PGVoice14-02-11

Welcome Back!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: The International and Postgraduate Student Centre

2

Funding Opportunities

3

Events this month

4

Classifieds

4

It’s all about the experience

5

Features

Thanks!

6-7

Hello fellow postgraduate students and welcome to the inaugural edition of the Postgraduate Voice! In this edition you will find advice on funding, upcoming scholarship deadlines, news features, reviews and much more!

We are currently looking for submissions for our next edition.

These can include articles about your personal student experience, classified ads, details of events, and reviews. Please forward submissions and any feedback you may have on this edition to pg.voice@qub.ac.uk

8

Hello all!

Welcome to the first edition of Postgraduate Voice, it’s finally here!

I’m your VP Equality and Diversity, I’m sure you’ve all received annoying emails from me! I am here to represent and support you- from small problems like library opening hours to more academic problems, I may not have all the answers but I definitely can signpost you to the people who can. Just drop me an email on su.vpequality@qub.ac.uk, I honestly do enjoy dealing with emails!

It’s really good to finally see this project come to life! Basically, the idea of this newsletter is to pull all relevant information from across the university into one centralised source for postgraduate students, and also have fun bits like student articles and student discounts! Because this is still in the early stages, the PG Editorial Team is open to all submissions from anyone who wants to get involved (just drop an email to pg.voice@qub.ac.uk). I hope you all will bear with us as we slowly progress and expand our newsletter, it’s harder than we expected!

Thanks again to everyone who sent in submissions, we’re looking forward to all your future submissions!

Have a lovely day!

WELCOME MESSAGE FROM I&PSC Hello fellow postgrads. I hope this finds you well!

Welcome to the first edition of PG Voice. It is in the early development stages so any volunteers are gladly welcomed. Get involved and ensure your voice is heard!

Thanks again to all those who already contributed to this edition. I hope you have all had the opportunity to visit your new centre and have experienced the fantastic facilities on offer, exclusively to postgrads! If not, there is no time like the present.

Come and see me and I’ll gladly give you a tour of the facilities. You can contact me at pg.centre@qub.ac.uk with any questions that you might have. If I can’t help, I’ll certainly find someone who can!

Looking to Connect? Join the PGSA! Postgraduate studies are not only challenging but also, at times, isolating. The Postgraduate Students Association (PGSA) is a student-led society that seeks to foster a sense of community among postgraduate students at Queen's by running a variety of academic and social events. We seek to bring together students from across a variety of disciplines for work and play. We also work to keep open lines of communication between postgraduate students, the Students Union, and The Postgraduate Office.

We hold at least two regular events every month in the social space on the second floor of the International and Postgraduate Student Centre.

On the second Tuesday of each month at 10:30 am we host a coffee morning. On the fourth Thursday at 6:30 pm we show a documentary film at 6:30 pm. We also organize a number of one-off events such as the Christmas Social last December and the Summer Social in May. To find out about such events, you can check out our website (http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/ pgsa/), join the Queen's PGSA group on Facebook, or join our mailing list by sending a message to pgsa@qub.ac.uk.

Have a fantastic Semester!

Because we are a student-run society, we are always looking for additional volunteers to help plan activities. The more students get involved, the more events we can run. This is also a great way to gain skills in planning and publicity that can be transferred to careers in academia and beyond.

Aisling

Elizabeth Switaj, PGSA President

1

Postgraduate Student Centre The International and Postgraduate Student Centre (I&PSC) provides you with dedicated support and acts as a hub for all aspects of the information, advice and guidance that you may require. The Centre has two floors dedicated to postgraduate taught and research students which include computing, study, training and social facilities. Wireless access to the University network is available throughout the Centre.

Opening hours Monday-Friday 9:00am- 10.00pm Telephone: 02890 972585 Email : pg.centre@qub.ac.uk

I&PSC Activities and Services MONDAY - Contact the Postgraduate Centre through our Skype service 09.30-12.30 - Careers appointments (Research students) TUESDAY —Financial advisor Appointments ( Tues 22 Feb, 29 Mar, 3 May, 31 May ) -Postgraduate Writing Communities 4pm - Weekly movie night (7pm): Feb Movies include; Inception (15th ), Robin Hood (22nd) - PGSA Monthly Coffee Morning (2nd Tuesday) WEDNESDAY —Learning Development Service and Postgraduate Consultancy Service Appointments - Weekly Happy Hour 3-4pm Free Tea and Biscuits!

- QUB Accommodation Helpdesk (23 Feb, 16 March, 13 April) THURSDAY - PGSA Monthly Film Night (1st Thursday) - Drop in with Sam Tan (SU VP Equality and Diversity) (7 April & 5 May) FRIDAY

- Contact the Postgraduate Centre through our Skype service (2-5pm) **Please do not hesitate to contact pg.centre@qub.ac.uk if you have any queries or wish to make an appointment**

CONFERENCE

HAVE YOUR SAY!!!

Wednesday 23rd February Please register below www.qub.ac.uk/sites/experience

Tell us what you really think of your student experience by; Attending the Queen’s Experience Conference. Register today!

Completing your Postgraduate Experience Survey.

2

Funding Opportunities

Funding Opportunities...

Travel Scholarships —for all students Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarships Sir Thomas Dixon Travelling Scholarships First Trust Travel Scholarship Alan Graham Travel Scholarship Further details and application forms http://www.qub.ac.uk/dasa/AcademicAffairs/or obtained by emailing a request to sgc@qub.ac.uk.

Completed application forms should be returned via your Head of School to the Student Guidance Centre, by 4.30pm on Friday, 18 February 2011

Funding still available from Queens Quarter Weekends for students to host weekend events Proposal packs can be downloaded from qub.ac.uk/qqw. All enquires and completed proposals to be sent to qqw@qub.ac.uk. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity!

STUDENT LED INITIATIVES Funding is available throughout the year!

These initiatives can involve organising a conference, research seminar or some other appropriate training activity and the content of the training event must relate to one or more of the skills areas set out in the Research Councils’ Skills Statement.

To apply for funding students must complete an application form and outline the training content, duration and detail clearly the funding required. The submission must be endorsed by the Head of School.

Apply here:

The following scholarships are being offered for PhD research at Queens. Click on the links to find out more: www.qub.ac/rpwc Convocation Studentship Sir Robert Hart Scholarship Larmor University Scholarship Musgrave Scholarship

If I’d known then ...........The low down on studentships!

PGR-funded students are eligible for maternity pay ...but there is no sick-or holiday pay provision so set up a ‘rainy day’ nest-egg!

O'Reilly Scholarships

Payment comes early in December! .... But January’s a looooooong month

Deadlines: 31st March 2011 Don’t forget DEL and AHRC funding. For details, go to http://www.qub.ac.uk/home/Research/Postg raduateCentre/PostgraduateAwards

If you have any problems with the payment of your funding, the PG Centre awards team is there to help you.... though they can’t alter payment dates to suit you!

PGR funding is tax-free...yey!

For those who need to take some time out, temporary withdrawals from both your course and your funding are an option, subject to university regulations of course!

3

Events this month...

Postgraduate Open Days EEEC: 23rd Feb 1pm-3pm, Canada Room, Lanyon Building History and Anthropology:

25th Feb 10am onwards, QFT 20 University Square

LLPA: 25TH Feb 10am onwards, QFT 20 University Square Management: 16th March 12-2pm, Canada Room, Lanyon Building (Register online: http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/openevents/ )

Showcase Recital 18th Feb, 13.10-14.30 in the Harty Room, School of Music Building.

(This event is free! For further information and ticket booking, please contact www.belfastmusicsociety.org)

Classifieds Phone: 02825 650 565 Email: richard@lawscriptni.com www.lawscriptni.com Lawscript has been providing transcription services to professionals throughout Ireland since 2004, and has the resources and expertise to transcribe your audio recordings promptly and accurately, at very competitive rates.

We are currently looking for

PhD WRITING COMMUNITIES WORKSHOPS SOCIAL SPACE, 2ND FLOOR, IPSC. EVERY TUESDAY 4 - 5pm

volunteers to help with the production of this new ezine. Please email

pg.voice@qub.ac.uk if you are interested in this opportunity.

Want to advertise with us?

Email pg.voice@qub.ac.uk with your adverts (from books for sale to finding housemates!)

4

It’s all about the experience...

Careers Corner This month it’s all about Work Experience, Last week I had work experience at a London law firm and it was really eyeopening. Being sat a desk and drafting a resolution to be sent out to shareholders on a multi-million pound deal was a lot of responsibility, and that was only the first hour!

There is no way you can appreciate a working environment until you work there. It’s also a great way to see what it’s like to work in another city, or even country. Work experience opportunities teach you so much in a very short amount of time.

Don’t forget the CES website has a list of current work experience vacancies - check here at least once a week to avoid missing out on great opportunities. But don’t think only glamorous internships with big companies count – getting involved in clubs and societies or staff-student initiatives in your School, or voluntary work can all make the difference to your university experience and your CV. The experiences of a postgraduate law student

Looking for real life projects that you can make an impact?

One of my best postgraduate experiences at Queen’s was my cooperation with the Science Shop. I graduated as a landscape architect in Poland in 2008 and came to Ireland to work. Soon, I felt the need to gain a better understanding of the landscape I worked in and I started an MSc course in Landscape, Heritage and Environment in the School of GAP. The course was extremely diverse in the number of ways it looked at the components of the landscape, which was very interesting but also made a thesis subject a difficult choice. Although the general area of natural heritage was an obvious pick for me, there were many ideas knocking about in my head.

My supervisor recommended checking for subjects with Queens Science Shop and there it was – a perfect project that would be useful to someone, would not end up deep in a drawer, would help me improve my skills, would look good on the CV and would be based in one of the most beautiful places in the British Isles – Antrim Coast. The Ulster Wildlife Trust were looking for someone to look at the biodiversity of two nature reserves (Straidkilly and Glenarm) and assess the possible impact of introducing coppicing in the first.

Emma McKenna from the Science Shop arranged a meeting at the UWT centre in Crossgar and soon after that the work started. It involved looking into the history of coppicing, researching some archival information about the two reserves followed by getting out to the field with the UWT volunteers, vegetation surveys and getting completely soaked and covered in mud. It put some hair on my chest but it was very fulfilling and the thesis got a joint 1st Science Shop award. All in all, if you are looking for a perfect project, check out the Science Shop!

Anna Pielach's experiences of working with the Science Shop

Share your experiences with pg.voice@qub.ac.uk and let the Queen’s postgraduate community know what you’re up to!

A Profile of the IAESTE Society IAESTE is a long, boring acronym!

You may have seen our posters around, but it stands for the ‘International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience’. Primarily the organisation acts as an exchange provider for under-grad students in STEM subjects and we regularly send out 10-20 students from QUB every year.

Although the programme is exclusively for under-grads it tends to be run by some very enthusiastic post-graduate students who have been on placements themselves. As such we would like to encourage any ex -IAESTE PGs to come to a few society meetings and get involved.

We meet every Thursday fortnight in the SU clubrooms @7pm to make arrangements for the incoming exchange students every summer. Our aim is to make their time in Northern Ireland as enjoyable and memorable as possible for all the right reasons. This entails helping to organise work placements, accommodation and weekend activities; which range from a few drinks around Belfast to excursions to Edinburgh to camping/walking weekends.

For meeting times/dates and/or any other information email: iaesteni.lc@gmail.com Joanne McCaffrey PhD Student (Biology)

5

AD for volunteers/ profiles etc

Features Film Review: Mary and Max The makers of 2003’s Oscar-winning Harvie Krumpet bring clayanimation film up to date in this delightfully dark yet life-affirming film.

Mary and Max is a story based on the unlikely friendship between two pen-pals on other sides of the world. Mary, an eight-year-old Australian girl with an alcoholic mother and distant father, writes a letter to a random address in New York City. Max, an overweight and anxietyprone forty-four-year-old whose chief comfort is chocolate hotdogs, responds and the two begin a life-long correspondence. Their shared interests are perhaps limited to chocolate and a television show, but as their lives progress, it becomes evident that sometimes all it takes to make a difference to another person’s happiness is a letter.

Of a visual quality rivaling any animation seen in the work of the Aardman studios (Wallace and Gromit), and touching convincingly on such complex emotional material as life, death, and mental illness, this Australian production is a real gem.

Written and directed by Adam Elliot. Mary and Max will be available on DVD on 24 January.

Opinion: 'Caller on radio show gives disturbing insight into the past' If you heard it; you will be shocked!!! Well for the sake of peace in this country I hope you are shocked. If you don't know what I am talking about you obviously weren't listening to BBC Ulster on Thursday morning. Okay BBC Ulster isn't exactly my first stop on the airwaves but I was in a taxi so my listening pleasure was obviously at the drivers discretion. As you do in taxi's I had hit a dead end after the usual chat; 'cold out there today mate', 'you busy today mate?' and 'what time you onto?' I was gazing out the window half asleep when my ears tune in to the angry voice which has just came on the radio.

Mr Nolan had kicked off a discussion regarding the recent bomb in North Belfast which it has since been remarked was supposed to 'be another Omagh'. This woman kicked off by accusing the presenter of being 'an instrument of propaganda' and that pretty much set her stall out for the rest of the show. It was unbelievable to listen to - she said she was sick of what she termed as occupying forces and Union Jacks and said if anyone loved Britain that much they should get out of here and go live there. I can't do this tirade justice and either could Mr Nolan. He has been around the block and it was telling to hear that he was even unsure about how to respond to it. He politely reminded the woman that there was a 3 year old girl, who had the bomb went off, would have almost certainly been killed. The woman replied to this that it was acceptable and she would gladly sacrifice herself and her children for her cause. She openly supported the work of terrorists and showed no compassion for the serious potential loss of life of the public and specifically the police. Callers came and went and tried to reason with her, but surprise surprise her hatred and bitterness overshadowed any hint of reason which she may have had. She referred to callers as 'turncoats' and 'traitors'. She even referred to people talking to the forces as being a 'Judas' This woman was not some angry teenager who was saying these things for kicks.

Believe me you could sense the hatred and bitterness in the call - this was for real. It doesn't really matter what side she was on in terms of Unionist or Nationalist, okay in this case she was a Nationalist. It could have very easily been the other way around as we all know there are Unionists out there who are willing to go to the extremes because of the extent of their hatred - neither side, because of what has happened in the past and what continues to happen, has the moral high ground. The fact is that there should not be sides!!!! I mean come on - we should be past this by now, 'The Troubles' put this country back 50 years, we are trying our best to catch up without more hurdles. If you listen to the goings on at Stormont or have even glanced at a newspaper in the last 3 years you will know that things aren't exactly rosy right now. Surely the ability to live a free life, where you can feed your family and own your own house trump any political allegiance you have. We need to move on and focus on the problems at hand instead of revisiting past ones.

This call was a stark reminder of the hatred of 30 years ago and whilst both sides have extremes who remain out there it should be a wake up call to those who have gotten past this. Thankfully for the good of the people of this country, if you checked Mr Nolan's twitter in the aftermath of the call you would have seen mass and total condemnation of the call from both sides of the communities. Let's leave the past where it is and focus on today.

6

David Noble

Features Book Review: Tony Blair, A Journey My abiding vision of Tony Blair is the former Prime Minister standing on the platform at the count of his Sedgefield seat during the 2005 General Election – on a night when Labour had secured an historic third term – listening uneasily to a speech from Reg Keys, the father of a young British soldier killed by a mob in Iraq. I remember looking at Blair, accompanied by his wife, wondering what must have been going through his head. Most political memoirs would simply ignore such an incident. But one could never accuse Blair of shying away from confrontation in his journey: ‘I felt profoundly sorry for him, sorry that he felt his son died in vain, convinced that it was all for nothing. I wanted to reach out and talk to him about it; but I knew too that the cameras were ever-watchful for the scene that could define the election in the way they wanted.’

These sentences tell you everything about Blair and this book. He retains his knack for the one-liner, the clinching put-down (how the Labour Party miss this now, their best arguments drowned out in a Liberal-Etonian din). You think he’s being polite about someone then realize he’s undercut them in the same phrase. He races through his rout of the Labour Left: the defeat of Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle’s trade union reforms in 1969 made the onslaught of Thatcherism inevitable. Blair’s Calling was to finish the job and make Labour electable again. He is suitably dismissive – as we all knew – about Brown, whose awkward personality Blair credits with turning him into a heavy drinker. There are retrospective glimpses into a missionary future. As Leader of the Opposition in 1994 he watches as ‘Rwanda erupted in genocide. We knew. We failed to act. We were responsible’. The British government and the Labour Party opposition were responsible for the Rwandan genocide? What an extraordinary mentality; to take appalling foreign developments so personally.

A Journey confirms his soft spot for Europe. He speaks French and wanted to join the Euro (overruled by Brown). Blair had some of that quixotic European theatre about him – Mitterrand minus the philandering. Yet when the hour arrives Blair chooses America, which has its own kind of theatre. He coasts as the UK is calmly ushered into the black holes of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Bush Jnr. – the Texan from Connecticut – emerges as the more agile mind, the ‘dumb hick’ routine fooling Blair all ends up. The last remnants of Blair’s pro-Europeanism are his great individual friendships with unctuous totems of the European Right: Berlusconi, Sarkozy, and Merkel, who all receive favourable write-ups.

As one of his more successful legacies Northern Ireland naturally takes up a sizeable chunk. Much of his rapport with Ulster politicians is already known: Jonathan Powell reported how Gerry and Martin would skateboard round the back garden of Number 10 with Blair’s kids. In this account Blair pays tribute to the Sinn Féin leadership’s ‘real political courage’ ending the Provisional IRA campaign.

His terrific phrase, a ‘certain amount of creative ambiguity’ in foreign policy translates revealingly to Northern Ireland, Adams and McGuinness ‘taking their people step by step, leading them, cajoling them and not always being totally upfront as to what the destination really meant.’ This admission must bring wry smiles to the faces of Anthony McIntyre and Richard O’Rawe, writers who have long expressed such views in the face of a barrage of scorn from within their own community and the Republican movement.

That Blair’s mind was like a blank sheet of paper when it came to Northern Ireland was his greatest asset. He had no real historical knowledge to deploy. Unlike the real dynamo of the New Labour project Peter Mandelson, present at its beginning and end, Blair – contrary to crafty spin – was intellectually limited (at Oxford Mandelson was studious while Blair wanted to be in a rock band). And unlike Thatcher, who also knew nothing about the place, his was a healthy ignorance. ‘Our path was constantly, though fortunately temporarily, barred by unhelpful events. One Loyalist group reinstated their ceasefire. Good. Then another Loyalist group broke theirs and had to be excluded from the talks. Bad.’ Then the INLA killed Billy Wright forcing him to send the naughty boys into the corner, and if the rest promised to be good they could have their power-sharing in the afternoon.

He charmingly refers to the ‘rather inspiring’ smaller groupings: Alliance, David Ervine’s PUP, and the Women’s Coalition, whom he ‘used to see just to remind myself there were normal people in Northern Ireland’. Finally on 8 May 2007, with Ahern, Hain, Paisley and McGuinness sitting around Stormont bantering during the reinstatement of the new Executive – ‘I felt Northern Ireland had just rejoined the rest of the world.’

There is much theologising throughout: ‘Like Moses with the Israelites, striking out in a new direction requires the quality that motivates the best political leadership: a desire to do good.’ No wonder Blair did so well in Northern Ireland; he speaks the language of its most sagacious representatives. And, like many a political star here, Blair was always a great actor. Peter Morgan, screenwriter of The Deal, The Queen, and The Special Relationship has incidentally claimed that Blair has plagiarized scenes from his work – dialogue he made up for Blair as a character in these dramas – and inserted them into this memoir. Either this is a superb joke on Blair’s part or something even more remarkable; Blair believes he is in some kind of constant film, the world a giant studio set where we’re all actors, the lines between fact and fiction permanently fudged.

But being a great actor doesn’t necessarily make you a great writer (Mandelson, again, has the superior prose style). A character in Gregory Burke’s exquisite play Black Watch, which recently played at the Girls Model School in North Belfast, memorably laments: ‘It takes three hundred years to build an army that’s admired and respected around the world. But it only takes three years pissing about in the desert in the biggest western foreign policy disaster ever to fuck it up completely.’ Perhaps Blair is right: fiction calls it the way reality never can.

Blair was gifted at ending certain conflicts (unelectable Labour Party infighting, Northern Ireland) and paradoxically outstanding at beginning new ones (Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq). A Journey shows him to be not remotely regretful about the latter. He urges the current British administration to seriously consider neutralizing the ‘threat’ of Iran. But I believe he is sincere about the likes of Keys and his lost son, sincere about someone he has brought great pain to. The moment on stage in Sedgefield encapsulates the bigger picture, why indeed Blair was the consummate British politician at the end of the 20 th Century – something heartfelt overshadowed by the PR eye.

Reviewed by Connal Parr

We want to hear from you!

We are PG Voice are constantly looking for article submissions, adverts, event listings, complaint letters… the list goes on! Just email us at pg.voice@qub.ac.uk and we will be in touch.

Have a lovely day!

PG Voice Editorial Team 7

Thank You! We hope you enjoyed our inaugural issue of Postgraduate Voice. Thanks to all those who contributed to this issue.

The submission deadline for the next edition is Feb 28th and we welcome articles, features, and reviews up to 250 words.

Please forward submissions to pg.voice@qub.ac.uk

8

9