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Faculty Bulletin, November 2010

1. MEDIA NEWS

Research on equal pay by Dr Leen Vandecasteele resulted in coverage on page 4 of  the Daily Mail, the BBC News magazine and the Manchester Evening News. It was also the subject of a piece by Janet Street Porter in the Independent on Sunday. A study on wildlife crime by Professor Rosaleen Duffy was published in the New Scientist following the publication of her recently-published book, 'Nature Crime: How We're Getting Conservation Wrong'.

The New Statesman carried a two page spread on the Cranford Exhibition at the John Rylands Library and members of the politics expert media group, formed during the general election spoke to various outlets on the party conferences including the Bloomberg news agency. A theatre production by drama academics in Iran was covered in the Manchester Evening News and Time Higher Education.

The death of Auschwitz survivor 'Pikolo' was covered in the Independent - comprising an interview with Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus who wrote a book of Pikolo's life. And the Economist published a blog following the publication of a UN report on development and digital technology, to which the Centre for Development Informatics contributed heavily.

2. ICT NEWS

Data Security and Encryption drop-in sessions

Just a quick reminder of your obligations surrounding data and security.  It is your responsibility to ensure your data is protected.  We have regular reports of laptops lost or stolen from the University and would like to remind you that these need to be encrypted to ensure that loss of information does not cause adverse consequences for yourself or the University.

Information security policies: http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/services/information-security/

Laptop encryption instructions: How to: Encrypt a Laptop with TrueCrypt (you will need to sign in using your University ID & password).  This article also covers encrypting external devices, e.g. USB sticks.

To assist with this process we are holding a couple of drop-in sessions in the coming weeks. Call by if you would like to ask any questions about the process, or would like some help with laptop or USB key encryption.  These will be held at the following times/locations:
Date: Thursday 18th November and Thursday 25th November
Time: 10am to 1pm
Location: Ellen Wilkinson C1.44

Courtesy costs nothing

There have been a growing number of complaints from our Service Support staff recently about the way they have been spoken to when handling IT-related questions. We recognise that perhaps work pressures are ever more difficult, but ask that you communicate with us (whether by email/telephone) in a courteous manner as we expect our staff to do with you.

3. NEWS FROM SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

School of Education Research

Maria Pampaka has secured an ERSC First Grant worth £236,361.44 that will run for 3 Years. The title is "Mathematics teaching and learning in secondary schools: the impact of pedagogical practices on important learning outcomes".  The project aims to break new ground by measuring the relationship between students' dispositions and other learning outcomes and decisions over a five year range (Year 7 to 11) together with the self reported pedagogic practices of students' maths teachers.
 
Professor Helen Gunter, from the School of Education, has been made an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

4. NEWS FROM SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Congratulations are due to Dr Albena Yaneva, who has recently been awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research for her work An Ethnography of Architecture.

'Ten Years of Poverty' CPRC/BWPI Conference

From 8-10 September 2010, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) and Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) celebrated ten years of poverty research at the University of Manchester and partner institutions with an international conference entitled "Ten years of poverty: what have we learned since 2000 and what should we do 2010-2020?".

The conference was opened by Dean of Humanities Prof Keith Brown and brought together over 300 delegates from around the world to: 

The event took place just two weeks before the UN General Assembly convened to review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and featured the following keynote speakers:

The conference was funded by CPRC, BWPI and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Papers and presentations from the event are available on the CPRC website at http://www.chronicpoverty.org/page/conference-programme

Managing At The Top 2 (MATT2)

SED's active research in Bangladesh is helping inform MATT2, a CPD initiative supported by the Ministry of Establishment of Bangladesh and by DFID designed to shape reform-minded public sector managers who both support and bring pressure for incremental administrative reform in government departments.

For the third consecutive year, SED's provision of executive education and knowledge transfer has seen 20 top-level Bangladeshi state administrators attending a project-driven six-week programme at IDPM. This year relevant SED research from BWPI and from the Centre for Organizations in Development (COD) has contributed to performance-improvement projects that the civil servants will undertake upon return to Bangladesh, aimed at minimizing the vulnerabilities of families of Bangladeshi expatriate workers; reversing marginalization of fisher-folk through new caged fish farming; piloting improved stoves to reduce air pollution; and increasing employment of persons with disabilities in government service.

5. NEWS FROM SCHOOL OF LAW

Congratulations to Professor Frank Stephen, Head of School, who has been appointed President of the International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE).

6. NEWS FROM SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Economics

The Environmental Economics Research Area Group (RAG):

confirmed its internal recognition when RAG-members presented four papers at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, June 2010 in Montreal. This world congress is held once every four years.

The Environmental Economics RAG was newly created in 2007 when SoSS/Economics strategically identified it as an area for support within the University's "environment mission in recognition of the importance of the subfield locally, nationally and globally".

Prof Rachel Griffith:

Recent publications:

Acemoglu, D., P. Aghion, R. Griffith and F. Zilibotti. "Vertical Integration and Technology: Theory and Evidence." Journal of the European Economic Association 8, no. 5 (2010): 989-1033.

Johannes Sauer

Ken Clark

Ken has been awarded the Economics Network eLearning Award.  This is a national award for teaching excellence.  The citation reads:

 "I am delighted to report that you have been chosen as the winner of the award.  The overall standard of nominating statements was very high but it was ultimately felt that your nomination displayed all the qualities of commitment, enthusiasm, innovation and evident success that represent excellent eLearning teaching practice.

As your prize we are offering you £250. An official letter confirming the prize, along with your certificate, will be posted to you. Your cheque will follow."

Horst Zank

June/July: 2 Publications:

Zank, Horst (2010) "Consistent Probability Attitudes," Economic Theory 44, 167-185. (2 citations in Google Scholar)

Abdellaoui, Mohammed, Olivier l'Haridon and Horst Zank (2010) "Separating Curvature and Elevation: A Parametric Probability Weighting Function," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 41, 39-65.

Ralf Becker

Ralf has published the following two papers in respected journals:

Weighted smooth transition regressions (2010) (with D. Osborn), to appear in: Journal of Applied Econometrics

Semi-Parametric Forecasting of Realized Volatility (2010) (with A.E.
Clements and S. Hurn), to appear in: Studies of Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics

Social Anthropology

One of our PhD students, Ainhoa Montoya, received an honourable mention for her submission to the Student Paper Prize competition run by the Association of Political and Legal Anthropology.

Politics

Ryan Combs, a PhD student in Politics, has been awarded the 2010 Bailey Award by the LGBT Caucus of the American Political Science Association for the best paper on an LGBT topic presented at the 2009 conference. Ryan's paper was "Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union: Not for All? The EU's Role in Healthcare Provision for Trans People".  (The letter informing me of this award was from Prof Charles Smith, University of California at Irvine the Chair of the LGBT Caucus of the APSA and was dated 28th September 2010)

Paul Copeland, a Hallsworth post-Doctoral Fellow in Politics has been selected to present a paper at the Harvard/Stanford International Junior Faculty Forum in October 2010.

Shogo Suzuki, a lecturer in Politics, has been awarded a visiting fellowship at the International Centre for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Oct-Dec 2010.

Rosaleen Duffy's new book Nature Crime: How we're getting conservation wrong (2010, Yale University Press), has received considerable press exposure — for example in New Scientist and The Guardian.   Rosaleen Duffy is Professor of International Politics.

Callahan, William ,  China: The Pessoptimist Nation (2010 Oxford: Oxford University Press) . Callahan is Professor of International Politics
Pattison, James. Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect: Who Should Intervene?  (2010, Oxford University Press). Pattison is Lecturer in International Politics

Morgan Centre

New ESRC project on experiences of donor conception in families

We have just started work on a new ESRC project (£367k over 30 months) which will explore the experiences of heterosexual and lesbian couples who have children via donor conception. The project researches couples' processes of disclosure to extended family and kin, and also the perceived place of donor conceived children in family networks. Furthermore, it attends to the sensitive issue of how donor conceived children are received as grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins by extended family and kin. The project is led by Carol Smart, and Petra Nordqvist is the project researcher and co-investigator.  -  http://www.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/research/relative-strangers/

Professor Dame Janet Finch joins the Morgan Centre

Janet Finch joins the Morgan Centre in summer 2010, as Emeritus Professor, from Keele University, where she has been Vice Chancellor since 1995. Before that she was at Lancaster University, where she was Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Social Relations.

Professor Finch has recently been appointed as the Chair Designate of Main Panel C for the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework exercise.
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/people/finch/

Professor Sue Heath joins the Morgan Centre as Co-Director

Sue Heath joins the Morgan Centre from the University of Southampton since 1998, where she was co-director of two ESRC Research Centres: the National Centre for Research Methods and the Centre for Population Change. Sue's research interests are in household formation, youth transitions, research methodology and the sociology of education. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/people/heath/

Over 1,500 downloads of new Realities research methods "toolkits" since June

Since June 2010 we have published five new Realities "toolkits", documents about the practical side of doing social research. The new toolkits are on: using blog analysis, using email interviews, working on mixed method projects, dealing with contradictory data, and using walking interviews. Between 1 June and 25 October 2010, there were 1,503 downloads of these publications from the Realities website: www.manchester.ac.uk/realities, plus additional downloads from the National Centre for Research Methods Eprints repository (no figures available currently).

Dr Vanessa May - Visiting Research Fellowship

Dr May is Visiting Research Fellow at the Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland, between 2010-2012

Carol Smart on Radio 4's 'Bringing up Britain' discussing her research into family secrets

As part of a programme on breaking bad news to children, Carol Smart shares findings from her own research which suggest that honesty may not always be the best policy (Carol is about 22 minutes into this programme). http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/v1qtl/

Kirsty Finn (Morgan Centre PhD candidate) appointed to permanent lecturer position, Teesside University, September 2010

Morgan Centre staff presented 5 papers at the recent International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology, Gothenburg, Sweden 11 - 17th July 2010

Smart, C. (2010)'Law and the Regulation of Family Secrets' International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family,  24(3):397-413.

May, V. (2010) 'Lone motherhood as a category of practice', Sociological Review, 58(3): 429-443.

Philosophy

Joel Smith has had his first distinguished publication:

Smith, J. 2010. Seeing Other People. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. (link)
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research is a top-6 general philosophy journal with around a 5% acceptance rate.

Sociology

Prof. Dale Southerton (PI - SoSS) and Andrew McMeekin (Co-I - MBS) have been awarded a large grant (£1.65m) from the ESRC, DEFRA and Scottish Government to form the 'Sustainable Practices Research Group'. The group comprises of 8 partner Universities: Essex, Edinburgh, Leeds, Lancaster, Salford, Cardiff and Queens University Belfast, and is led by Manchester University. The project started in August, 2010.

Prof. Rob Procter is the co-investigator on Negotiating the Organizational and Policy Context for Successful Technology Adoption in the NHS. National Institute for Health Research; £430K, October 2009-September 2012, This project is a study of the adoption processes and pathways for non-pharmaceutical technologies in the NHS.

Prof. Alan Warde is currently (2010-11) serving as the Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Recent publications

Procter, R., Williams, R., Stewart, J., Poschen, M., Snee, H., Voss, A. and Asgari-Targhi, M.  Adoption and Use of Web 2.0 in Scholarly Communications. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, special issue on e-Science, September, vol 368, pp. 4039-4056.

Sutcliffe, A., Thew, S., de Bruijin, O., Buchan, I., Jarvis, P., Procter, R. and McNaught, J. User Engagement by User-Centred Design in e-Health. (2010). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, special issue on e-Science, September, vol 368, pp. 4209-4224.

Birkin, M. Procter, R., Allan, R., Bechhofer, S., Buchan, I., Goble, C., Hudson-Smith, A., Lambert, P., De Roure, D. and Sinnott, R.
The Elements of a Computational Infrastructure for Social Simulation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, special issue on e-Science, August, vol 368, pp. 3797-3812.

Halfpenny, P. and Procter, R. The e-Social Science research agenda. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, special issue on e-Science, August, vol 368, pp. 3761-3778.

Voss, A., Asgari-Targhi, M., Procter, R. and Fergusson, D.
Adoption of e-Infrastructure Services: findings, issues and opportunities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, special issue on e-Science, September, vol 368, pp. 4161-4176.

Prof. Nick Crossley recently published a new monograph (book) - Towards Relational Sociology

Dr. James Rhodes had an article published in the September issue of Urban Studies

Dr. Yousaf Ibrahim had an article accepted for publication in the journal: Sociology, entitled: 'Political Distinction in the British Anti-capitalist Movement'

Social Statistics

Among younger members of staff:

The award of a Hallsworth Fellowship to Nissa  Finney,
The award of an ESRC Post-doctoral Fellowship to Leen Vandecasteele.

Among the senior staff:

 A substantial consultancy contract with the Office for National Statistics to review their Census methods and outputs (me as lead but also including Ludi Simpson).

Social Anthropology

Staff

Sarah Green appointed Executive Program Chair for American Anthropological Association (AAA) 2011
John Gledhill elected as Fellow of the British Academy, also awarded Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship 2010-2013
Sharon Macdonald secured funding for European Science Foundation (ESF) Research Conference to be held July 2011
Paul Henley's monograph on Jean Rouch (Chicago University Press 2009) was reviewed by Paul Stoller in current edition of Africa: 'Paul Henley's magisterial The Adventure of the Real: Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema ... is destined to become the most important text on one of the great figures of 20th century anthropology and cinema'.

Graduate Students

Association of Political and Legal Anthropologists student prize submissions:  Ainhoa Montoya received an Honorable Mention for her essay 'The Politics of Fear and the Shadow State in Post-War El Salvador'.

Rachel Wilde appointed Postgraduate Award Holder for Widening Participation (U. of Manchester).

Martha Cecilia Dietrich awarded University of Manchester Alumni Scholarship for project: Sensing prison: the bodily and imaginative aspects of imprisonment among female ex-combatants in Peru.

7. FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Events are listed at:

http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/humnet/aboutus/events

Notification of events

Information on forthcoming events should be submitted online:

http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/humnet/aboutus/events/submit/

Notification of bulletin items

Items for future issues of the bulletin can be submitted online via the following link:

http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/humnet/aboutus/announcements/submit

or by sending an e-mail to Laura.Dobson@manchester.ac.uk

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