CASS Newsletter Issue 9 - August 2012
Welcome to the Summer Edition of the College Newsletter.
Welcome once again to the College’s online newsletter. This summer edition brings news on some of the latest achievements and successes of our students and colleagues, information on particular research projects and other academic initiatives as well as an interesting article on conducting vivas by video conference. Please do be in touch if you have something which you would like to contribute to the next edition, due out in December.
As always, I do hope that you enjoy the read.
Best Refereed Paper recognition for Education colleague |
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Home economics and food literacy – An international investigation, co-authored with Professor Donna Pendergast, Head and Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Australia, was chosen as the best paper by the Editorial Board of International Journal of Home Economics (IJHE) following the review of over 60 applications. The entire process was undertaken by blind review, from the initial review of the 60 submitted papers to the shortlisting of the five potential winners to the final selection of the best refereed paper. This is the fourth joint paper published by Dewhurst and Pendergast, the others being:
Professor Margaret Ross, Head of College, congratulated Yvonne on her notable achievement, remarking that such instances of success by academic colleagues are something that ought to be lauded. The abstract of the paper can be read below. Home economics and food literacy – An international investigation Child and adult obesity is a growing concern in affluent nations around the world, as typified in Australia where the incidence is more than 25% for children and 55% for adults. The connection between obesity, food choices, nutrition knowledge, and food preparation skills is well established. However, education about the concept and processes of ‘food literacy’ is relatively new. Furthermore, public discussion about the role of schools and formal curriculum to prepare young people to be food literate has received scant attention until recently, when medical experts dealing with the consequences of the obesity epidemic made the following plea ‘‘providing a mandatory food preparation curriculum to students throughout the country may be among the best investments society could make—bring home economics back’’ (Lichtenstein & Ludwig, 2010, p.1858). This paper reports on an international study about the role of home economics in developing food literacy. Data were collected using an online survey with respondents from around the world replying to a series of questions about this topic. A total of 1188 respondents from 36 different countries in the world shared their views. Among key findings are the differences in understandings of ‘food literacy’. Recommendations for future action are presented as a conclusion to this paper. |
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Sociology student wins top research scholarship |
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Tanita won the scholarship after an interview by a panel of five judges where she had to demonstrate her passion for the north-east. She said: “I will be acting as an ambassador for Aberdeen and will share the experiences of the Granite City with those in Nagasaki. I was born and raised here, attending Kittybrewster Primary and then St Machar and I chose to stay for my higher education as I love the city and the University. I’ve had such a fantastic time in Aberdeen so it will be great for me to share that experience.” The Thomas Blake Glover Scholarship was established in 1996 in memory of the entrepreneur born in Aberdeenshire in 1838. Glover settled in Nagasaki in 1859 and played a critically important role in opening Japan to the west. Tanita, who has worked part-time as a support worker in the women’s unit at Craiginches Prison and in an administrative role at the Criminal Justice Social Work Office during her studies, hopes to go to work in the voluntary sector. She will use the trip to research and compare how charities in Aberdeen and Nagasaki have been affected by the global recession and will make a presentation to the Rotary Club on her findings when she returns. |
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Colleagues' academic contributions recognised |
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Three academic colleagues have received recognition for their contributions to their respective fields. Professor John Brewer AcSS OBE, Professor of Sociology, has been elected as a Council member of the Academy of Social Sciences; Professor Michael Keating, Chair of Scottish Politics, has been made a Fellow of the British Academy; and Professor Marysia Zalewski, Chair in Social Science, has been honoured as the Eminent Scholar 2013 of the International Studies Association’s Feminist Theory and Gender Studies section.
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Endangered language takes colleague to deepest Siberia |
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Dr King’s research will focus on two dialects of the Koryak language – one spoken by reindeer herders who are Chukchi people and the other by maritime people living along the coast of Penzhina Bay. The project to document these languages has been funded by the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP). Dr King says it will be the first time anyone has investigated these dialects since they were first noted by linguists in 1901, and it is vital that such languages are properly recorded before they die out and are lost forever. “Indigenous peoples around the world are shifting from speaking their heritage languages to using socially dominant languages in everyday life, such as English, Spanish and Russian,” he said. “But it is only by having careful documentation of the full span and variety of human language that we can really know what is possible and impossible in human speech and thought. We have sophisticated theories about English and a handful of other European languages but we really do not know the full potential variation of the human capacity for speech.” Dr King and his colleagues will record, transcribe and translate over 150 hours of Koryak speech across several genres using the latest methods and digital technologies. The project will produce a database, a DVD of storytellers, and a bilingual book of narratives. It will also provide the skills and equipment for local linguists and folklorists to continue documentation work long after the project is finished and contribute to Koryak teaching and revitalisation efforts. |
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Olympic honour for former Law student |
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During his time as a student, Ryan founded the Casus Omissus Aberdeen Law Project, an initiative which sees students provide free legal assistance to the economically disadvantaged under the supervision of practitioners. The first law clinic in Scotland to be founded, operated and led by students, it provides legal representation and educational programmes to members of the public, charities and voluntary organisations who would otherwise not have access to such assistance. Since launching, the clinic has grown rapidly and was recognised with a prestigious award from the Attorney General last year. Professor Margaret Ross, Head of the College said: “It was a pleasure for us to support Ryan in his desire to set up the Aberdeen Law Project, which goes from strength to strength on the firm foundations that he laid with students, supporters and the community. I am delighted that Ryan’s personal vision and hard work for the benefit of others are recognised in his role as a torchbearer.” Ahead of carrying the flame, Ryan travelled with one other Scottish torchbearer to meet Sir Chris Hoy in Manchester's velodrome.
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Undergraduate student recognised with Quincentenary Prize |
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Eilidh Glendinning-Clark received the Quincentenary Prize for her academic achievements in the face of personal difficulties, including special learning needs. The single mother-of-two graduated with First Class Honours in Literature in a World Context and International Relations from the University this summer. Her second child was only four months old when she embarked on her university career in 2007, spending the first year of the degree programme studying on a part-time basis before changing to full-time studies in her second year. Dr Janet Stewart, Senior Lecturer in German and Film & Visual Culture said: “Eilidh will say that there have been times when she could not imagine keeping going, where financial worries, worries about the future or worries about her children might have caused her to doubt the advisability of pursuing a degree. What kept her going at such times was the recognition that the knowledge and skills she was acquiring were helping her be a better parent to her boys, by allowing her to set a positive example. She is an exceptional student, whose accomplishments to date are all the more impressive for the personal difficulties she has overcome.” Eilidh hopes that her academic accomplishments will one day, through writing and teaching, allow her to inspire and empower others in difficult circumstances. |
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Colleague selected to write 'Aberdeen anthem' |
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Professor Mealor said it was an honour to be involved in celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee in Aberdeen. It is the latest high-profile assignment for the composer who reached number one in the Christmas charts with Wherever You Are, which he wrote for the Military Wives Choir. Prior to the premier of the piece at the Jubilee event, he said: “It was a privilege to be asked to write the music to go with such wonderful words by the talented local writer Mike Gibb. Although I’m not originally from Aberdeen, it has been my home for the last 10 years and through my work at the University I feel a close connection to the city and its people. The Diamond Jubilee celebrations will be a great event and I’m looking forward to hearing the piece performed for the first time.” |
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Mooting society celebrates 25 years |
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The Law Mooting Society was founded at the University of Aberdeen in 1987 to cater for a growing demand amongst the students of the Law Faculty to learn and develop legal skills and to put them to the test in a moot court setting. The very first Faculty Moot Court Competition, which took place in 1987-88, had eight teams and in the past 25 years the competition has doubled. Also as part of the celebrations, the University’s inaugural Clifford Chance Commercial Law Mooting Competition was won by Lukasz Andruchow and Jan Scholz who mooted against Fraser Stewart and David D’Aleo. The competition, judged by Sheriff Peter Hammond was set up to reflect the increasing way that the law operates in the business world. Neale Tosh, President of the University of Aberdeen Mooting Society, said: “Clifford Chance has shown tremendous support of mooting here at Aberdeen. They have been instrumental in helping us launch our first Commercial Law Mooting Competition and we are extremely fortuitous to have had the benefit of such generous support from a world class firm of lawyers who specialise in all aspects of commercial law. We are also very pleased that they have helped us celebrate our 25th birthday by supporting our Main Faculty Mooting Competition, a competition on which many now very experienced court practitioners have “cut their teeth” and which we are so pleased to see going strong after a quarter of a century.” |
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New research projects cement Aberdeen's position as leading institution for research on The North |
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Four major research projects based on The North will commence this autumn. These are:
A number of postdoctoral research fellows and doctoral students are being appointed to carry out the work alongside established staff. Principal Diamond said: “In a number of fields, such as in geosciences, environmental biology, archaeology, anthropology and Scandinavian studies, the University has already established a leading international research reputation. No other university in the UK currently comes close to being so heavily invested in northern research, and in none are the prospects for the future development of research in the region so promising. This is an area in which the University can achieve world-class distinction.” Professor Ingold added: “Today the circumpolar North is regarded as an observatory for changing relations between human societies and their environments. Aberdeen is the principal centre for northern research in the UK. These four exciting new projects on The North will further cement the University’s status as a centre of excellence for research in this important area.” |
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Scottish Programme for Entrepreneurship (SPE) - An Overview |
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This programme was funded to build a seamless approach to entrepreneurship education for Scotland, part of which is developing teachers’ and lecturers’ capacity to recognise and support entrepreneurship within the context of their specialist subject areas. The SPE team focuses on sustainable approaches to enterprise and entrepreneurship education. We identify robust practices that have applicability across age, competence levels and subject disciplines, developing the educator’s role to facilitate student enterprise and entrepreneurship but without the need to become an entrepreneurship expert. The project is built around three core strands:
Currently the SPE team is focused on developing entrepreneurial capacity within the University, focusing on three main groups.
Current activities include:
SPE also has plans to host a TEDx event in April 2013 where the themes will be Mindset, Global Enterprise and Intergenerational Fairness. For more information on current events and activities, please contact Lesley Hetherington at l.hetherington@abdn.ac.uk or visit www.abdn.ac.uk/spe. |
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Research Project Update: 1641 Depositions Activities |
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Following the noted success of the project, Professor Fennell was an invited panellist at a History Ireland Hedge School on the 1641 Depositions and the Irish Rebellion at the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies in the Ulster American Folk park in Omagh, Northern Ireland in May. The two-hour public debate was chaired by Tommy Graham, Editor of History Ireland and the other panellists were Dr Micheal O’Siochru and Dr Eamon Darcy, Trinity College, Dublin, and Ulster historian John Bardon. A podcast of the event is available on the History Ireland website: www.historyireland.com/hedge. |
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Cutting Carbon - viva by video? |
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The viva was conducted in August 2011 at the Regent Building video conference suite. The PhD candidate was Adrien Mestrot, supervised by Professor Feldmann of Chemistry and Professor Meharg of Biology. The external examiner was Professor Jörg Matschullat of the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg. The viva was just over two and a half hours long and there were no problems with the link. Having done about 20 examinations, my impression was that it was a typically rigorous review of the thesis and, as usual, was ably led by the external. In most ways it was just like a normal viva. Adrien commented, “I would say that it was a good experience. I didn't feel that the screen put any distance between myself and the external examiner...” He also said, “I think it is a great solution when the external examiner needed for a good viva is far away, in terms of money and time spent travelling but mostly for the environment and carbon emissions”. Indeed, his last point is absolutely correct since almost half a ton of CO2 was saved (0.46 tons for flights Frankfurt to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Aberdeen return; 0.30 tons for the new Frankfurt to Aberdeen flight). Jörg too seems to be a big fan of the idea, having already done a viva via a link to Australia. He commented that travelling for a viva “...is a waste of lifetime and of resources” and went on to say, “Given the existing video and web technology, high quality, real-time communication is available and an attractive alternative”. Two things were missing from the normal viva experience: the opportunity for the supervisors to interact with the external, and the opportunity for the external to interact socially with the candidate afterward. The former could be a significant shortcoming but these kinds of interactions can be achieved by other means, not least video conferencing and Skype. In terms of the major objective of a PhD viva, the examination of the thesis and the candidate, I believe it was as good as the conventional practice. In this example, the viva was done this way because the external could not find the time to travel. This method of conducting vivas should be more widely considered, particularly given Aberdeen’s location and the University’s targets for greenhouse gas reductions. Article contributed by Dr Adam Price, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences
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An academic colleague from the School of Education has received recognition for the ‘Best Refereed Paper’ at a major international conference in her field. Yvonne Dewhurst, Lecturer in Education, received the accolade for a co-authored paper at the International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) World Congress in Melbourne, Australia in July 2012.
A Sociology PhD student has left for the Japanese city of Nagasaki after winning a prestigious scholarship to undertake a research trip. Tanita Maxwell, a former St Machar Academy pupil, is the 16th student to be selected for the Thomas Blake Glover Scholarship, supported by the University and the Rotary Club of Aberdeen Balgownie. She travelled to Japan on 13 August to spend three weeks living with several Japanese families of Rotarians, meeting local students and the business community.
Professor Brewer was one of three new members who began their term as Council member after the Academy’s annual general meeting in London in July. He already sits as part of the UN’s 'roster of global experts', a panel of experts appointed by a UN selection committee to offer advice on political, religious and cultural matters in the field of their expertise and he is also a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is author and co-author of thirteen books and in 2010 he was one of ten distinguished lecturers invited to participate in the Love and Justice Lecture Series, organised by Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
Professor Keating is one of only 38 academics to have been elected a Fellow at the British Academy’s Annual General Meeting in July, having been identified as a scholar who has 'attained distinction in any of the branches of study which it is the object of the Academy to promote’. He becomes one of only a handful of academics to be simultaneously a fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include European politics, nationalism, public policy, urban and regional politics and society, and social science methodologies. He is currently working on a large project on Rescaling Europe examining the emergence of new levels of government and policy making in six countries; the first results will be published in a book with Oxford University Press in 2013.
Professor Zalewski was selected by the Eminent Scholar Committee of the International Studies Association’s Feminist Theory and Gender Studies (FTGS) section as the Eminent Scholar 2013 in May. The FTGS honours an eminent scholar in the International Relations sub-field of Feminist Theory and Gender Studies on an annual basis, selecting the successful candidate on the basis that they have made a significant impact and have pushed the boundaries of the sub-field through their research. FTGS Eminent Scholars tend to have also distinguished themselves through their commitment to the section and have advanced feminist scholarship through their teaching, mentoring and leadership. The Chair of the FTGS Section commented that they could not think of anybody more fitting for the Eminent Scholar title than Professor Zalewski and congratulated her on all her scholarly achievements.
Anthropologist Dr Alex King will brave sub-zero conditions in north-east Siberia as he embarks on a 10-month expedition to document an endangered language in the region. Dr King and his family will relocate from Aberdeen in September to the remote town of Palana, on the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, from where he will also undertake an eight-week expedition to the more northerly reaches of Kamchatskiy Krai . 
The University was delighted when a former Law student was chosen for the honour of being a torchbearer when the Olympic flame arrived in Aberdeen in June. Ryan Whelan was nominated to carry the Olympic torch in recognition of his work to establish a free community law clinic, Casus Omissus. Now a trainee solicitor with international law firm Pinsent Masons, Ryan graduated from the University of Aberdeen top of his year in 2009 with an LLB, before going on to undertake the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice and then an AHRC-funded LLM by Research.
A single mother who has overcome learning difficulties to achieve her degree was one of three University students to be honoured by the institution as winners of the Aberdeen Quincentenary Prize in May. The annual award, established to mark the University’s 500th anniversary, recognises the exceptional efforts and talents of students.
Professor Paul Mealor was chosen to pen an ‘Aberdeen anthem’ which premiered at celebrations to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The professor in composition wrote music to go with lyrics by north-east writer Mike Gibb, which celebrates life in the Granite City. The piece, entitled The Ballad of Aberdeen, is about the 'pride in being born “a’tween the Don and Dee”' and contains references to well known Aberdonians such as missionary Mary Slessor, footballer Denis law and singer Annie Lennox.
The University’s Mooting Society marked their 25th anniversary in May with the final of the Main Faculty Competition. The contest was won by Nadia Sharif and Lynsey Reid who pitted their wits against Jon Benjamin and Mohammed Al-Ansari. The teams appeared before Lord Tyre, a High Court and Court of Session judge, who offered the teams his advice on how to make the most of every court appearance.
The launch of the University’s new, cross-disciplinary research theme on The North will place the institution at the forefront of research throughout the northern circumpolar regions. The North has been adopted as a strategic priority by the University and is an area in which the institution is already achieving world-class distinction across a range of disciplines in all three Colleges. The theme is led by Professor Tim Ingold, Anthropology, and will bring together researchers from a wide range of subjects ranging from archaeology to medicine.
Scottish Programme for Entrepreneurship (SPE) is a Scottish Government funded collaboration between the Business School and the School of Education. The project received over £1.1million in funding and is part of a wider collaboration with the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde.
Colleagues will remember the establishment of the 1641 Depositions Project, a year-long project led by Principal Investigator Professor Barbara Fennell, Senior Lecturer in Language and Linguistics. It was the recipient of a £334,574 award from the AHRC in March 2010 and was established under the rubric of the Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact (DEDEFI) programme, and aimed to explore how a computer environment can be created in which scholars interested in historical and corpus linguistics can work collaboratively with historians and other specialists to interrogate key historical sources in ways not currently possible, by exploiting effective language technology developed by IBM LanguageWare. In this case, the key historical source was the 1641 Depositions.
In the School of Biological Sciences, we conduct approximately 40 PhD vivas a year. For each, an external examiner comes up by car, train or, commonly, plane. This incurs a substantial cost which actually limits how far afield we look to invite the recognised expert. It also generates a significant carbon footprint. So what about something different? What about using the video conferencing facilities? This is an option rarely chosen by examiners, but I have done it and I want to share the experience.
If you have any comments or suggestions for features in future issues please contact us.
