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24 November 2010 |
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 News
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• LSE
professor inspires parliamentary rethink on voting reform
The government is being urged to revise its agenda for electoral reform by
MPs and members of the Lords who seized on analysis of the topic by LSE
professor Patrick Dunleavy.
Both Houses of Parliament have heard calls to adopt the 'London
alternative vote system' recommended by Professor Dunleavy if the UK votes
to abandon the existing first-past-the-post method when a national
referendum is held in May.
Professor Dunleavy, from LSE's Department of Government, argues that the
London system, in which voters register their first and second choices
from a list of candidates, is best because it ensures the election of a
candidate with substantial local support. The 'Australian' system of AV,
which would be adopted as things stand, asks voters to rank all candidates
in order of their preference - eliminating the least popular in successive
rounds of voting.
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• Leontief
Prize jointly awarded to LSE's Lord Stern
Professor Lord Stern has been announced as joint winner of an annual prize
awarded for ground-breaking work in economics.
Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute announced
that it will award its 2011 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of
Economic Thought to both Harvard University's Martin Weitzman and Lord
Stern, who is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Chair of the Grantham
Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.
The award recognises the critical role played by both in analysing the
economic dimensions of climate change. Lord Stern is the third LSE academic
to win this award, after Amartya Sen (2000) and Robert Wade (2008).
More
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• Congratulations to the first LSE peer supporters
A group of students from Bankside Residence received certificates and
thanks from staff across the School for becoming the first cohort of LSE
peer supporters.
In a programme initiated by Teaching and Learning Centre staff Peter Finn
and Jane Sedgwick, the students received 30 hours of training in listening
skills, diversity awareness, boundary setting, and crisis responding, to
become ‘supporters’ to fellow students.
LSE student Joshua Still said, ‘It wasn’t always fun and it was
occasionally challenging, but I’m very proud to be part of the group. I’ve
learned so many new skills.’ Fellow student Komal Anwar added: ‘I’ve become
a great listener, and I’m usually such a chatterbox. It means I can help
people much better.’ And Michael Obiri-Darko said that the training had
equipped him with skills for life: ‘I’ve been taught so many things.
Knowledge is power, and Jane and Peter have given us so much knowledge.’
Several staff from support services across the School, including
Residential Services, the Accommodation Office, the Student Services Centre,
and the Student Counselling Service, thanked the students and endorsed the
initiative warmly, saying they hoped it would be replicated elsewhere and
become a permanent feature of the LSE pastoral support network.
For the full report and contact details, see the
peer supporter programme.
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• Would you like to spend the summer volunteering in sub-Saharan
Africa as a teaching assistant?
Tenteleni,
a volunteer-run charity,
is offering LSE students the opportunity to do just that.
The charity supports UK university students to travel to placements in
Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zanzibar to work alongside
staff and other volunteers in schools, children’s homes, and
non-governmental organisations. Both the local communities and the
volunteers themselves benefit from engaging in the sharing of skills and
ideas.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in and you would
like to hear more, attend one of the following information evenings:
- Thursday 25 November at 6.30pm
King's College London, Guy’s campus - Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Hodgkin
Building
- Friday 26 November at 5pm
UCL, Roberts 106, Roberts Building
For more information, visit
tenteleni.org or email LSE
student Ursula Hankinson, Tenteleni regional volunteer coordinator, at
u.m.hankinson@lse.ac.uk.
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• Student lifestyle - what is the real cost?
The LSESU Economics Society is calling on all students to take part in
a survey to help find out the cost of the student lifestyle.
Please take part in the Student Inflation CPI Index survey and help
create a true index of where students stand. The society encourage students
from all disciplines to take part. The survey can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/scpisurvey.
There is £250 worth of cash rewards available for students who maintain a
spending log for one week. All this requires is for you to collect your
receipts and record any additional spending on your phone or on paper
(starting Monday 29 November).
For more information, email Mayank Kalia at
m.kalia@lse.ac.uk. |
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 Notices
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• Need a photographer?
The LSESU Photography Society is offering photography services
to all LSESU societies throughout the academic year.
If your society is planning an event and you want it to be photographed
for publication purposes or for the society archives, send an email to
the general secretary of the LSESU Photography Society, Saffaan Qadir,
at m.qadir@lse.ac.uk.
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• Michaelmas term
ITS Newsletter
The termly student newsletter with all the latest news and information
about IT Services is now available, see
ITS News student edition.
Articles in this term’s edition include:
- Borrow an LSE i-roam laptop to use in the Library
- LSE Mobile upgrade - important update for LSE Mobile users
- Exciting new programme from the IT Training team
- New and improved PC classrooms - OLD B.25 and STC S.177
- LSE Wireless - updated and simplified
Make sure you don’t miss out on future newsletters -
subscribe today.
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• Student training at LSE
Student courses scheduled for next week include:
- PowerPoint 2010: polished presentations in 50 minutes
- Excel 2010: data analysis
- Excel 2010: pivot tables
- Word 2010: format an academic paper
- Outlook 2010: outlook for business
- Introduction to database structure and design
- Get started with EndNote
For a full schedule and further details, including booking information,
please see www.lse.ac.uk/training.
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• Jobs of the Week - My Careers Service
-
BBC work experience, BBC - Apply by Wednesday 1 December for
these one month internship placements with the BBC in areas including
radio, music production, and the BBC Proms.
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Full-time graduate opportunities, ICAP - Interested in finance?
Apply to one of the world's premier interdealer brokers for careers in
broking, accounting, human resources, and risk and research. Deadline
Sunday 28 November.
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Economist/deputy economist, The Economist Group - Work for The
Economist magazine in this data and research role. Apply by Friday 3
December.
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Projects and programme assistant (unpaid internship), PhotoVoice -
Interested in social work or international development? Apply for this
internship and support the projects team in developing and delivering
its programme of UK-based and international participatory photography
projects.
For full details of these posts and over 900 more, visit 'My Careers
Service' at www.lse.ac.uk/careers
and click ‘Search for Opportunities’.
Come and visit the Careers Service in our new location on floor three,
Tower Three. |
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 What's
on
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• Beyond the Crash - an evening in discussion about the
new book by Gordon Brown
This special LSE event will take place on Tuesday 7 December from
6.30-7.30pm on the LSE campus.
The financial crisis has held the world firmly in its grip since it began
in 2007. In his three years in office, the former prime minister was at the
centre of the world’s response to the crisis.
In his new book Beyond the Crash, Brown will offer an insight into
the events that led to the financial downward spiral and the reactions of
world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster. Long admired for
his grasp of economic issues, Brown offers measures he believes should be
adopted to secure jobs and justice.
Beyond the Crash offers a unique perspective on the financial
crisis as well as innovative ideas that will help create a sound economic
future and will help readers understand what really has happened to our
economy.
More information about the event, including how to request a ticket, can
be found on the
event web page.
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• Upcoming events include....
Are the New Conservatives Conservative?
On: Friday 26 November at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New
Academic Building
Speaker: Daniel Finkelstein, executive editor and chief leader
writer at The Times, and Professor Roger Scruton, resident
researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and visiting professor
in philosophy, Oxford University.
The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the rumors of war
On: Monday 29 November at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Dr Dana H Allin, editor of Survival and senior fellow
for US foreign policy and transatlantic affairs at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, London.
Africa and the World: the view from Washington
On: Tuesday 30 November at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Howard Wolpe, former special envoy to the Great Lakes Region
for president Barack Obama.
War in the Borderlands
On: Wednesday 1 December at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Derek Gregory, professor of geography at the
University of British Columbia.
What Europe Means to Me
On: Monday 6 December at 4.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament and
former prime minister of Poland, and Professor Norman Davies, author
of Europe: a history and God's Playground: a history of Poland.
This event is free and open to all however a ticket is required. One ticket
per person can be requested from 10am on Tuesday 30 November.
Economic Sciences as Mostly a Procrustean Bed
On: Tuesday 7 December at 6.30pm. The venue will be confirmed to
ticketholders.
Speaker: Professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Distinguished Professor of
Risk Engineering at NYU.
This event is free and open to all however a ticket is required. One ticket
per person can be requested from 10am on Monday 29 November.
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• LGBT Family Life Through the Eyes of the Law
On: Wednesday 24 November, 6pm, Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers:
Andrea Woelke, a specialist in family law and chairman of the
Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association, Helen Reece, reader in law
at LSE, Annais Nourry, third year anthropologist at LSE, and
Scott Macdonald, third year undergraduate at LSE.
This panel discussion, organised by the LSESU LGBT Society, will look at
civil partnerships and marriage equality in the UK. Marriage equality has
been an important and controversial issue, in particular in the past decade,
as more and more countries introduce civil unions, partnerships, and gay
marriage.
There will also be a chance for the audience to ask questions. For more
information, visit the
Facebook event page.
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• Risk, the State and the Public: theorising the politics of
‘shared responsibility’
Tuesday 30 November, 1-2.30pm, Graham Wallas Room AGWR, 5th
floor, Old Building
Speakers: Dr Vibeke Schou Tjalve and Dr Karen Lund Petersen,
Centre for Advanced Security Theory, University of Copenhagen
This seminar examines the state-society relationship in an era of risk.
What happens when private citizens are mobilised to anticipate and
shoulder elusive security responsibilities in the face of uncertainty?
What kind of state is created, what kind of security governance is
exercised, and what historical practices of security governance are
appropriated or transformed in the process?
For more information, visit the
CARR website.
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• Podcasts of public lectures and events
Restoring Growth
Speaker: Professor John Van Reenen
Recorded: Tuesday 16 November, approx 84 minutes
Click here to listen
The Verdict: did Labour change Britain?
Speakers: Polly Toynbee and David Walker
Recorded: Tuesday 16 November, approx 71 minutes
Click here to listen
Balkans 2020: the ministerial debate
Speakers: Vuk Jeremić and Nickolay Mladenov
Recorded: Thursday 18 November, approx 92 minutes
Click here to listen |
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 60
Second Interview
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• with..... Adam Sandelson
I've been at LSE for six years,
and previously worked in the NHS for
more than a decade. I manage the
Student Counselling Service here,
which is a team of 10 very
experienced counsellors. The work is
always varied and interesting, and
we do our best to see students with
minimal delay.
Over recent years we've expanded
our work a lot, and as well as doing
individual counselling, we also have
a large groups and workshops
programme. This includes all kinds
of events, such as one-off workshops
on procrastination, short term
groups on stress management, and
longer term therapy groups.
We're always looking at new ways
to contribute to the work of the
School, and have recently run
sessions with the Careers Service on
surviving the recession, as well as
sometimes delivering workshops to
students within individual
departments. We can do all this and
still maintain absolute
confidentiality about the students
who use the service, but it's also
good to use our understanding of the
School in a number of different
ways.
What advice would you give to
new students coming to LSE?
Take your time and don't rush.
LSE can feel like quite an exciting
place, but all students need time to
process what's going on -
academically, socially, and
culturally. There can be an
expectation of having to excel and
get everything right, but of course,
that's not always possible.
Name three things you cannot
do without.
I'm hooked on my eBook reader. It
stops me taking a dozen books away
on holiday, not all of which end up
being read, strangely.
I'm quite keen on my three cats,
but couldn't choose just one of
them. They are a family, but one has
terrible envy towards the others and
can't stand watching anyone else but
her getting attention. Don't ask me
why.
I'd like to try to be without my
mobile phone occasionally, but it's
hard to leave it behind.
Have you ever appeared on
stage - in any capacity?
I give the odd talk at LSE, such
as 'Studying and Surviving at LSE'.
I once heckled Jimmy Carr at the
Hackney Empire; this was a serious
mistake.
What is your speciality in the
kitchen?
I can feed the cats quite
adequately most days.
Who is your LSE hero?
I came across Professor Peter
Townsend as a student, and admired
his work on inequality and poverty.
What are the best and worst
presents you have ever received?
Handmade cards from my kids when
they were little were great. The
worst was a free gliding lesson. It
was a baking hot day, and the pilot
was very overweight and sweating
heavily under the Perspex roof. I
thought he might have a heart attack
at any moment, and I'd have to bring
the plane down. Luckily we made it,
but I wouldn't want to repeat the
experience. On the video I replied
'great' when asked how it was. |
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