News 3


Remembering the Holocaust


A series of commemorative events will be held to mark Holocaust Memorial Week leading up to 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.


The week will explore artistic representations of the Holocaust via theatre, music, poetry, performance, film and visual art.


A Twilight Zone Café will be held at The Minories in Colchester introducing the week’s key themes and looking at changing attitudes towards the Holocaust and its victims.


The Lakeside Theatre will host the London Klezmer Quartet plus a theatre production and open mic night on the theme of ‘being other’. Suffolk and Essex schools will also contribute to an evening celebrating the remarkable life of Holocaust survivor Dora Love.


Other events include a screening of epic nine and a half hour French documentary Shoah and a panel discussion on remembering the Holocaust through the arts. The week will also promote the next volume of the University journal, The Holocaust in History and Memory.


www.essex.ac.uk/history/holocaust_ memorial_week


Top teaching award for graduate


Essex graduate Liz Bailey was named Outstanding New Teacher of the Year at the national Pearson Teaching Awards 2012.


Liz completed her BA English Literature and MA Literature before progressing to study for a PhD in Literature at the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies.


After completing her teacher training, she started working at Clacton County High School in 2010 as a trainee teacher and became head of English in 2011.


The award judges said: “She is super-intelligent, but she is emotionally intelligent too. She is already a leader beyond her own classroom and she will go far.”


Anna Page, a sixth-form student, nominated her for the Award to say thank you for helping her win a place at the University of Cambridge.


Jeff Brindle, Head Teacher at Clacton County High, said: “She has a deep love of English literature that shines through everything she does and inspires and motivates both pupils and staff.”


Open Day success


More than 900 potential students and their families attended the University’s latest open day held in October at our Colchester Campus – making it the best attended open day ever.


The event was supported by more than 100 members of staff from academic departments and professional services.


Did you know?


The team of four essex computer science graduates who won the Virgin Media 100 Day Game Project have released their winning game onto the iOS and Android app stores.


Super-Fluid − a colourful puzzle-based game using tilt-based controls for navigation − can be downloaded for free from iTunes and Google Play. The graduates have now started paid internships at a studio in Brighton.


PhD student wins Cabinet Office post


A prestigious ESRC-funded Research Fellowship has been awarded to PhD student Angus Holford from the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), who has joined the high profile Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team.


The Behavioural Insights Team was set up by the Government to explore how behavioural science can improve the design, delivery and evaluation of public policy. There is a growing consensus that the success of many policy initiatives depends on their behavioural impact.


Angus said: “Understanding why people behave as they do is essential to inform policy design effectively, whether investigating welfare or benefit participation, risky behaviours among teenagers, or any question addressing unemployment or social mobility.


“Working with the team I will be contributing my ideas for interventions in a variety of areas, and will gain practical experience in conducting field experiments to expand the evidence base for such policies.”


I’m looking forward to bringing these ideas and methods back to ISER to inform my existing research questions and conceive further questions that can be tackled.”


Angus recently published Take up of Free School Meals: Price Effects and Peer Effects, examining the reluctance of children to participate in the Free School Meals programme and the impact on Pupil Premium distribution, as part of the ISER Working Paper Series. The research received widespread media coverage and has prompted calls for policy reform to reduce the stigma of free school meals.


www.iser.essex.ac.uk/podcasts/iser/2012/08


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