Campus News
Giant hairy balls and chicken heads
September 20th, 2012
As is tradition for Lakeside’s outgoing artist-in-residence, Kashif Nadim Chaudry bid a fond farewell to his time at the Arts Centre with a summer exhibition at Djanogly Art Gallery. And with chicken heads and giant hairy balls, he certainly went out with a bang.
But despite the name Memes and posters of Nadim’s face being plastered around the University and beyond, it’s not a case of the 36-year-old being all me, me, me. He’s not one of those artists.
“No, no… not at all,” says Nadim. “Although the interesting thing is, when I was making the larger piece, the height of the fabric panel meant we had to take one of the ceiling tiles off to fit it in. And we realised that my ego had literally gone through the roof at that point — so maybe there is a bit of me-me in there.”
In reality, the back-story behind the name is altogether more complex. A ‘meme’ is ‘a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation’ which is capable of spreading and perpetuating cultural ideas and values. And anyway, it’s pronounced ‘meems’ – like ‘seams’.
A Fine Art Textiles graduate from Goldsmiths College, Chaudry’s work has always been informed by his family, culture and past — and Memes continues in this vein.
“Making these mythical creatures enables me to think about the human animal,” says Nadim. “I’m really interested in the schism between the animal and the socialised human. I think that comes from how at odds my sexuality is with Islam — that kind of schism became quite apparent. I realised I was a gay man, and this God I was supposed to believe in, the religion said ‘you can’t be that way’.
“The work also deals with issues that have been passed down to me from my family; and to my parents from their parents.”
But what are the chicken heads — preserved, soaked in aldehyde for 36 hours, left to dry for three weeks and then varnished — all about?
“The heads are separate to the bodies, so you’ve got that schism between mind and body split. I was also interested in the idea of being hen-pecked, and that relates to family politics and has roots for me in family control. On a broader level, it also relates to societal and religious pressure and so-called taboos controlling the ways in which we should behave and live.”
And the giant hairy balls?
“I wanted to be very serious in this exhibition and initially a lot of people talked about it being quite comic and quite absurd,” says Nadim. “That’s a million miles away from what I wanted to do, so it was quite difficult to hear that.
“But all along I wanted giant hairy balls — and for them to be comic.”
The chicken heads are just a small part of a series of sculptural investigations extending throughout the three spaces of the gallery. Nadim — as the exhibition programme reads — explores ‘this notion of inherited value systems and of traditional acts of ritual and ceremony from the perspective of Pakistani and Muslim heritage, and more specifically from his marginalised identity as a British-born gay man’.
And while Memes is a culmination of the residency and a continuation of key themes, Nadim has also gained a great deal from his time at Lakeside.
“What’s really great about the residency is that it gives you a space where you can purely focus on your practice,” says Nadim. “The University is very supportive, not only in terms of finances, but also in terms of the people that you meet. That safety net allowed me to be very ambitious and explore more risqué ideas.
“I’ve also been able to explore new avenues in terms of materials and scale. And a big part of that has been subcontracting work. It’s opened up the city to me in terms of finding all of these creative people, creative networks — making connections with them.”
Nadim’s residency may have come to an end, but you won’t find the artist standing in the job centre queue — he’s got big plans for the future and for Memes.
“What I would like to do is to get this show touring,” says Nadim. “I’m going to put all of my efforts into that to try to exhibit Memes nationally and internationally.”
So watch out world: Kashif Nadim Chaudry, the chicken heads and the furry balls, are on their way.
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Picture the past
September 20th, 2012
They may be old but these picture postcards offer a glimpse of the University today’s staff and students will easily recognise.
They show iconic views of the University’s interior and exterior and most are postmarked around the 1920s and 1930s. One card, dated 1928, the year University College moved to University Park, is entitled New University, Highfields, Nottingham. It was sent to address in East Leake and reads: “Dear Doris, I have not been to see the University yet but am hoping to before I come home. . . Did you have rain in the night? It simply poured here. I’m afraid it will hinder the harvest again”.
The postcards belong to journalist Simon Harvey, who writes for the University’s Alumni Exchange magazine, and were originally part of an extensive collection amassed by his dad over half a century. The collection recently went to auction but Simon rescued these for the University archive. If you have any postcards or photographs of the University in bygone days, please email Simon at: simon.harvey@nottingham.ac.uk
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Winning words
September 20th, 2012
It’s a prize he’s always dreamed of winning.
Jon McGregor, award-winning writer, honorary graduate and honorary lecturer at the University, is one of only three British authors ever to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the largest prize for an English novel nominated by librarians.
The £80,000 prize was awarded to McGregor for Even the Dogs, a beautifully written story of what happens to the body of an alcoholic after he is found dead in his flat in an English city between Christmas and New Year.
McGregor lives in Nottingham. In 2011, the University awarded him an honorary doctorate and he became an honorary lecturer in the School of English.
McGregor said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have won this award, and to be bringing it home to Nottingham. The IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has always been a prize I’ve looked out for, as its shortlists have consistently featured books of real strength and international standing. It’s one of the few prizes which considers works from anywhere in the world written in or translated into English, and as such has often highlighted real gems which might otherwise have gone unnoticed by the wider reading community. So to have received this award for Even the Dogs is a real honour. The money’s not bad either.”
Vice-Chancellor Professor David Greenaway said: “We are thrilled that Jon McGregor has won this prestigious international prize. It is marvellous news for the city and for our University. We feel privileged to have strong connections with Jon as an honorary graduate and honorary lecturer in our University. This award is a stunning achievement in the highly competitive global literary field and both staff and students will be very proud to associate with Jon as one of the creative figureheads of the University.”
Even The Dogs was chosen from a shortlist of 10, and a longlist of 147 books from 43 countries. It was nominated by M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia.
Head of School of English, Professor Julie Sanders, said: “The School of English is brimming with pride at the announcement of Jon McGregor’s success in the IMPAC literary prize. Jon has been a wonderful presence in the School this year as an honorary lecturer, working with energy and verve alongside staff and students and taking part in highly successful public events at the Lakeside Arts Centre. We are delighted to see his outstanding writing honoured in this way.”
See Jon McGregor’s acceptance speech at his honorary degree ceremony: http://tiny.cc/UoNJonMc
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Study into fat and perception of flavour
September 20th, 2012
A study carried out by the University with multinational food company Unilever has found that fat in food can reduce activity in several areas of the brain which are responsible for processing taste, aroma and reward.
The research provides the food industry with better understanding of how it might be able to — in the future — make healthier, less fatty food products without affecting their overall taste and enjoyment. In 2010, Unilever unveiled its Sustainable Living Plan, which sets out its ambition to help hundreds of millions of people improve their diet around the world within a decade.
The three-year study investigated how the brains of a group of participants in their 20s would respond to changes in the fat content of four fruit emulsions they tasted while under an MRI scanner. All four samples were of the same thickness and sweetness, but one contained flavour with no fat, while the other three contained fat with different flavour release properties.
The research found that the areas of the participants’ brains which are responsible for the perception of flavour — such as the somatosensory cortices and the anterior, mid and posterior insula — were significantly more activated when the non-fatty sample was tested compared to the fatty emulsions despite having the same flavour perception; increased activation in these brain areas does not necessarily result in increased perception of flavour or reward.
Dr Joanne Hort, Associate Professor in Sensory Science at the University, said: “This is the first brain study to assess the effect of fat on the processing of flavour perception and it raises questions as to why fat emulsions suppress the cortical response in brain areas linked to the processing of flavour and reward. It also remains to be determined what the implications of this suppressive effect are on feelings of hunger, satiety and reward.”
Unilever food scientist Johanneke Busch, based at the company’s Research & Development laboratories in Vlaardingen, Netherlands, added: “There is more to people’s enjoyment of food than the product’s flavour; its mouthfeel, its texture and whether it satisfies hunger, so this is a very important building block for us to better understand how to innovate and manufacture healthier food products which people want to buy.”
Nottingham University’s Sensory Science Centre, its Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre and the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre were all involved in the research, which was co-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Eldeghaidy S et al (2012). Does fat alter the cortical response to flavour? is published in Chemosensory Perception; 10.1007/s12078-012-9130-z
Tags: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Sensory Science, Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre
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Exhibition gives a voice to the displaced
September 20th, 2012
The stories of millions of people left stranded far from home in Europe following the end of World War II are being told through an exhibition at Nottingham Castle.
When the War was Over: European Refugees After 1945 documents the experiences of those labelled Displaced Persons (DPs) by the Allied Governments, including former Nazi slave labourers, liberated prisoners-of-war, concentration camp survivors and Eastern Europeans fleeing westwards to escape the Soviet Red Army.
The exhibition has been organised by historians at The University of Nottingham and The University of Manchester and is based on a research project studying East European population displacement and resettlement after World War II.
More than 11 million people were displaced from their homes by the end of the war — roughly ten times the number after World War I.
By mid-May 1945, 10 million had been repatriated to their homeland, leaving around 1.5 million people in Displaced Persons’ camps under the administration of the United Nations and charities including the Quakers.
Conditions were poor and a lack of housing in war-ravaged Germany meant that these camps often took the form of wooden huts, disused factories or former forced labour barracks or concentration camps.
Dr Siobhan Peeling, who worked on the project at Nottingham with Dr Nick Baron in the University’s School of History, said: “The appalling human rights violations that took place across Europe during the war are well documented and remembered to this day, but people are generally less aware of the hardships endured by those who found themselves stranded away from home once peace returned to the continent.
“Many of the DPs who didn’t return home eventually went on to start a new life in other countries such as the UK and America — including the Poles and Ukrainians who came to Nottingham. However some, especially those deemed unfit to work or with a criminal conviction, languished in the camps and were only finally resettled almost 15 years later during the World Refugee Year campaign in 1959-60.”
The exhibition aims to give a voice to those refugees — and the institutions and volunteers who sought to care for them — through a rich resource of analysis, personal testimonies and original source material including photographs and film clips collected from archives and libraries in the UK, USA, Russia, the Ukraine and elsewhere.
Dr Peeling added: “The aim of the exhibition is to showcase the compelling personal stories of the migrants who were affected post-1945 and to promote thought and debate on the issue of refugees and migrants which still continues to resonate in our contemporary society.”
When the War Was Over: European Refugees After 1945 will run in the People’s Gallery space at Nottingham Castle until Sunday September 23.
The project and development of the exhibition were funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Tags: Dr Siobhan Peeling, School of History
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Sound advice?
September 19th, 2012
Loud music damages your hearing — a warning that we’re used to taking as fact. But little research has actually been done into how sustained exposure to loud music affects our hearing in the long term, and the results we do have are far from conclusive. A new research project taking place at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing, based at the University, is the first to explicitly examine the effect of long-term exposure to loud music. Researchers are looking to recruit 2,000 volunteers from an ‘older generation of music listeners’ in a large-scale study that is the first of its kind in the world. Volunteers carry out a 20-minute online test after completing an anonymous questionnaire on hearing status, other factors that may have caused damage and — most importantly — a life-long history of music exposure in different environments; including gigs, pubs, clubs and using personal music players. The volunteers then take a hearing test on their home computer. Used together, the information allows the team to investigate the true long-term risk of music-induced hearing loss. Researchers are particularly looking to attract those who work in quiet environments, to rule out some alternative factors in hearing loss. They are hoping large companies will promote the study to their staff. Volunteers should be aged between 30 and 65 — old enough to have been exposed to more loud music than the average teenager, but young enough to be unaffected by age-related hearing loss. PhD student Robert Mackinnon is carrying out the study. “While we are frequently cautioned about the risks of loud music in popular culture and mainstream media, at present the threat remains exactly that — a risk. There simply isn’t enough scientific evidence at present to convincingly confirm or dismiss the danger of music-induced hearing loss. “The only way we can assess the risk is to specifically gather evidence from an older generation of music listeners who have not just had a few exposures to loud music, but have potentially spent a lifetime exposing themselves to it. “The results of this study will not just be used to help answer the question of if music exposure is damaging, but how much it is damaging. This will allow us to begin to better define safe listening limits — prevention is better than cure.” For further details, contact Robert at: msxrm1@nottingham.ac.uk or call 0115 823 2600.
Tags: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
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Lark in the park
September 19th, 2012
Plenty of people enjoyed the Friends of University’s Park’s annual Picnic in the Park in the Millennium Garden.
Entertainment included the sounds of the Newstead Band, Bakersfield Birds of Prey, face painting, rocket making, a digital art stall, pond dipping and more.
The event came just days after the University was awarded a record-breaking 10th consecutive Green Flag Award. The 330-acre campus made Nottingham the first university to bag a Green Flag back in 2003 — and the University has been racking them up ever since. The national award scheme recognises and rewards the UK’s best public and community parks and green spaces.
More than 800 volunteers were involved in assessing the nominated green spaces against a stringent set of criteria, including how welcoming the space is, community involvement, conservation and sustainability.
Desmond O’Grady, Grounds Manager, said: “The maintenance and improvement of the University grounds is a huge team effort between the Estates Office, Friends of University Park and grounds staff. A lot of help also comes from student volunteers. This ensures that our grounds are welcoming, and we’ve worked hard to build strong community partnerships with organisations like Nottingham City Council and East Midlands in Bloom.”
Friends of University Park organises events throughout the year. For information, call Mr O’Grady on: 0115 951 3649 or visit: www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability/grounds/friendsofuniversitypark.aspx
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New boss at helm
September 19th, 2012
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation Professor Christine Ennew is to be the new Provost and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University’s Malaysia Campus.
Professor Ennew takes over from Professor Ian Pashby who is to be Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at the University of Hull.
“Malaysia is now a regional hub for international universities in Asia and competition is growing all the time,” said Professor Ennew. “There are challenges ahead but over the last decade Nottingham has built a strong and hugely attractive campus-based institution in Malaysia and we are continuing to invest heavily in teaching, research and the student experience. Over the next decade we need to ensure we get that balance right. Teaching and learning will remain our core purpose but we will be focusing increased attention on strengthening research and business engagement, and we have an excellent base to build on. We need to focus on balanced growth in an increasingly competitive environment, we have to ensure we get the right subject mix and that we continue to enhance the student experience. We also need to strengthen our research activity by building on the core strengths of the University, working in areas of direct relevance to the development of the Malaysian economy and in partnership with Malaysian Universities.”
Professor Ennew has been at the heart of our internationalisation programme for many years, managing the international strategy which has drawn students and staff from almost 150 nations to campuses in Britain and Asia. She led in the development of the Malaysia Campus in Kuala Lumpur in 2000 and between 2008 and 2011 she had responsibility for the continuing development and integration of Nottingham’s campuses in China and Malaysia.
The opening of the purpose-built campus in Semenyih was a milestone in Nottingham’s commitment to become one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in Malaysia.
Professor Pashby, who was appointed Provost in 2008, said: “It has been a challenging, exciting and very rewarding five years in which I’ve overseen a growth in student numbers, range of subjects offered and research activity. Student numbers have increased from 2,700 to over 4,400 and the campus has been recognised by the Malaysian Government for the quality of both its teaching and research. Continuous investment in infrastructure and services has seen the student experience improve year on year. UNMC is a vibrant academic community with over 70 nationalities represented amongst the student body. I am proud of what the staff have achieved over recent years and I feel very privileged to have been part of UNMC’s continuing success.”
“I will be very sad to leave behind so many friends and colleagues and a country which I have grown to love. The family has had so many wonderful adventures since arriving in Asia but they are now looking forward to returning to the UK and the new challenges that lie ahead. My new role at Hull will be particularly special for me as I am moving to my home-town University”.
Vice-Chancellor Professor David Greenaway said: “When the University established a campus in Malaysia the move was certainly visionary. Just 80 students walked through the doors when the campus opened in 2000. Since then thousands of students of all nationalities have reaped the benefits of gaining a British degree after studying on the other side of the world. It is a major undertaking for our academics and staff who move, often with their families, half way around the world to embrace new challenges and cultures and I want to thank Professor Pashby for his commitment and dedication. His tenure of nearly five years has seen our campus in Malaysia go from strength to strength and we wish him and his family the very best for the future.”
Tags: Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation Professor Christine Ennew, UNMC
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£4.5m injection
September 19th, 2012
Student nurses coming to Derby to study are set to benefit from state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities at a new multi-million pound education centre.
The University of Nottingham’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy Education Centre will offer flexible classrooms, a four-bed bay skills suite, virtual learning hub and a large multidisciplinary library.
The £4.5m building, funded by Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, based at the Royal Derby Hospital, gives students access to facilities at the School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health and puts them at the heart of quality patient-care facilities.
Elaine Cook, Head of Division of Nursing for School of Nursing, Midwifery & Physiotherapy, said: “This is a very exciting development and will provide students with an excellent learning environment.
“Being part of the hospital will create a vibrant, modern hub and benefit students’ clinical education. It will also promote stronger staff collaborations and nurture new research opportunities.”
The centre will be home to 80 students on the University’s BSc (Hons) Nursing course and 80 students studying adult, child or mental health nursing on its Graduate Entry Nursing (GEN) course. The centre will also cater for almost 250 healthcare professionals studying professional development courses from Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Brigid Stacey, Director of Patient Experience and Chief Nurse at Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted the School of Nursing is now on the Royal Derby Hospital site. Students, university staff and hospital staff will all benefit from the stunning new facilities and ensure Derby continues to have a nursing workforce to be proud of. It will play a big part in helping Derby continue to attract the brightest and best new students who will then hopefully continue their careers with us for the benefit of Derby patients.
“Nursing is a challenging but rewarding career, and needs people who not only have the passion to care for people, but also can make the right decisions for the benefit of patients. Providing Graduate Entry Nurse Education in the new School of Nursing will help secure high quality nursing, midwifery and physiotherapy graduates, who provide compassionate care and strong leadership.
More information about studying at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy at The University of Nottingham is available at: http://nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/home.aspx
Tags: Midwifery and Physiotherapy Education Centre, School of Nursing
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For Campbell
September 19th, 2012
When Bekki Burns sees photographs of her five-year-old son Daniel and three-year-old daughter Holly showering their little brother with love she is acutely aware of how treasured these snapshots will become. For she knows that there may be a time when they will struggle to recall the moments they shared with baby Campbell.
“It’s so touching to see them with Campbell, they just love him so much. They cuddle him as much as they can and play with him and Daniel leaves little letters for him in his cot. It makes us sad because we know they won’t remember a lot but we are trying hard to build memories for them, special days with Campbell that they can cherish,” says Bekki, a research secretary at the University.
Campbell was born on 24 January this year, the day before Burns Night — to the delight of Scottish dad Mark — after a trouble-free pregnancy. At 6lbs 6ozs he was a bit smaller than his siblings had been but otherwise seemed healthy.
The earliest hint of the heartbreaking diagnosis to come was at Campbell’s seven-week check when it was noticed that he was a little weak in muscle tone and wasn’t yet smiling. No reason to panic, said the doctor, a chest infection had probably slowed his progress.
A week later, Campbell was back at the doctor’s for his immunisations. The routine visit spiralled into an emergency when Campbell had a seizure. He was referred to Burton Hospital, near the family’s home in Coalville, Leicestershire, where high lactic acids in his blood suggested a metabolic condition. Doctors began to talk in terrifying terms like ‘life-limiting’ and Campbell was transferred to specialists at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
At just nine weeks old Campbell’s diagnosis was confirmed — the extremely rare and incurable genetic condition Leigh’s Disease — and his parents were given the devastating news that their little boy would be unlikely to live to his first birthday.
Bekki said: “Mark and I both had a feeling of foreboding pretty early on but obviously it was still a huge shock.
“Our main concern was really for our other children. They had only recently welcomed their baby brother and were absolutely delighted with him. We worried about how we were going to tell them but children sense when something is wrong and in the end we decided to be as honest as we could be.
“Holly is still too little to comprehend the enormity of it but Daniel understood exactly what it meant, he just screamed and screamed. After he’d calmed down he ran straight upstairs to fetch his Buzz Lightyear camera. He told us, ‘If Campbell is not going to be with us for very long then we need to take lots of photos.’”
Leigh’s Disease is a rare inherited disorder caused by problems in the mitochondria — the tiny ‘power stations’ of the body’s cells. It affects the central nervous system, causing progressive degeneration of motor functions. The diagnosis came out of the blue; with no history of metabolic disease in the family, specialists at Birmingham are carrying out complex tests to unravel the genetic riddle.
For now though, the Burns family are focusing firmly on the future. Their blog — www.campbellburns.wordpress.com — launched to record their precious time with Campbell has had more than 20,000 hits and comments from around the globe.
The family has launched the Campbell Burns Metabolic Trust to support East Midlands’ families whose under-twos have been diagnosed with a metabolic disorder.
Bekki said: “We wanted to do something in Campbell’s name that would offer practical help to people in a similar position to us. We will aim to give financial assistance with things like accommodation and parking for extended hospital stays, anything that will just take some of that worry away during a very stressful time. We will also fund special memory-making day trips out for families, which can also prove to be very costly.”
Money has been rolling in to the charity via auctions on the blog, a sponsored Toddler Walk at Holly’s nursery and a sponsored Ironman Challenge by a friend. Rugby player Joe Gray, son of University staff member Lesley Gray, has donated signed Harlequins and England shirts, and is the charity’s patron. And a cake sale organised by Bekki’s colleagues in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering raised £350 for Rainbows Hospice.
Bekki added: “There is no immediate sense that Campbell is unwell which is what is so shocking about all this. However, we have been told that his condition could change almost overnight. His body has a problem with producing energy so if he develops an infection he has to divert energy to fight that meaning that he could very quickly lose another function, for example, the ability to swallow.
“It’s difficult to make long-term plans but we don’t want to live in a bubble and want to give Campbell a good quality of life wherever we can. We are determined to enjoy every day and to make the most of the time we do have with our beautiful boy.”
Details of how to support The Campbell Burns Metabolic Trust is available at: www.campbellstrust.co.uk. You can also follow the charity on Twitter: @CampbellsTrust and on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheCampbellBurnsMetabolicTrust.
Tags: Campbell Burns
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