon
 

On: Thursday 4 December from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Cho Khong, Chief Political Analyst at Shell International, Chi-Kong Chyong, Director of the Energy Policy Forum and ECFR Visiting Fellow, and Julian Popov (pictured), Fellow at the European Climate Foundation.

In the context of the energy security strategy published in May 2014, this discussion will look at how the EU energy policy is supporting energy security and with what policy tools. It will also address the EU’s energy relationship with Russia, how dependence can be reduced through diversification, and at what cost.

Social Psychology open lectures: Social Psychology, Social Movements and Social Change

On: Tuesday 9 December from 2.15-3.45pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Cathy Campbell, Department of Social Psychology

How can social psychology contribute to the understanding and practice of social change in unequal settings? Is social change best advanced through a fragmented series of small scale activities or through a concerted and united ‘big push’?

The phenomenon of social change is core to social psychology. However, many of the methods used (e.g. experiments, discourse analysis) are poor tools for informing real-world action to increase human wellbeing and sustainability.

This lecture presents an activist approach to social psychology, discussing the role of (i) the new social movements; and (ii) post-disaster citizenship in advancing conceptualisations of social change that take account of the growing complexity of 21st century social relations.

You are invited to hear the LSE Circles Choir singing on Wednesday 10 December at 4.15pm in the Faith Centre, Saw Swee Hock Building.

This is our first concert, and we will be singing a short programme which will only last about 20 minutes. Please do come along and enjoy our unique sound.

If you can’t join us at the concert, come and join us in singing next term - Wednesdays at 4pm in the Faith Centre. No auditions, no need to read music, no experience needed, everyone welcome.

On: Wednesday 10 December at 5.30pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building.

End the term on a festive note with traditional carols and readings. Featuring the LSE Choir.

Free and open to all staff and students, with mulled wine and mince pies included.
 

Local Governance in Times of Crisis - Lessons for Greece from the City of Thessaloniki

On: Thursday 11 December from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Yiannis Boutaris (pictured), Mayor of Thessaloniki

Amidst the economic crisis in Greece, something unusual emerged in Thessaloniki, the idiosyncratic “co-Capital” of the country. Under the mayorship of Yiannis Boutaris, the first non-political figure to be elected as Mayor in the city’s modern history, the city started to re-invent itself, beginning from its very own mode of governance.

In this lecture, the Mayor of Thessaloniki will talk about the challenges of administrative modernisation and the necessary institutional changes Greece needs to work at the level of local administration.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket or pre-registration required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. More
 

On: Thursday 11 December from 6.30-8pm in room TW2 9.04, Tower 2
Speaker: Professor Stephen Kotkin (pictured), John P Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University

In Stalin, Stephen Kotkin offers a biography that is equal to this shrewd, sociopathic, charismatic dictator in all his dimensions. Stalin emerges as both cynical and true believing, canny enough to see through people but prone to nonsensical beliefs, a precocious geostrategic thinker - unique among Bolsheviks - who made egregious strategic blunders. His momentous decisions are set in the context of the sweeping, tragic history of Russia.

EXHIBITION - Art as Social Document

Open until 23 January 2015 in the Atrium Gallery, Old Building

In association with LSE Arts, Art as a Social Document presents a selection of work by the British photographer Mark Neville. The artist’s socially engaged practice builds a natural bridge to the academic debates on the issues of inequality, class, race, and conflict.

This exhibition is open to all with no ticket required. Visitors are welcome during weekdays (Monday - Friday) between 10am and 8pm (excluding bank holidays, when the school is closed, at Christmas 24 December 2014 - 5 January 2015).

Podcasts of public lectures and events

More Women Can Run: why women remain underrepresented in politics
Speaker: Professor Susan J Carroll
Recorded: Monday 24 November, approx. 88 minutes

Foreign Policy in a Time of Turmoil
Speaker: Børge Brende
Recorded: Tuesday 25 November, approx. 45 minutes

Pressed for Time: the acceleration of life in digital capitalism
Speaker: Professor Judy Wajcman
Recorded: Thursday 27 November, approx. 91 minutes

Information Session: How to apply for Impact Acceleration funding
Tuesday 9 December from 12-1pm
The Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) is a new source of funding from the ESRC to enhance and promote the impact of LSE research on non-academic groups and audiences. There are various funding schemes to apply for, including secondments, policy briefings for the Parliament and a general impact fund. This session will give an overview of how IAA funds are being used, how to apply for funds, and the types of activities that would be eligible. This session will be delivered by the Institute of Public Affairs Manager, Paul Sullivan.

Introduction to the REF
Wednesday 14 January from 12-1pm
Outlines the REF, what it means, what tools are used, and implications for LSE.

Attracting corporate research funding while safeguarding academic independence
Wednesday 14 January from 5.30-7pm
Successful academic-business partnerships are built on high quality research, close collaboration and academic independence. They offer academics an array of benefits including insight into new and innovative business practice, and access to funding and valuable data.
Academics interested in finding out more about engaging with corporations are invited to attend this panel discussion examining the benefits and potential pitfalls of business partnerships.
Panellists include:

• Professor Julia Black, LSE Pro-Director for Research
• Susan Liautaud, LSE alumna and international ethics/governance consultant
• Mark Selby, Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey with over 30 years of senior executive experience in technology, media and telecom

Information Session: Looking for funding opportunities - online tools
Thursday 15 January from 12-1pm
Research Professional is an online access to news and funding opportunities. In this session, participants will learn how to set up your profile and use Research Professional to search for suitable funding opportunities. This hand-on session will be delivered in a computer lab and run Run by a Research Development Manager from Research Division. This session will run every term.

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

• Assistant Learning Technologist, Information Management and Technology
• Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science (two posts), Social Policy
• Assistant Professor in Health Policy, Social Policy
• Assistant Professor in Social Psychology/Community Psychology, Social Psychology
• Assistant Professor in Social Psychology/Economic Psychology, Social Psychology
• Careers Consultant (maternity cover), LSE Careers Service
• Development Manager, LSE Advancement
• Events Coordinator and Office Assistant, Systemic Risk Centre
• Executive Officer (Strategic Projects), GLPD: Governance, Legal and Planning Division
• Governance, Compliance and Implementation Manager - LSE Registration in IGC Countries, GLPD: Governance, Legal and Planning Division
• LSE Fellow in Global Politics, Government
• Office Co-ordinator (nine months fixed term), Management
• Professor/Associate Professor in Economics, Economics
• Programme Coordinator, Management
• Research Assistant - Quantitative Social Research, Sociology
• Research Officer, Systemic Risk Centre
• Research Officer, Middle East Centre
• Team Assistant, Institute of Public Affairs