LSE Alumni needs your feedback

They would like to know more about how current postgraduate students regard LSE Alumni Relations and the LSE community.

LSE Christmas Carol Service

End the term on a festive note with the School's traditional Christmas Carol Service on Wednesday 10 December in the Shaw Library.

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!"

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.

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.

The world’s 724 largest cities could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually by 2030 through better, more efficient transport systems. This is more than the annual emissions of Japan.

This surprising figure comes from a new series of studies released by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, and led by LSE Cities, which suggests how cities develop will be critical to achieve economic growth and tackle climate change.

The studies provide real-world examples of how to achieve better patterns of urbanisation and highlight how cities can grow their economies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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.

The LSE Alumni Relations team would like to know more about how current postgraduate students regard LSE Alumni Relations and the LSE community. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey.

Your involvement would be of great benefit, not only to LSE Alumni Relations but also to future postgraduate alumni. This is your chance to have a say in an important function of the School.

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.

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.

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
 

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 make 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.

On: Thursday 11 December from 7.15pm at Labels, Soho, London.

Celebrate the end of term at Santa's Cabaret - a Christmas Party organised by the  LSESU LGBT+ Alliance and LSEAU Dance Club.

Get the party started with a free Burlesque Cabaret Dance Workshop from 7.15pm with LSE dance teacher Tjaša Žibert (email a.baudry1@lse.ac.uk to reserve a space - max 37 people). DJ Sandra Davenport will start from 8.15pm and there will be a magical cabaret performer at 9.30pm. After, the club will remain open for more fun and dancing..

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).