New Year Honours at LSE

Congratulations to Professor Julian Le Grand and Claire Milne who have had their outstanding achievements and service recognised in the New Year Honours list.

LSE Literary Festival 2015 - Foundations

The programme for this year’s Literary Festival, taking place from Monday 23 - Saturday 28 February, is now online.

Melanie Boucher

Melanie, Head of Health and Safety, once fell down a storm drain during an electricity blackout in Sri Lanka - dangerous things certainly do happen to her!

 LSE in pictures

 Notices

 Training and jobs

Contact Nicole

Best wishes,

Congratulations to Professor Julian Le Grand (pictured), who has been awarded a knighthood for services to social science and public service, and Claire Milne, who has been awarded an MBE for services to the telecommunications sector.

Julian Le Grand has been the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE since 1993. From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing Street to serve as Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

He has served as Chair of a number of government groups, including: the Social Work Practices Working Group for the UK Department for Children, Families and Schools; Chair of Health England: the National Reference Group for Health and Well Being for the UK Department of Health; Chair of the UK Cabinet Office's Mutuals TaskForce; and Chair of the UK Education Department's Panels reviewing Doncaster's and Birmingham's Children's Services. As well as these positions, he has acted as an adviser to the President of the European Commission, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the OECD, HM Treasury, the UK Department of Work and Pensions and the BBC.

Claire Milne, a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications, has had a long and varied career with telecommunications policy as its central theme. Since 1989 she has been a freelance consultant, providing policy and regulatory advice in dozens of countries on all continents. In parallel she has served on several public bodies in the UK. She has been a guest teacher at LSE since 2009.

Please note that from Monday 12 January the Human Resources Division will be based on the fifth floor of the Lionel Robbins Building which is accessed via Portugal Street.

Therefore in order to prepare for the move, on Friday 9 January from 3pm the Division will be running a slightly reduced service until the close of play that day.

Information Management and Technology (IMT) have been working on the IMT Customer Portal, a new system which will ensure effective, efficient and consistent IT service management. While enhancing the quality of service delivered to the School, the Portal will importantly make it easier for you to log and keep track of any IT issues you may have.

We now need your help to test the IMT Customer Portal to make sure it is working correctly and does everything that you need. We want to gather your feedback so we can make improvements before we open the service to the School.

If you are interested in getting involved, please attend a drop-in session with IMT colleagues and let us know what you think of the Portal.

Biscuits, tea or coffee will be available and you are welcome to pop in anytime during one of the following slots:

• Monday 19 January, 3-4pm, Room STC.S018
• Thursday 22 January, 2-3pm, Room STC.S018
• Friday 23 January, 11am-12pm, Room STC.S177

Green New Year

The New Year is a brilliant time to start greening your office. If you haven’t already signed up to the environmental inter-departmental competition Green Impact it’s not too late.

Contact Sustainability Assistant Vyvyan Evans to find out more, or to join the 39 other Green Impact teams.
 

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, from 23-28 February.

Come along to IMT's Tech Talk on Wednesday 14 January in NAB.2.08 from 2-4pm.

Tech Talks are a series of seminars covering a range of specialist subjects for those working with or interested in information technologies.

With this term's topic - Business Intelligence: concepts, uses and tools - get an overview of some of the concepts and uses of business intelligence, and hear about some of the specific tools in use at LSE.

NetworkEDGE seminar

Professor Matthew Connelly, Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs 2014-15, is teaching 'Hacking the Archive - HY447' this academic year.

In this seminar, on Wednesday 14 January, Professor Connelly will talk about his course which uses big data from various International History databases and teaches students new tools and techniques to explore various the vast array of material available online.

Students are encouraged to rethink historical research in the digital age as older primary sources are increasingly becoming available online alongside newly declassified information and ‘born digital’ electronic records. Interdisciplinary research is becoming more essential with academics collaborating across disciplines and with the broader public in order to mine extensive amounts of online data.

Spaces at the 2015 LSE Arts performance nights are filling up fast. If you have a talent you’d like to share with a friendly LSE crowd, email arts@lse.ac.uk.

Bands, solo artists, poets, comedians - everyone is welcome, so if you’re interested then visit LSE Chill and email arts@lse.ac.uk with details of your act.

Our first meeting of Lent term is on Wednesday 14 January at 4pm in the Faith Centre, Saw Swee Hock Building - you are warmly invited to come and join us.

Staff Pilates class

Get toned in 2015 with Pilates - join the LSE staff class on Tuesday lunchtimes (1-1.55pm) in the Faith Centre (second floor, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre).

Pilates 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. Please bring a yoga mat.

Contact Laura Dodge at l.dodge@lse.ac.uk with any questions or just come along.
 

Security officer and former boxer Daniel Beckley is running skip fit lessons for all staff and students at LSE. Build up your fitness, burn calories and increase your stamina, all within an hour.

The next lessons will take place from 1-2pm at the Badminton Court, Old Building, on Tuesday 13 January, Tuesday 20 January, Tuesday 3 February, Tuesday 10 February and Tuesday 24 February. Just turn up on any of these dates with your own skipping rope. All lessons are free.

Beat the January blues by coming along to the AUA Pub Quiz on Tuesday 20 January at 6pm (venue to be confirmed).

Teams should be made up of a maximum of five members and both AUA members and non-AUA members are welcome. The questions will be fun, nothing too serious, and drinks and nibbles will be provided.

Join the London Medical Orchestra

The London Medical Orchestra, a well-established, friendly amateur orchestra, invites LSE staff to join. It is seeking new string and low brass players.

The orchestra rehearses on Tuesday evenings at the Walter Sickert Community Centre, in Canonbury Crescent, Islington, N1 2FB. The orchestra was founded by doctors but players do not need to have any connection with the medical profession. Good orchestral experience is welcome but don’t worry if you have not played for a while.

For more information and contact details, visit www.lmo.org.uk.

This week's picture features a visual presentation onto a 3D shape of the LSESU Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at its official opening on the 24 October 2014.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

LSE Literary Festival 2015 - Foundations

The programme for this year’s Literary Festival, taking place from Monday 23 - Saturday 28 February, is now online.

LSE’s seventh Literary Festival will explore the foundations of knowledge, society, identity and literature, as well as those of LSE itself, with speakers including Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Anne Fine, John Gray, Elif Shafak, Raja Shehadeh, Will Self and Ali Smith. More
 

Other forthcoming LSE events include....

Battlefield Ethics and Secularisation
On: Monday 12 January at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speaker: Dr Giles Fraser (pictured)

Picturing Race and Inequality: the potential for social change
On: Tuesday 13 January at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Mark Neville, Professor Tim Newburn, Professor Gwendolyn Sasse, and Polly Toynbee

The Cold War and the Culture of Secrecy
On: Tuesday 13 January at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Matthew Connelly (pictured)

Signals: the breakdown of the social contract and the rise of geopolitics
On: Tuesday 13 January at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speaker: Dr Pippa Malmgren

Conor Gearty in Conversation with Chaloka Beyani
On: Wednesday 14 January at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Dr Chaloka Beyani

Should Markets be Moral?
On: Wednesday 14 January at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Lord Skidelsky

Michael Petrov (pictured) (cello), Ashley Fripp (piano)
On: Thursday 15 January at 1pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building

Corporate Boards: facts and myths
On: Thursday 15 January at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Daniel Ferreira

On: Monday 12 January from 6.30-8pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Hugh Roberts (pictured), Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tufts University

In this lecture and book launch, Professor Hugh Roberts discusses his new book, Berber Government: the Kabyle Polity in Pre-colonial Algeria. Breaking with both Ernest Gellner’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s influential theories, Berber Government explores the character of the institutions which were central to Kabyle political organisation and explains how their development was the product of the interaction between the populations of Kabylia and the Ottoman Regency and gave birth to a political tradition which survives to the present day.

This event is free and open to all, on a first come first served basis. Our events are very well attended, please make sure to arrive early. We cannot guarantee entry. More
 

On: Wednesday 21 January from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Dr Esra Özyürek (pictured), Associate Professor in Contemporary Turkish Studies at LSE’s European Institute
Discussants: Dr Ruth Mandel, Reader in Social Anthropology at University College London, Dr Nasar Meer, Reader in Comparative Social Policy and Citizenship at Strathclyde University and a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellow, and Professor Joel Robbins, Sigrid Rausing Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

The panellists will discuss Dr Özyürek’s newly published book Being German, Becoming Muslim: race, religion, and conversion in the New Europe.

On: Friday 23 January from 1-2pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building

The non-auditioned choir of LSE students, staff and alumni will perform a range of unaccompanied choral music from the Renaissance to twentieth century, including Bruckner, Lauridsen and Parry.

On: Wednesday 14 January from 6-7.30pm at The Lowry, Salford

Paul Dolan (pictured), Professor of Behavioural Science at LSE, will speak at this British Academy debate.

What should the term 'well-being' encompass, what contributes to it, and why is it important? How does this differ across social, historical and cultural contexts? What is relevant to our well-being beyond basic material needs or wants? Health? Community? Capabilities? Risks? Fulfilment? Happiness?

Other speakers include:

• Gregor Henderson, National Lead for Wellbeing and Mental Health with Public Health England
• Richard Bentall FBA, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool
• Bernadette Conlon, Chief Executive Start in Salford

These drop-in sessions, which are open to all staff and students, will cover data management, data protection, and research ethics.

Bring along any questions you have regarding:

• Data protection: the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts
• Funder requirements for sharing data
• Intellectual Property and licensing data use and re-use
• Managing safe and secure storage
• Records management for data
• Writing and implementing a data management plan
• When and how to complete a research ethics application

Sessions will be held fortnightly, beginning Tuesday 13 January, and will take place in room LRB R.08 from 1-2pm.

Research Division Training Sessions

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

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 hands-on session will be delivered in a computer lab and run by a Research Development Manager. This session will run every term.

Thursday 5 February from 5.30-7pm in the Graham Wallas Room, Old Building. (refreshments served 5.15-5.30pm) - Book your place here

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.

Julia Black, Pro Director for Research at LSE, will take part in this panel discussion joined by:

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

• Annual Fund Assistant, LSE Advancement
• Coordinating Language Teacher (EAP), Language Centre
• Dahrendorf Postdoctoral Fellow - EU-China relations, LSE IDEAS
• Dahrendorf Postdoctoral Fellow - EU-North America relations, LSE IDEAS
• Dahrendorf Postdoctoral Fellow - EU-Russia/Ukraine relations, LSE IDEAS
• Departmental Manager, Methodology
• Digital Marketing and Recruitment Executive, Summer School and Executive Programmes
• Evaluation Manager, International Growth Centre
• Events Coordinator and Office Assistant, Systemic Risk Centre
• Events and Communications Officer, Institute of Public Affairs
• Global Alumni Programme Manager, LSE Advancement
• Head of Facilities, Estates Division
• IT Support Officer, Information Management and Technology
• Policy Engagement Manager, International Growth Centre
• Professor/Associate Professor in Economics, Economics
• Programme Coordinator, Management
• Student Liaison, Events and Communications Assistant, Sociology
• Student Recruitment Administrator, ARD: Student Recruitment
• Taught Programmes Manager, Philosophy

Business Systems Support Officer, Academic Registrar's Division

Salary: £33,450 - £40,462 pa inclusive (Band 6)
18 Month Fixed Term Contract

The School is implementing a new room booking and timetabling system Syllabus Plus to replace the existing CMIS system, and the project requires someone to work with the project manager to support the implementation and embedding of this system.

This secondment post offers an excellent opportunity for those wishing to develop their careers in Student Systems’ area or in project management.

We will welcome applicants who may wish to apply for this post as a secondment opportunity.