LSE Chill

Come and watch our talented students and staff perform at the next LSE Chill on Friday 25 November from 5.30pm in the Fourth Floor Café Bar.

Planning for impact

A research team from the Impact of Social Science Project at LSE is running a half day session for PhD students on ‘Planning for Impact’.

Anneessa Mahmood

Anneessa, a second year student at LSE and an active member of the LSESU Islamic Society, likes walking and singing, sometimes simultaneously!

James Mak (pictured), a recent graduate from LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment, has won the national Royal Geographical Society-IBG Developing Areas Research Group 2011 Undergraduate Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled Spaces in the Reconstruction of Post-conflict Cambodia.

James said: ‘This dissertation is especially close to my heart because of the two years of development work I had in Cambodia. I was interested in how Cambodians maintain their attachment to their landscape and how they articulate a renewed sense of place through vernacular architecture in a post-conflict context. It is an honour to receive this prize and I hope to continue my research in this fascinating subject.’

A world-leading economist who predicted the present financial crisis engulfing Europe will be the first holder of the John Paulson chair in European Political Economy at LSE.

Professor Paul De Grauwe (pictured) will take up the post at LSE’s European Institute in February. He is currently Professor of International Economics at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

The chair is funded by John A Paulson, founder of the investment firm Paulson & Co. He has donated more than £2.5 million for research and teaching to help understand the crisis gripping the eurozone, the threat to the stability of the EU and the actions politicians and economists can take to ensure a stable future for the European trading bloc.

The Library would like to make students aware that between Saturday 26 November and Sunday 22 January, essential maintenance works will be carried out to both Library lifts which may cause some disruption. However, Estates will only work on one lift at a time so there will always be one lift available.

Work will take place from 8am-5pm each weekday and on some weekends and will also continue during part of the Christmas break when the Library is closed.

The bean bag area in front of the lift on the lower ground floor will be closed for safety reasons and there will be alternative locations for the bean bags. The male toilet on the lower ground floor will also not be available to users during the project.

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Microsoft Office: various topics covering Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and Outlook 2010
• Getting started with the MSc dissertation

Dr Ilina Singh from LSE’s BIOS Centre is researching students' attitudes and experiences around 'smart drugs' and cognitive enhancement.

If you are a UK or Irish student under the age of 23 and would like to share your views, contact us and participate in a confidential 60 minute focus group discussion with students from other London universities.

Send a brief email stating your age, gender and the degree for which you are reading to Imre Bard at i.bard@lse.ac.uk. For more information, visit www2.lse.ac.uk/bios/smartdrugs.aspx.

As part of LSE's Academic and Professional Development Programme for PhD students, a research team from the Impact of Social Science Project is running a half day session for PhD students on ‘Planning for Impact’.

Academics are now being challenged to consider not only the quality but the impact of their research. It is therefore important for PhD students to begin planning for impact early on in their academic life.

This session will look at both impacts within academia and external impacts: on government, business and civil society. We will discuss what useful tools can be used to give a picture of the impact of your work, how the subject discipline you work in can affect the impact you have, and how your impact footprint can be measured. We will end by looking at ways of improving your impact.

Philosoverse is a student publication, supported by the LSE Department of Philosophy, which blends the disciplines of poetry and philosophy.

The second edition will be published in March 2012 to coincide with the LSE Literary Festival. The theme of this edition will be the relevance of geographical perspectives on the history of ideas.

The editors are looking for submissions of short, four-line poems as well as free form poetry on the theme above. The deadline for submission is Saturday 7 January.

LSE's Disability and Well-being Service is looking for students to be filmed, talking about why LSE is a good place to come and study if you have dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties, or a disability.

The service is collaborating with film studies students from The Sixth Form College, Farnborough in the making of a short film.

Dr Jeanette Østergaard, a visiting academic at the University of London, is leading a study on trends in young people’s alcohol and drug use.

The research team is looking for men and women, aged between 18 and 30, to participate in focus group interviews to find out about what people do to get ready for a night out, what they do when they go out, and how drinking and possible drug use might affect their decisions.

The research groups will take place in November and December and will last about 90 minutes. Participants will receive a £15 gift voucher for their help and everything discussed will remain anonymous and for research purposes only.

Live Webcast - Social Business: to solve society's most pressing problems
On: Thursday 24 November at 5pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Muhammad Yunus (pictured), founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Herd Behaviour and Keeping up with the Joneses
On: Monday 28 November at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick University, a visiting fellow at IZA Bonn and an editor of the journal Science.

For Love and Money: the distinctive features of care work
On: Tuesday 29 November at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Nancy Folbre, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Thawing Planet: climate change, resources, and management of the Arctic
On: Wednesday 30 November at 4pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Jonas Gahr Støre (pictured), Norwegian minister of foreign affairs.

Event Rescheduled - Arab Nationalism, Islamism and the Arab Uprising
On: Wednesday 30 November at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speaker: Professor Sadik Al Azm, emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus.

On: Friday 25 November from 1-5.30pm in the Morishima Conference Room, Lionel Robbins Building

Ralph Miliband’s Parliamentary Socialism shaped a generation of activists and scholars. But what are its lessons today? Must parliamentary politics undermine extra-parliamentary movements? And can Labour ever move us beyond capitalism?

Speakers will include:

• Tariq Ali
• Robin Archer
• Robin Blackburn
• Hilary Wainwright

The conference is open to staff, researchers and research students but places are limited. To find out more or to book a place, email sociology.events@lse.ac.uk.

The conference will be followed by a public lecture which is free and open to all:

Whatever Happened to Parliamentary Socialism: taking Ralph Miliband seriously today
On: Friday 25 November from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Leo Panitch, Distinguished Research Professor at York University, Canada

Come and watch our talented students and staff perform at the LSE Chill open performance evening. The next session is this Friday (25 November) from 5.30pm in the Fourth Floor Café Bar.

The line up for the evening is as follows:

6-6.30pm The Agents Improvocateurs
The Agents Improvocateurs are an improvisation comedy group brought together by members of the LSESU Drama Improvisation troupe. There’s no script, just laughs - if you’ve ever seen the show Whose Line is it Anyway? then you’ll know what to expect.

6.45-7.15pm Komal Shakeel
Komal, an MSc student at LSE, is Pakistani by birth and will be performing an eclectic mix of vocals from Pakistani pop ballads to some classic American and British hits.

7.30-8pm The Teeside Specials
The Teeside Specials is a three piece pop rock band that has played at a number of LSE events this year, including the first LSE Chill. They will be playing a great new acoustic set.

Lionel Robbins: a life

On: Wednesday 30 November at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Susan Howson, University of Toronto

To celebrate the launch of her biography of Lionel Robbins, the Department of Economics and the LSE Library's Archives Division present this public lecture by Professor Susan Howson.

A true 'renaissance man', Lionel Robbins (pictured) made major contributions to his academic discipline and applied his skills as an economist not only to practical problems of economic policy and of higher education, but also to the administration of the visual and performing arts that he loved deeply.

The lecture will focus on some of his accomplishments outside pure economics, demonstrating why he was such an important figure in the intellectual and cultural life of Britain in the twentieth century.

This event is free and open to all, with no ticket required. More
 

Conservative Leadership - What Works and What Doesn't
Recorded: Monday 14 November, approx 76 minutes
Speaker: Robin Harris
Click here to listen

Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman in conversation with Richard Layard
Recorded: Tuesday 15 November, approx 79 minutes
Speakers: Professor Daniel Kahneman and Professor Lord Richard Layard
Click here to listen

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 Student News is on Wednesday 30 November. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Monday 28 November. Student News is emailed on Wednesdays, on a weekly basis during Michaelmas and Lent term and fortnightly during Summer term.