Degree Issue 12

ISSUE 12 I AUTUMN 2019

CSI: Ormskirk

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Hello readers.

There’s a buzz on campus. It may be the response from another successful year plundering awards (see opposite).

Alternatively, it could be the sound of our latest campus inhabitants, the colony of bees residing in the University’s fruit and veg garden. Amy, our resident student-cumbeekeeper, is the nominated voice of the beehive.

Sticking with nature, Dr Joanne Egan introduces us to the wonderful world of the diatom, tiny algae that pack a very powerful punch, helping to keep the Earth’s yin and yang in balance.

Two of our English literature students discuss the relative merits of Rudyard Kipling’s work, taking on the literary dilemmas thrown up by the UK’s colonial past. And talking of the (much more recent) past, another student, Irene, writes a letter to her pre-university self to give herself a heads up about what to expect at and from university.

The CSI tv franchise could get a big boost with the launch of CSI: Ormskirk. That’s not really an actual thing, of course, but we do have a new dedicated police training environment, an entire house, complete with interview and syndicate rooms as well as various domestic backdrops to simulate crime situations.

Meanwhile, the world of wargaming prepares to welcome a new entrant to the battle arena. We go behind the scenes with the team of Edge Hill students who designed the first ever tabletop skirmish game produced by a university in the UK, if not the world.

The level of support our students receive is always a priority amongst those looking into life at uni, and in this issue we provide a snapshot of just some of the services you can expect to find at Edge Hill.

Finally, we sent some of our talented students to the Uni’s Arts Centre to review a play written and performed by some more of our creative students. Was it a critical hit or a howling miss? Find out inside.

Enjoy this edition of Degree. We certainly hope it’s a critical hit with our readers – please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.°

Production Team Nick Lodge (editor) Mark Molloy (design) Sam Armstrong Andy Butler Photography Stuart Rayner, Phil Tragen, Getty Printed by The Printroom UK Ltd

It’s Awards Season (Again) at Edge Hill

o, what do you get when you combine 2,259 on-campus bedrooms, a sports centre, a new library, a theatre, a bar and club venue, and all the other facilities of a top 50 UK university? Hint: it’s not a holiday camp, although Edge Hill University does have a beach.

Yes, the University has been travelling a long and winding road to get to where it is now. It started from pretty humble beginnings in Liverpool in 1885: a teacher training college for women, led by the redoubtable figure of first Principal Sarah Jane Yelf and with a mission to produce ‘a superior class of Elementary School Mistresses’ from its first intake of 41 students.

Over 130 years, two world wars, at least 26 (at the last count) Prime Ministers, women’s suffrage, but still only one men’s football World Cup victory later, our ranks have swelled to over 15,000 students from all walks of life, and with all the benefits of a modern university campus. We’ve even split ourselves into East and West campuses. It’s taken less than 15 years for Edge Hill to go from new university status in 2006 to breaking into the top 50 UK universities (The Guardian University Guide 2020). V-C Dr John Cater is delighted: “We continue to work hard to make Edge Hill the university of choice for students, offering them high quality teaching, an outstanding student experience and, ultimately, equipping them with the skills they need for a successful career, and we believe that no other university can match the consistent improvement we’ve shown and continue to show.”

Let’s take a moment, then, to look at what else we’ve achieved over the last year.

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We haven’t forgotten our roots as a dedicated teaching college, and maintain our Gold-ranking in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the government’s evaluation of excellence in teaching quality, learning environment and student outcomes (see page 3). This means we put our primary function as a place of learning at the top of our list of priorities, which, for our students, equates to quality facetime with tutors, manageable course sizes which improve your student experience, and study support to ensure you maximise your time here. And just to reinforce that priority, we were also rewarded with a 2018 Global Teaching Excellence Spotlight Award for ‘the quality of support and engagement infrastructure for students’.

And that’s one of the many reasons why you really won’t want to leave us. Our students tend to stay here for the duration of their course, a pattern recognised by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 when they named us University of the Year for Student Retention.

Our on-campus accommodation is something else we’re rightly proud of. Living away from home for the first time can be a heady cocktail of the mind-blowing and the mundane, being in charge of your own time and money, as well as your own washing, can be a lot to handle (don’t worry, there’s a launderette on-site). Our student halls, voted Best Student Accommodation in the UK and Ireland in the National Student Housing Awards 2018, and designed with comfort and affordability at the front of the queue, have just the right balance of private and social spaces, to enable you to focus on the next step in your life, without having to sweat about the small stuff such as internet access – all our halls are wi-fi enabled.

Our award-winning halls are located in our – you guessed it – Green Flag award-winning campus, recognised as one of the UK’s best green spaces for the seventh year in a row. Add in the fact that we’ve been identified as the Safest Campus in the North West for the sixth year running (Complete University Guide 2018) and we hope we’ve created a little slice of heaven for our students in West Lancashire. And you remember we’ve got a beach, right?

The best way to find out about all this, of course, is to come along to one of our open days – take the tour, test our student guides, make a day of it. You may even be one of the first to check out the latest resource, our Simulation and Skills Education Centre, providing innovative technology facilities for the University’s health, social care and medicine provision, including the Edge Hill University Medical School, one of only three new free-standing medical schools in the country.

They often say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there is at our open days. It’s just one way of saying thank you for visiting. And you might as well enjoy a free ice cream at the beach while you’re at it.°

Visit us at an Open Day: Saturday 9th November 2019 Saturday 23rd November 2019 book online at: ehu.ac.uk/openday

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eaching at Edge Hill is of ‘the highest quality found in the UK’, and provides ‘consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for its students’.

Not our words, although we certainly pride ourselves on the quality of our teaching, but those of an independent panel of students, academics and other experts, representing the Teaching Excellence Framework, or TEF to friends and relatives.

Less than a third of UK universities have struck Gold, and we’re one of only three universities in the North West to hold the top award.

First, perhaps a brief refresher is in order. The TEF was introduced by the Government in 2017, managed by the Office for Students, to build evidence about the performance of the UK’s world-class higher education sector. It is an analysis of teaching and learning outcomes, complementing the existing Research Excellence Framework. The TEF assesses excellence in teaching in universities and colleges, examining how well they ensure excellent outcomes for their students. This could be in graduate employability or further study. The top rating is, of course, Gold, followed by Silver, Bronze and provisional awards. The TEF data takes into account the entry qualifications and characteristics of students, and the subjects studied, at each university or college. These can be very different and the assessment is based on what each university achieves for its particular students. The data includes how many students continue their course from one year to the next, graduate-level employment outcomes, and students’ views about their experience, taken from the annual National Student Survey.

So, we’ve established the what, the why and the how. We’ve also established that we’ve got something nice for the Edge Hill University mantelpiece, but, most importantly, what does it actually mean to our students in practice?

Let’s look a little more closely at how the TEF measures teaching excellence, with some examples.

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Teaching quality: teaching that stimulates and challenges students, and maximises their engagement with their studies.

Film Studies and Film Production students Robert Cox and Faye Darwent were given the opportunity to work on the film Sometimes Always Never, a comedy-drama that follows the story of a father (played by national treasure Bill Nighy) searching for his missing son, with whom he shared a passion for Scrabble. The film was directed by Edge Hill University lecturer Carl Hunter, and was released in the summer of 2019, to critical acclaim.

Robert acted as Floor Runner, and also shadowed an Assistant Director: “It might sound like I made a lot of cups of tea (which I did), but I also had to keep an account of what shots had been filmed, alert the cast and crew when a take was about to be filmed and walk the lead actors from their vehicles onto set, operate the radio headsets, and make sure the location was quiet when a take was in process. I even stood in for one of the lead actors so the crew could set up the lighting and camera for a scene. Basically, making myself as useful as possible and finding a solution for every problem that comes your way on a busy film set. Having the opportunity to work professionally alongside industry experts, an enthusiastic crew and very humble big-name actors was amazing and will play an essential part in my ability to get more film production jobs moving forward.”

Faye also jumped at the chance to enhance her CV: “Working on the film gave us an insider perspective into how the film industry operates in the real world, and it helped me decide on which career I would like to pursue after university. Hurricane Films and Carl gave us all extra attention by giving us tips and advice on how to develop our skills and progress into the film/media industry. I learnt so much from my experience.”

Learning environment: effectiveness of resources and activities. This includes libraries, laboratories and work experience which support learning and improve retention, progression and attainment.

Student outcomes: extent to which all students achieve their educational and professional goals, in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Grace Bajo graduated in Nutrition and Health after moving to the UK from Nigeria just seven years ago. She got stuck into Mohammed Asim Hussain graduated university life, partly to improve her English, with a First in BSc Computing after stints of but also because she loved learning the work experience with major international science behind healthy eating and living, and brands such as Sky and The Ritz London. starting a student society in the process: “In my first year I didn’t have the mindset “I could speak English, but I found it of just sitting behind my desk and learning in hard to write academic essays. My tutors the classroom, I wanted to get out into the encouraged me to get involved in University real world, into different sectors and gain real life and gain experience. I also wanted to first-hand experience. I always think you improve my confidence level as well as do don’t know unless you try and whether you something for the University and my fellow succeed or not, you can learn from that. By students. So, I stepped out of my comfort doing the placements I’ve learnt new skills, zone and became a course representative life skills and an understanding of what it and helped establish the Nutrition Society. takes to be in a work environment in a By going to meetings, talking to lots of professional industry.” people and organising society events I increased my understanding of nutrition and this also had a positive effect on my academic writing.”

Grace was obviously a fast learner as the group won the 2019 award for the best new society. And to underline her new-found academic confidence, Grace is now studying for a Masters in Food Bioscience in Glasgow.

And we have plenty more examples of our students doing very impressive things. Choosing the university that fits you best is not an exact science, but the one thing you should be able to depend on is the quality of the teaching you’ll receive when you get there. When you see the TEF Gold logo next to Edge Hill University, then, you can be sure that our teaching is regarded as best in class.

You can find all TEF outcomes on the Office for Students website: officeforstudents.org.uk

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L-R Ellie Walsh, Faye Walters, Molly Houghton, Alex Messenger

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your life nnxumnesse (anxiety); frenesie (delirium); grevoushede (depression); languor (mental suffering); misconfort (mental distress); parafrenesie (false delirium); thinkinge (mindfulness).

All words to describe familiar mental health conditions. All words from Middle English [spoken from late 11th century to the late 15th century – Degree History Editor]. Yes, we’ve been grappling with the human condition for centuries, and it remains universal and timeless. It makes sense, then, that we take mental health and wellbeing seriously. We certainly do here at Edge Hill.

University is a liberating place, a place to open your mind, a place to find yourself, and other people. But it can also be a place where you can lose yourself, or sense of yourself, at least initially. Which is why Student Services has an extensive student support team, providing, amongst many other services, a safety net for those who find themselves disoriented by their new environment.

When we meet, Edge Hill University Wellbeing and Counselling Manager Faye has just come from dealing with an issue in one of the student halls. Faye is exactly the sort of person you’d want to be dealing with your issue. She’s grounded, friendly, concerned but reassuring, and gives the impression that no problem is too small – or too big.

Whether it’s helping you register with a GP, sorting out a financial issue, or minimising the impact a disability might have on your university life, a member of Student Services can advise on that first step.

Although it doesn’t feel like it at the time, many of these issues are extremely common and easily resolved – accommodation, money, the transition to studying at university level. It’s generally just a matter of orientating yourself with your new environment: “For some students coming to University means living independently for the first time, and this can also mean losing a lot of their support network,” explains Faye. “It’s one of the many things we help students with, particularly in their first year. Student

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Services provide a full range of support, showing students all the things they can access within the University and local external services to assist them as they develop new networks.”

Faye’s background is in counselling and mental health and part of her role here is to manage a team of mental health practitioners. The practitioners work therapeutically with students in many different ways. At one end of the spectrum, this may be suggesting tools to help you deal with potentially stressful situations, like presentations, or at the other end, it may be providing support as you work with a local mental health care provider with whom the team has developed strong working relationships.

Many of the orientation issues students commonly experience are addressed elsewhere within the Student Services team.

Ellie and Alex are involved in many of the initiatives designed to help students making the move to university – cookery lessons in halls of residence, That Thursday Thing where students get together to play board games, learn arts and crafts, or play on the Wii on big screens. Most ideas come from the students, which the Student Services team then facilitate and which are delivered by their student posse, the Campus Connectors.

They also curate the Feel Good Festival, now in its 4th year. It’s not quite on the scale of Glastonbury…yet, but it’s certainly going from strength to strength, and has its very own Healing Field, the relaxation zone, where you can enjoy a free massage, chill out with a book and a hot drink, and participate in many other mindfulness activities: “We wanted to make it something really positive that all students could get involved in,” says Ellie. “When you talk about mental health it can be quite negative, so we wanted it to be really upbeat, and to show the things you can proactively do to improve your mental health, your university experience, and your general wellbeing.”

The team have incorporated the Five Ways to Wellbeing initiative into some of the work they do, simple activities that can help students deal with modern life, which can sometimes get a little hectic:

Connecting, Being Active, Taking Notice, Learning, and Giving. First and foremost of these is connecting, building relationships which will offer support and opportunity.

Isolation and loneliness feature pretty highly in the list of reasons students give for feeling unhappy away from home, so with this in mind, Student Services put together a team of enthusiastic students – the aforementioned Campus Connectors – whose sole purpose is to bring people together: “The Campus Connectors work evenings and weekends and run small-scale events,” reveals Alex. “Wii games afternoons on the big screen in the Hub, mocktail making masterclasses – with the ideas coming from the students themselves.”

Many of the activities organised by Student Services focus on wellbeing and aim to give you a gentle nudge in the direction of good mental and physical health – stuff as simple as walking, learning to meditate, mindful colouring (yes, really, try it!), simple crafts, exploring campus to find its many quiet spaces (especially our secret rooftop gardens), baking, volunteering. And they’re all available to sample in one handy Feel Good Festival-sized portion.

In her role as Vice President Welfare in the Students’ Union (SU), Molly is another important part of the University’s support system, running campaigns often in collaboration with teams around the University.

On the whole, she says most students are happy, but sees her role as making sure that in those moments when life throws them a curveball, the students have options: “I think most students will have a point in their degree where they feel very stressed and won’t feel happy. Our advice centre offers support for students on panels for malpractice, fitness to study and other such things, and we also run our Stressed-out Students campaign, to help relieve that pressure through activities and events.”

Events such as meeting guide dogs and free swimming. Not at the same time, we hasten to add. They’ve also put on a series of events, for World and University Mental Health Days, and organised a day discussing men’s mental health:

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“World Mental Health Day was a highlight for me,” Molly says. “It was the first time the SU had organised something on that scale and it got an overwhelmingly positive response.”

She encourages students to develop routines that give them space in which to withdraw from pressurised situations: “When you feel like you don’t have time [for yourself], that’s probably when you need it most. Little things like setting deadlines – no working past 10pm so you get enough rest. Or making sure you eat breakfast. Make a self-care plan and stick to it during stressful times, so that you don’t burn out.”

Memorise the mantra “Ask. For. Help!” Molly would probably say that’s her central message to students in turmoil: “This can be the most difficult thing to do, and I know because it’s something I’m awful at, but reach out when you need support. If it’s all getting too much, talk to someone, be that the SU, Student Services or a friend, just talk about how you feel so you’re not keeping it all balled up.”

We care about our students, and we want them to take good care of themselves. Most do, of course, and the Feel Good Festival helps them to maintain a healthy element of mindfulness in their lives, but our student support is there precisely to help those students who find themselves in uncomfortable or scary places, and don’t know where to turn. People like Faye, Ellie and Alex in Student Services, and Molly in the SU, aim to make access to help visible, easy and discreet – whether that’s through an appointment with a counsellor, casually chatting to someone at an event, or meeting some furry friends.

We’ve had the vocabulary for describing some of the less pleasant aspects of the human condition since at least the Middle Ages, so if at any time you do need help, history tells us you’re definitely not alone. It’s just a part of life most of us will have to negotiate at some point, and Edge Hill’s student support teams have got your back.°

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Mel Mitchell, currently undertaking a Masters in Sport, captained the University’s hockey second team to promotion in 2017/18, during which time she also became a champion of the role an active lifestyle plays in good mental health and wellbeing.

She had a false start to her undergraduate career, initially starting a Psychology degree at another university before dropping out: “I wanted to gain some independence and studied Psychology for a short period. However, I became extremely ill with my mental health and had to take a leave of absence. I couldn’t bring myself to study in the same environment where I’d become so ill, so I made the decision to work full-time.”

A few years as an insurance consultant convinced Mel that she should give higher education another go, with Edge Hill her number one destination.

She started playing hockey again, and, reflecting on her own experiences, could see the mental as well as physical dividends reaped by her fellow players from simply getting involved. No pressures – this was a different kind of winning: “It was the first time we bridged the gap between competitive and recreational hockey. It was great to see the journey of some of the players, who began with little self-confidence and ended up representing the University.”

She decided to get involved with the University’s recreational sports programme aimed at aiding students’ health and wellbeing. It opened her eyes to the programme’s potential, and her own next step: “Universities are rooted in an elitist attitude to sport. In people that have little self-confidence, such an environment can be discouraging and may act as a further barrier to engagement.

“The Edge Hill Campus Sport programme provides everyone with many recreational opportunities, irrespective of ability. Having worked on the Women Active Programme, I’ve seen the enjoyment of women exercising together and believe there should be lots more similar opportunities for both male and female students across UK universities. It’s so important that new innovative interventions are identified and developed so that students can help to support themselves. Sport and physical activity has so many personal benefits.”

Mel hopes to continue her research at PhD level, using all her experiences to inform future research into students’ mental health and wellbeing in higher education.

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y m o t r e t t e L A dl self

o r a e 18-y

Dear 18-year-old me,

You’re going to start university soon and I know you’re excited, nervous but also a little bit scared. I’m writing to tell you that you’re going to have an amazing time at Edge Hill University, so please don’t exhaust yourself by worrying about all the ‘what ifs?’.

You’re going to love this new chapter of your life.

You will find an amazing group of friends and you’ll call them your ‘Uni Fam’. They’ll become like your family at home, annoying but lovable siblings. You’ll develop such an incredible relationship with them that the ‘banter’ between you all will consist of gently insulting each other every day – but that’s just a crazy way of showing your love for each other.

I can still remember the time that they laughed until they cried at the failure of my chocolate fudge cake. I wanted to heat up the slice of cake in the microwave so it would be a match made in heaven when I added a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream…but I misjudged the timing, resulting in a bubbling brown puddle that resembled nothing like its former shape or glory.

Needless to say, countless images and videos were shared of the unfortunate event and it’s impossible now to eat a slice of cake without someone reminding me of cakegate. But I have to admit, even though I was distressed at the time, now, all I can do is laugh along.

A l’il tip from me to you: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. That’s when you get to experience the most EHU has to offer. I took a step out of my comfort zone by travelling to China with the University for a two-week Summer Camp. Afterwards I went exploring the country for a further three months. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll grow as a person when you’re submerged in another culture.

Expanding your horizons will really open your eyes. As clichéd as it sounds, there is some truth to that statement. Believe me, I am living proof.

One thing that you will LOVE about University is the diversity of students. You’ll befriend some remarkable people with astonishing backgrounds. It will never cease to amaze you how awesome your friends are. You’ll also find many Northern Irish students here at EHU – you can hear the sound of home in their familiar accents. This will remind you that home is not so far away after all, and there are little aspects of home here if you look for them. Like the time you didn’t have to explain what ‘fadge’ meant to one of your flatmates when you both craved an Ulster Fry. You really didn’t expect them to know that ‘fadge’ meant Irish potato bread!

There is so much more I want to tell you because this chapter of your life is going to be a heck of a ride. You’ll learn more about yourself here than any other place before so don’t be afraid to grab every opportunity to be the best version of yourself.

I guarantee you won’t regret it.

rI ene xoxo

Love,

21-year-old me.

Irene is studying for a BA (Hons) Marketing with Advertising

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crime seen hen he says that Life On Mars, the fantasy/cop show set in the 1970s, was the most realistic UK cop show he’s seen, Andy Whittle, Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Policing, is only half joking. The fact it all happens inside someone’s head is irrelevant to the point he’s making.

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Joining the police force in 1981, retiring 29 years’ service later, Andy clearly recognises the smoky CID offices with metal desks and the predominantly male force portrayed in the show, although we suspect that is really where the comparison ends.

The invention of the show’s antihero Gene Hunt, the bruise-free groin slap, is certainly not a thing. He mentions the latenoughties show, though, to illustrate the huge changes that have taken place in policing over the last 40 years, and to emphasise that Edge Hill University is now leading the way in providing modern police training that is grounded in reality.

As evidence, Andy is showing us around 57 St Helens Road, aka the University’s new Police Training and Simulation Facility. For a place with such a grand title it’s not a gherkinstyle glass behemoth, rather it’s a converted house, modified to meet the demands required to train tomorrow’s police officers.

Call it substance over style.

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Well, the majority of police recruits join via full-time study at HE level, either completing a dedicated Policing degree, qualifying the holder for proper police force entry, or converting an existing degree (in most subjects) by studying Policing for a further year. It therefore stands to reason says Andy, that the best resources are available.

“Part of the unit is set up to look like a police station, other parts to look like a house, and other parts are syndicate rooms, interview rooms, places where we can get the students in teams to work through scenarios and make decisions. And we can monitor and record that and use it for assessment purposes.”

The idea being that students are given the space to learn, the space to make mistakes. For example, in a real-life murder investigation, a red herring may waste days, weeks, months, in which time potential evidence has been lost, and suspects are in the wind. Working a scenario within the unit, where supervising lecturers drip-feed information based on students’ decision-making, procedural hazards are mitigated, controlled by lecturers: “If they go down a dead end, we can let them go that way for five or ten minutes, then go in the room and say ‘right, stop, let’s come back to here, you made this decision, what other decisions might you have made? Why haven’t you made them?

Which one would you make now?’ And then they’re back on track.”

The Police Training and Simulation Facility is central to the reality-based educational experience our Policing students receive. Andy, wielding an impressive bunch of keys, shows us around.

We find ourselves in the cells, and it’s only Wednesday morning. The smell of paint is still fresh – the facility has only been in active use for a matter of weeks.

The custody suite – cells, custody counter, interview rooms – is part of a real workplace environment that is designed to help students become accustomed to the procedure, and to understand why these processes exist. No-one wants to lose a perp on a technicality – or worse: “A lot of policing decisions are made on the spot, difficult decisions, sometimes life-threatening decisions. The beauty of simulation is you can do it in real time but the end decision doesn’t have any consequences, if you get it wrong nobody’s life’s on the line.”

We move through the house – kitchen, dining room (which doubles as one of four syndicate rooms), living room, bedroom, garage – there’s no library or conservatory, but Colonel Mustard could easily find

himself in a spot of domestic bother in any of these rooms, and, as they’re all fitted with cameras and mics, with little room for manoeuvre. Again, the very serious point is that students learn from roleplaying realistic scenarios, and gain invaluable experience.

For example, a fictional assault has taken place in the living room, and two student officers have been sent round to search the property and take statements: “We bring the students back in, play back what we’ve recorded, pick parts out and say this particular point here was

really good, or when you were searching and you just shoved a hand down the settee, if you’d removed the cushions you’d have seen the knife, or whatever it is, down there. It’s that sense of reality within their education. We encourage our students to become special constables with one of the local North West forces, but if they don’t, how do you give them that practical sense of what will be reality?”

But what about learning situations which could, in the real world, be particularly hazardous, to both officers and general public – street assaults, theft, even shootings?

We decamp to what seems to be an empty room, but all is not as it seems.

Andy tells me that the facility has the technical capability to recreate those scenarios that, previously, new police officers would only have encountered in real life: welcome to the immersive technology suite. Using data projectors, cameras, microphones, and a library of 360° footage, they are able to recreate very lifelike, very public scenarios, with all the chaos and dynamism that that entails: “You don’t walk into a sterile room and deal with a drunk, do you? Someone who’s collapsed, someone who’s upset because they’ve had their purse snatched, the reality is they’re in a town centre, a pub, a shop. It’s used a lot now by police officers in terms of firearms training, because if you shoot someone in here with a laser gun instead of a real one, you’re just shooting a picture on a wall.”

Imagine weather reports on the tv, with the map virtually created behind the weatherperson, but with people and a criminal incident instead of warm weather

fronts. Andy says that students adjust very quickly to the virtual reality playing out around them, and it’s a very effective teaching resource.

Last stop on the tour is the facility’s nerve centre, the control room.

Surrounded by screens, servers and keyboards, this is where Andy and his team oversee exercises, observing and assessing the students’ progress, making those crucial interventions as and when required. Fortunately for our students there isn’t a big red button to reveal an underfloor shark pool, the ultimate intervention for those who persistently transgress police procedure. Yet. The police do have similar facilities, but with budgets being squeezed everywhere, the opportunity to develop strong relationships with a well-resourced University is mutually beneficial.

And numbers on our Policing degrees are growing year on year, as we collaborate with regional police forces to produce the next generation of law enforcers: “We’re all about investing in the experience for the students, giving them the most realistic form of education and teaching for the career they’re going into, so for us this is an investment in our students.”

After our meeting, Andy was scheduled to meet with a representative from the Lancashire Constabulary, giving them the grand tour. It’s another indication of the University’s commitment to our students’ employability. The outcome could be student placements, or it could be an opportunity to pick the brains of some of the UK’s most experienced coppers, such as former Det Chief Supt Dixie McNeil, Head of CID for Merseyside at the time of the Rhys Jones murder in 2007, who recently lectured on the course. These are fascinating insights into how major criminal investigations are pursued, and an invaluable part of any aspiring detective’s education.

If this all sounds a bit Big Brother, a kind of crime-themed reality show, then in many ways it’s a fair cop. The idea of running a variety of real-life scenarios, on camera, forensically unpicking the outcomes, and dealing with the consequences of following certain courses of action, is a common strand. Only rather than playing it for laughs and melodrama, this process will educate, develop and prepare a new wave of bobbies for life on the streets.

Of course, Andy and the Policing team also hope the students enjoy the challenges they are set during their time on the course. Provided the bruise-free groin slap remains a figment of a writer’s feverish imagination.°

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Hayley Jago BA (Hons) Policing

wanted to be a police officer because I wanted a job where I wasn’t bored, and where I could go out and help people. In policing you can’t always save people, but you can do your best to help.

I’d love to work with the dog squad.

Kids love dogs, you can get into the community and the kids approach you as an officer. We don’t see a lot of police back home, so if a police officer has ever made an effort with me, it’s really stood out.

For the work experience module, I went to work with the police cadets in Skelmersdale, working with kids, teaching them the basics of the law. We went camping in Scarisbrick, it was lovely. We play games, teach them what we’ve learnt.

The speakers that have come into Edge Hill have been exceptional. We had a prisoner from a local prison telling us about how he got into crime, and how he realised he was going to have to change his life because he now had a child. We had a Merseyside police officer.

Really insightful.

On this course you begin thinking you know about the police. The job sounds so simple, but it’s so difficult. I think the media portray it in a certain way, but you only get a glimpse.

It really makes a difference being taught by people who’ve done the job, because they can give you an example where they’ve applied the theory in practice – why do you have to do risk assessments, or why are there so many procedures around taking someone into custody? They’ve given us an incident, and you understand. We’ve so much that we can carry into a policing job now.

I interviewed my lecturer as a simulation, using an interview recording machine, and he demonstrated how difficult an offender can be to interview, because they can be ‘no comment…no comment…no comment’, and it’s really hard to get information out of them.

What’s interesting about witness statements is, on a psychological level, you can have 20 people in a room and you can ask them each what happened, and they’ll all give you a different story. We all interpret things differently.

The lecturers have been so supportive. I could go to their office, at the drop of a hat, and even if they’re busy they’ll be there for you. My personal tutor’s helped me whenever they can – academic, personal, accommodation.

I think to be a police officer you have to have a certain mindset, and the people who apply for the course have that. It’s a very diverse group – some people are better at some things than others, you all sort of complete each other. We’re a good team.

I

Favourite cop show Vera. She’s just a good role model – older, a lot of experience, very stubborn, her little mannerisms make her hilarious to watch, but she gets the job done.

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David Newbury BA (Hons) Policing

oining the police is something that I’ve always thought about doing, and I’ve had family who’ve been in the police, so there’s a bit of background.

I wasn’t actually aware there was a policing course. I got part way through my first year studying English and realised I wanted to do Policing, and by 2020 every police force applicant will need a degree.

You have to be an ordinary bobby for two years before you go into any other departments or sectors, but I think drug squads are quite interesting, child protection, and cyber crime, which is a growing area. We’ve had a couple of guest speakers, from various police forces, discussing cybercrime, and at the moment that’s quite a small department in terms of resources. The degree has a cybercrime module so again that gives you a better insight.

As part of the programme you also learn about other agencies – the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the National Crime Agency, the Border Agency - they’re employment opportunities where you could apply what you learn here. When I joined it was very much “I want to join the police”, I still do, but you realise the options available to you are a lot broader than you imagined.

We’ll get the full benefit of the training facility next year when they tailor activities so it’s a bit more practically-related to the lectures. In any other seminar room you don’t have access to record audio and video – the toilet and the control room are the only rooms where you’re not able to be observed. It’ll be interesting to see how we can use the facility for scenarios, interviewing, search techniques, setting out mock crime scenes – I’m not quite sure what that’ll involve.

We’ve done a couple of mock interview sessions, and my technique could be better but we cover that later in the programme.

Being able to practically apply things learnt in lectures perhaps isn’t something other courses can offer.

All of our lecturers have been active police officers. The insight that gives you, hearing their stories, I think that’s something that you wouldn’t get if you just learned things from a book. Speaking to people who have actual experience of working in an operational setting gives you a completely different perspective.

It’s really interesting hearing how things have changed, as well. Having a modern perspective on policing the course also teaches us about how it’s changed, which is a massive part of learning and moving forward.

I definitely made the right decision to change course. I think the way you can apply things on the course not only to the police but to other sectors, it doesn’t compare.

J

Favourite cop show Line of Duty’s the obvious one, Bodyguard if you can count that, that was a good one.

And The Bill was the first one I watched.

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Buzzin’ Campus The sun is shining on a crisp January day. We meet in the Sanctuary, Edge Hill’s allotment, Amy in full beekeeping costume and Dan, bravely – not least because it’s only just stopped snowing – in shorts.

The bees should be tucked up in bed, waiting for spring’s call to action. But they’re not. Obviously tempted out by the lure of some early warm sunshine? No, according to Amy they’re more likely having a poo. Yes, bees poo, but, ever the team players, don’t like doing it on their own doorstep.

Anyway, Degree is here to talk to Genetics student Amy and Students’ Union V-P Dan about the bee colony they’ve set up in the University allotment, where they’ll be surrounded by plenty of flowering plants come spring, or “when the willow comes into flower”, as they probably described it in days of yore, and Dan informs me that they’re working with the Uni’s ground staff to increase wildflower areas on campus: “We’ve got the one colony [a hive] at the moment. What I’ve got to do this year, is get the colony strong, which won’t be a problem with all the flowers and stuff when they come up round here,” says Amy. “Wildflowers are fantastic for bees because they absolutely love the nectar in them, and they pollinate them well too, so they’re a really good allround food source for them. And there’s normally wildflowers from spring into summer, unlike apple blossom that only comes in in the spring and that’s it. They’re around for most of the summer.”

So why do we need bees, again, Amy? “For our food. Three quarters of our food is pollinated, not just by bees but by pollinators in general, that unfortunately includes wasps and flies, but bees are obviously the wellknown ones, not just honey bees but all bees, and they’re in decline. Nothing’s endangered as yet, but it’ll only be a few years – I reckon a decade or so – before they are.”

Without the bees we’d be on our knees, basically. Amy began the fightback, providing a campus home for bees, back in 2018, when she applied for, and received, a grant from the Student Opportunity Fund to help her build her first hive.

Her interest can be traced back to an Access to HE course, where she completed a project on natural products that produce antibiotics, which led her to honey. With that taste of honey, she got involved with the Bee Centre at Samlesbury Hall in Preston, who taught her the basics, gave her the science, gave her the enthusiasm. Most importantly, they gave her the bees: “I was looking after them at the Bee Centre for quite a while before they [came onto campus]. They’re really gentle…we’re only a few feet away from them, and they’re flying and they’re not bothered at all.” (Remember, readers, Dan is in shorts).

She started her course at Edge Hill, and “within a few months I was saying ‘I want bees here’…The Bee Centre have been fantastic, I volunteer there, and in return they’ve trained me up as a very ethical and hopefully half-decent beekeeper.”

The ethics are, for Amy, very important. She doesn’t want to fall into any honey traps:

“We’re ethical bee keepers, I’ll only take excess honey. They make the honey for their own use, and that’s the way I intend to keep it, so it’s not for commercial use. But if we have a good spring/summer this year and they collect a lot there’ll be some honey at the end of the year.”

As the SU rep, Environmental Science graduate Dan, has supported Amy’s labour of love, not just financially but with his own time and effort, helping to set up The Sanctuary, getting his own hands dirty, and championing the project by delivering on his SU campaign promises of developing the uni’s societies and removing barriers to engagement: “I represent the students, and if I hear a group of students have a particular interest, hobby and passion, I’m here to facilitate that, and work with students campaigning to bring about a better place and environment, a better experience to Edge Hill as a whole. I saw the allotment area and saw not many students getting involved, so we rebranded the area. Hopefully working in The Sanctuary is now a way to get students out, addressing mental health and wellbeing.”

And Amy agrees “there’s nothing nicer” than working with bees, “especially when you’re not so worried about the bees, because I also deal with people who are pretty nervous.

There’s this fear about bees because they can sting, and unless you’re allergic (just 0.1% of the population, which includes her boss at the Bee Centre), you get a localised pain and a bit of soreness. Having said that, Amy’s never actually been stung, amazingly: “This will be the year, more than likely, because I’ll be really hands on this year.”

Our half hour with Amy and Dan has provided us with a crash course in the business of bees, and great material for a parting listicle: they leave the hive to relieve themselves; they eat bee bread; the queen has smelly feet (it’s actually a pheromone with a lemongrass odour – we wish our feet smelt of lemongrass); the alarm pheromone of bees smells like bananas; the bees living on campus are from Anglesey – Welsh black native bees, or Apis mellifera mellifera for classification junkies; other than human pollution and our use of certain pesticides, their archenemy is the Asian hornet, which can take out up to 50 bees a day, and doesn’t do it mercifully*; and the process of creating a new queen bee is frankly incredible, a scientific wonder worthy of Mary Shelley’s fevered imagination.

Join the hive mind, and make sure there isn’t a sting in this tale – love the bees, knees and all.° *They do a thing called hawking.

Look it up, it ain’t pretty.

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The Mighty Diatom Dr Joanne Egan is on a mission. She wants to share her fascination with one of the most important species on the planet. Excellent, we cry, she’s going to tell us all about the secret life of sharks. We love sharks.

Wrong.

As with many other great things, this species comes in a much smaller package, in this case they’re microscopic, about the width of a human hair. Yes, we’re talking about diatoms. Dia-whats?

“Diatoms are algae with distinctive, transparent cell walls made of silica,” explains Jo, who teaches and researches Physical Geography here at Edge Hill. “They’ve evolved elaborate patterns of perforations in their valves to allow nutrient and waste exchange with the environment, and these valve patterns can be quite beautiful.”

The fact that they’re pretty, and occasionally used by very nimble-fingered artists to make tiny elaborate patterns, is almost incidental, continues Jo: “Diatoms are abundant in nearly every habitat where water is found – oceans, lakes, streams, mosses, soils, even the bark of trees. They’re important because they are the base of aquatic food webs, so low that even the humble plankton feeds on them, and therefore the starting point of all waterbased life. Most importantly of all, the photosynthetic activity of diatoms produces 20-40% of the earth’s oxygen.”

Wait, what?

Yes, we can thanks diatoms for much of the air that we breathe, as well as most of the ocean’s oxygen. There are 20,000 to 2 million species of diatom on Earth. The range is so large because scientists are still working to understand what the defining features of a diatom species are, and because new and diverse forms are still being discovered.

Some species will prefer habitat full of vegetation, some will prefer to live buried in sand and others on rock – often that’s the slime you feel when you pick a rock out of water. They are a source of biofuels due to lipids (fats in the form of oils) produced during photosynthesis, and contribute nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans, with the shells of dead diatoms reaching as much as a half mile deep on the ocean floor. The entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust.

Dr Jo Egan’s central research theme is Quaternary environmental change, with particular focus on impacts and evidence of palaeo-hazards (volcanic eruptions and tsunami) and tephrochronology (dating of events such as volcanic eruptions). She is also reconstructing Holocene climate change in the Pacific Northwest of America using both pollen and diatoms.

The bad news is that numbers of diatoms are falling, although they are not currently under threat. If ocean temperatures continue to increase, though, then they will be.

“They prefer to live in cooler water as warmer waters contain less oxygen,” explains Jo. “So as the waters warm, they are likely to migrate. If warming at the poles continues, then we have a serious problem. If they become depleted then a lot of other plankton that feed off them will die, having a knock-on effect on other marine life. There’s also the effect on climate as diatoms not only produce oxygen but absorb carbon dioxide, so without them, the earth would be a much warmer place.”

But let’s not dwell too much on that right now, but instead look at a few of the other benefits that have emerged from diatom research.

• They can help us determine water quality. They’re particularly choosy when it comes to the water chemistry required for healthy living, so they’re very sensitive to changes in the environment, which in turn helps us to monitor our planet, measuring acidity, salinity, human impact, and nutrient content. This research was integral in developing regulations designed to reduce air pollution in the 1980s.

• The silica cell walls of diatoms do not decompose, so diatoms in marine and lake sediments can be used to interpret conditions in the past. And we’re not talking this time last year, we’re talking thousands or even millions of years ago. For instance, diatoms have helped scientists determine that a tsunami hit Scotland about 8,000 years ago. This branch of geography is called Palaeoecology.

• And finally, they may crop up as guest stars in a future series of the CSI franchise, as they are now being used in forensic science investigations into incidents of drowning, helping to identify the location as well as cause, apparently very difficult in these cases.

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Which would be a slightly downbeat note on which to end this article about one of our planet’s unsung – and unseen – heroes.

So let’s finish by recalling how pretty they are, and how it was 19th century artists who first experimented with this green artform, which peaked in the Victorian era. There is currently only one living practitioner, an Englishman called Klaus Kemp, who confesses that “the variety and intricacy of shapes, patterns and repetitions evoke a profound sense of awe.”

Diatoms, then – style and substance.°

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The Questionnaire Lecturer in Physical Geography Joanne Egan talks Hawaii, Coronation Street and National Trust sewers.

Guilty pleasure Ken!

Best part of your job?

Has to be the fieldwork, especially overseas.

What’s on your playlist at the moment?

A mix of Queen, Louis Armstrong and current pop music.

What makes you happy?

Playing and cuddling with my dog.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Running into a shop to get cover from the rain and slipping on the floor as I entered.

Dream field trip…?

Hawaii would be amazing. Hazards (eg volcanoes), coastal processes, Hawaiian culture – it would be perfect.

The last book I loved….?

I loved reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I read this about eight years ago, but it’s by far the best book I have ever read.

Growing up I dreamt of becoming...?

A tv weather forecaster.

Who would be with you in your dream selfie?

David Attenborough.

What is the worst job you’ve ever done?

I volunteered for the National Trust.

I loved it, apart from when I had to clear the sewers.

Guilty pleasure?

Coronation Street.

What did you do the summer before starting university as an undergraduate?

I worked in Boots as much as I could, and went on a family cruise around the Mediterranean.

An important lesson life has taught you?

There are challenges that we have to face.

As bad as things may seem there is always a solution, and as sad as it is, there are probably other people in much worse positions – we should be thankful for what we have.

Finally, what would you sing at a karaoke night?

All By Myself by Celine Dion, because if I was to sing at a karaoke night I would probably empty the place very quickly.

How do you relax?

Strangely enough, I relax by cleaning.

What single thing would improve the quality of your life?

More warm and sunny days.

I loved it, apart from when I had to clear the sewers.

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It’s one of our best kept

secrets

ARTS CENTRE MEMBERSHIP FREE FOR EHU STUDENTS

The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University for live shows -

Performances and Events, including Open Mic night Comedy Films Live Theatre Screenings Exhibitions and Visual Art

Edge Hill University students can join The Arts Centre’s free membership scheme: -

free tickets to shows of your choice special offers competitions

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outh America 1936. The Adventurer consults his tattered map, finds the cave entrance, a series of booby traps await.

He finally reaches his goal – an ancient golden statue. Avoiding the traps, he grabs the statue, only to trigger further defensive devices. He flees, a giant boulder bearing down on him. He escapes the cave, only to be confronted by spear-wielding tribesmen, loyal to his arch-rival.

‘Start the engine’, he yells, as they chase him towards his seaplane. The plane takes off. Safety. He looks down – the pilot’s pet snake stares back. ‘I hate snakes,’ yells The Adventurer.

Cue opening credits.

What. A. Set. Up. Character, excitement, derringdo, humour, all captured within the first 10 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a classic film based around the mutual love of the pulp serials and magazines of the 1930s and 1940s that director Steven Spielberg,

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and writers George Lucas, Philip Kaufman and Lawrence Kasdan grew up reading and watching.

Cliché, stereotypes, and, of course, the cliffhanger were a staple of those old serials, which pitched goodies against baddies, with not much wriggle room for political or personal sensitivities. They had titles like The Perils of Pauline, Flash Gordon, The Spider Returns, Jungle Girl, and [cringe] Secret Service in Darkest Africa, and young children – plus a fair few adults, it turns out – loved them.

And these serials and mags are also the inspiration for one of Edge Hill University’s most innovative projects: 7TV: Pulp, a tabletop skirmish game. A few university academics may have written about tabletop games. Many universities may have tabletop game societies. But no UK university, as far as we’re aware, has enabled its students to design and publish their very own tabletop wargame.

Degree° For the uninitiated, a tabletop skirmish game is a wargame, usually played between two people using miniature figures and a model battlefield to simulate historical, contemporary or fantastic conflicts like Waterloo, Vietnam or Helm's Deep from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Movement and action are governed by rules that can range from the simple to the very complex.

First year Creative Writing undergraduate Conor puts it more succinctly: “it’s toy soldiers with rules.”

But we’ve joined the story at its climax. Let’s do some scenesetting and meet the cast.

When Dr Peter Wright, Reader in Speculative Fictions and erstwhile games designer, met Karl Perrotton, owner of Crooked Dice Game Design Studio, “the lovechild of David Baddiel and an excitable control freak”, at the UK Games Expo in 2017, a plan was hatched: to co-produce a tabletop game, designed by Edge Hill University students. The idea of unconquered territory rather appealed to these two armchair generals.

Karl had come up with the concept of the 7TV tabletop wargame series, inspired by the iconic world of 60s and 70s cult tv, with players mimicking the production of a tv show, and subjecting the “audience” to a roller-coaster ride of narrative twists, turns and miraculous escapes. He has launched several offshoots since, of which 7TV: Pulp is the latest addition.

Producing a game is neither simple nor cheap, but Peter had an opportunity to publish something through EHU Press, the University’s own publishing imprint. Thinking laterally, he successfully pitched his idea of a game rather than a book, supported by the fact that he already taught modules on narrative forms (including tabletop roleplaying games) for the English Literature and Creative Writing programmes, and he had a willing industry partner in Karl. Putting Edge Hill students at the centre of the creative process sealed the deal.

With the funding in place, Peter recruited a group of 16 students. Their backgrounds and motivations were as varied as the narratives and game scenarios they would be working on.

Over the last two years the students have painstakingly pooled their talents and creativity to work as a team – a highlight to many, including Jake, currently studying for an MRes in English Literature: “It’s been so much fun coming together, talking, discussing, reflecting and building on each other’s ideas; it’s been a very positive working environment. It’s shown me the importance of teamwork, and of not being too concerned with your own ideas, because as long as you’re bringing something useful to the table other people can help you build on them.”

Following the original 7TV formula, the team devised their own players’ guides; developed scenarios in which to set games; created mechanisms to help the game progress; and worked on the designs for the sets of figures which accompany the game.

They were all a test of their imaginations, and their writing skills. They had to conjure moments and situations which would help make every game unique. And it goes without saying that no self-respecting pulp homage would be complete without at least one monster to introduce just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse. In playtesting (the practice of making sure rules and characters work) it went by the name of bearzilla.

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A major aspect of the project was developing character profile cards, or archetypes. Players choose a group of archetypes as their ‘cast’ or force and battle against an opposing cast for objectives and/or control of the terrain. These archetypes were inspired by the pulp serials they spent hours sitting through, in all their grainy black and white glory. There was, however, an elephant in the room that needed addressing: “Obviously the pulp serials we watched were quite old. We had to make sure everything was more diverse,” explains Creative Writing undergrad Isabel. “We wanted to have male and female miniature heroes. We also wanted to avoid the fact that the good guys were white, the bad guys were not white, so we had to find a balance there in representation. We had to make it more modern and fit now.”

And writing a 50-word character outline is not as easy as it seems, either, admits Creative Writing graduate Callum, now completing a Masters while drafting his first sci-fi novel: “The tough bit for us is to hold back, because we really want to be prescriptive with really nice, interesting, specific details about these characters, but we can’t, we have to leave it open for the player to take on these roles. So the Costumed Champion doesn’t necessarily have to be Superman or Batman, it can be any made-up character that the player brings.”

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7TV: Pulp’s cast list includes characters like the Cynical Gumshoe, the Indy-esque Intrepid Adventurer (gender non-specific, of course), and the Ruthless Lieutenant, but let’s meet some of the people behind the masks, our friendly neighbourhood student creatives:

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Creative Writing Masters student and former IT professional Natalie loves board games, going so far as treating herself to a trip to a board games exhibition for her last birthday.

Callum, a veteran wargamer at 22 years old, worked on the project from the very beginning, and he brought all his experience to the process.

“I thought I’d be looking at short stories, novels, that kind of thing, but it’s really opened my eyes to the wider applicability of what I’m studying. Peter [Wright] has a lot to do with film, computer games, and interactive storytelling, and it’s really great that the University has got a more holistic view of how we can apply our skills.”

“One of the main things you need is clarity – a lot of people who want to pick this up may never have seen 7TV before. If it didn’t seem clear in the reading and playtesting, we’d rejig it and bring it back the next week, see if it works for people.”

Favourite archetype: “I like the Costumed Champion – it’s a superhero, and we have a Space Ace, as well, that’s very similar to Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon.”

Favourite archetype: Ruthless Lieutenant

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Creative Writing undergrad Rafael loves games, but with no experience in wargaming, the was drawn by a desire to prove to himself he could write for any genre.

“It’s quite refreshing to have someone ask you to write something that you might not be interested in or have never heard of before, and you can prove to them that you can do it. This project has shown me you can still have a good time writing for somebody else.”

Favourite archetype: “Probably Cynical Gumshoe – he’s my main man.”

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For Jake, gaming’s been his biggest passion for almost as long as he can remember, so “the opportunity for me to work creatively on something I love so much was something that I didn’t want to pass up.”

He’s currently doing a Masters in adapting Victorian Gothic for tabletop RPGs, and his practical understanding of adaptation has been enhanced since working on Pulp: “It gets you thinking of adaptation on a bigger scale – how would that character in a stand-alone film transfer to a book? How much more would we learn about them? These two paths opening up to me intersect so well.”

Favourite archetype: “The Eldritch Horror, a big scary monster from a different dimension, our big, bad villainous star.”

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Karl Perrotton has turned the passion of his youth into a full-time career.

He left his job in graphic design to start Crooked Dice, taking the game he’d originally devised for friends – 7TV – to market. He brought his professional eye to the project, making sure it was up to commercial standards, directing here and guiding there – “How can we really distil this down? What is it about Tarzan that makes Tarzan Tarzan?”. But he revelled in the role of mentor, and in the fresh perspective the team brought to wargaming: “Having that oversight, and being able to step back and look at [wargaming] again has been very, very welcome.”

The future looks bright for our students, then, some of whom Karl “can really see going on to work in creative writing in some way, possibly in the game industry.” There’d certainly be no shortage of interest – when asked whether they’d be interested in working on future projects, every hand in the room shot up.

A breath of fresh air for Karl, and possibly the industry itself, ultimately: “The original 7TV rulebook was written by wargaming people for wargaming people, and played by wargaming people, but [the students] have come at it with a completely fresh eye … just because we’ve always done it that way, doesn’t mean it’s the right way. [Ultimately], what’s the best way of doing it? That’s what I’ve got out of this.”

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And the dream is now very real. The project has come full circle, and there was a real industry buzz as the team unveiled 7TV: Pulp at the 2019 Games Expo in Birmingham, the site of its conception two years earlier.

But what of the man who doubles as the model on which the Occult Investigator miniature within the game is based, Dr Peter Wright?

Growing up on a diet of sci fi and fantasy – Doctor Who, Thunderbirds, Star Wars, the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs and HG Wells, and who has written or contributed to games himself (including an RPG adaptation of Burroughs’ own John Carter of Mars), as well as writing critically about cult tv and fiction, Peter knows what it takes to produce something that regular tabletop gamers will buy. So perhaps it would only be fitting to give the last word to the project’s modest mastermind: “I’ve tried to give the students a sense of what it’s like to work as part of a design team, about how you support each other, taking an idea and working collectively on it. It’s taught them not to be precious about their own stuff. I don’t think any of us can look on this now and go ‘that was mine’ because it’s been played upon and worked with and turned around so much it’s a really group effort. The students were exemplary: reliable, professional and thoroughly committed. They were great to work with and I hope it leads them into exciting and rewarding careers.”° The result is 7TV: Pulp, a game created by a team in which everyone is the hero. Grab a game: crooked-dice.co.uk

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My Life in Science Fiction: Dr Peter Wright My introduction to science fiction Gerry Anderson’s puppet series – Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet – were my way into science fiction. After that, it was Doctor Who and Star Trek reruns, then Space 1999. TV played a big part in introducing me to science fiction (sf). My dad led me to ‘literary’ science fiction. He encouraged me to read Edgar Rice Burroughs, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. When I was about eleven, our neighbour fled to Canada to avoid nuclear annihilation and left me a box of sf classics, including Frank Herbert’s Dune, and some Philip K. Dick and Michael Moorcock novels. After that, I became a habitual reader of sf and fantasy.

The sf that reminds me of growing up I spent my childhood living in lots of different imaginary worlds, but when I think back, Star Wars looms large. The cross-marketing helped: the toys, the Marvel comics, the games – it was difficult to avoid for anyone of a geeky persuasion. When I was a little older, 2000AD was much more influential. The cynicism and misanthropy of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock appealed to my teenage sense of disappointment with the world.

The sf I would recommend people start with That’s a tough question because science fiction is so diverse.

Contemporary writers like N. K. Jemisin or Alastair Reynolds, both very different writers, show the scope of sf and what it can achieve.

The sf that inspires my research I’m drawn to ‘dying earth’ fiction – that subgenre set in the far future when Earth’s sun is old and red, and the planet has become an artefact. I find those fascinating. At present, I’m researching how sf is adapted for the tabletop roleplaying game, including dying earth games like The Chronicles of Future Earth and Numenera.

The most influential sf For better or worse, in cultural terms, Star Wars. It changed the landscape of popular cinema, the importance of special effects technology in film, the way we consume and interact with cinema through ancillary merchandising, and it laid the foundation for the eventual acceptance and rise to prominence of geek culture. In generic terms, it would be the early scientific romances of H. G. Wells – The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds especially.

Dr Peter Wright is Reader in Speculative Fictions. He is a science fiction critic and games writer, while his teaching examines how worlds are constructed in fiction and games, film adaptation, and story-telling in literature, comics, films and games.

He has published a number of books, including Teaching Science Fiction (2011).

My favourite sf adaptation Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 Planet of the Apes. I saw it when I was very young and I don’t think I ever really recovered from one powerful scene – [spoiler alert] not the famous image of the ruined Statue of Liberty, but the cave that contains archaeological artefacts from our culture – glasses, false teeth, an artificial heart valve. The scene’s presentation of the transient nature of all we consider immutable really affected me, and still does – hence my fascination with dying earth fiction…and with ruins in general.

The sf that should be in the school curriculum Some of it already is! Most important are those texts that make us reflect on the contemporary world – Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker.

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RECOMMENDED READING

o you like to read? We hope so – we’re kinda big on reading at Edge Hill. We’re also big on helping you to settle in to your new life once you arrive here. So it seems fitting that we’ve signed up to The Big Read, a shared reading scheme in which all our first year undergraduates receive a supa-special Edge Hill edition of this year’s Big Read title – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – before they start.

“The Big Read is intended for first year undergrads, giving them at least one thing in common with each other when they start,” says Alison Clark of the Student Experience team. “So, they’ll start university, they won’t know each other, what course they’re doing, where they’re from, but they’ve all received the book, so if they’re stuck for a conversation starter, the book is it.”

You can love it or hate it, but the important thing is that you can talk to your fellow freshers about it. And activities arranged around the themes and ideas of the book are used in both social and academic contexts to bring students together and encourage discussion.

“We’ve had a really positive response,” continues Alison.

“One student on the train from Liverpool didn’t know where they were going, saw somebody else reading the book, and said, ‘are you going to Edge Hill? Can you tell me where I go?’ They walked up together – I think that’s a really nice example of how people have engaged with it.”

This is the second year the University’s been involved in the scheme. Last year Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

by Gail Honeyman, currently being given the Hollywood treatment, landed on students’ doormats. For Creative Writing student Rebecca Holderness it kickstarted a first year to remember.

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Rebecca got involved in The Big Read project with the Student Experience team, working as a shortlisting assistant, helping to choose the next ice-breaking read.

“I’m studying Creative Writing, so working with books, helping to select the right one for a specific audience, is very relevant to my studies. I travelled down to London and assisted the selection panel in narrowing down the six shortlisted books to a final novel. As it was held in a similar, but less formal, way to meetings that take place in the publishing industry, I’ve had an insight into something that could be a potential future career path.”

Rebecca took advantage of the University’s Student Opportunity Fund (SOF), a scheme which contributes financial support that helps you to take part in any activities which enhance your employability. You can receive up to £2,000 towards something which will seriously improve your CV, and boost your confidence. And it’s available to all our students. Rebecca used the SOF to facilitate two trips to London in order to work on The Big Read project, and also took advantage of the University’s language programme, brushing up on her French and Italian.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a book about a person who gradually gets drawn into life, making connections with other people, and creating a different life for herself. A little like Rebecca’s Edge Hill experience, then: “I can stand out more when I graduate and step into the world of work. Sometimes, as a student, you feel as if all you do is study for the degree you’re enrolled on – it’s wonderful when you become involved in something very different.”

Like Rebecca Holderness, we think you too will be (more than) completely fine at Edge Hill.°

Join the Big Read conversation at ehu.ac.uk/bigread

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IF YOU CAN TRUST YOURSELF WHEN ALL MEN DOUBT YOU ‘If’ may have regularly topped polls of the UK’s favourite poem, but for many years Rudyard Kipling has also been a literary pariah, ignored by the academic community for his pro-colonial beliefs.

But can his work tell us anything about the polarised world we currently live in?

In the only module of its kind in the UK, English Literature students Sam and Luke were challenged to critically re-examine Kipling’s work.

Sam: I think Laura, our lecturer, summarised it best in the first session when she mentioned a recent incident at a UK university where arguably Kipling’s most famous poem, ‘If’, was covered over and replaced with Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’. Obviously the intentional contrast – basically a white man from the imperial epoch talking about how men ought to act, and a black woman’s message of empowerment despite societal oppression – highlighted the state of a lot of the discourse around Kipling. I support what those students did, but if we don’t engage with a problematic narrative and try to understand it, we ignore a very large chunk of British history which, arguably, still characterises a lot of what we do today. It’s been less than a hundred years since Kipling died, and he was, for a very long time, the most popular articulator of Britain, from the height of New Imperialism to the calamity of the First World War. There’s a lot Kipling has to teach us about ourselves, but we can’t deny or minimise his obvious racism, either.

Luke: For me, the module highlights the ambiguities in Kipling’s work. It involved acknowledging the problems in his writing while investigating areas where these ideas are not as clearly formed. It’s easy to read into the prejudice embedded in his texts but there were times when I, as a reader, felt confused as to Kipling’s intentions. This highlighted the need for a re-examination of Kipling as a straightforward imperialist. This label often overlooks Kipling’s own story which complicates things. Context plays a key role in this because as readers we must understand the societal norms of the time to fully understand the construction of a text. Given the context of Kipling’s era it offers explanations for his behaviour, so, without attempting to justify it, we can see where these ideas stemmed from.

Sam: Generally, I thought there was a lot of justification woven into colonial narratives. People who are born at a time when Britain is the predominant world power and who have the world at their fingertips are bound to be more than a little defensive, aren’t they? I associated Kipling with that Lord Kitchener figure: the moustachioed imperialist, exuding a toxic masculinity and fetishising the duty of service every good Englishman owed to his country.

There’s The Jungle Book, of course, which I watched religiously as a kid, but then you get older and read poems like ‘The White Man’s Burden’ and suddenly that fun little romp in the jungle becomes a little “yikes”.

Sam Lloyd

Luke Foulds

BA (Hons) English Literature

BA (Hons) English Literature

Luke: I was familiar with the idea of colonial literature but not with the ties between colonial ideology and Kipling’s work. Like you, I was only really familiar with his most famous works, The Jungle Books, through the highly adapted Disney version. As for colonial literature, I had preconceptions of the bluntness of racial prejudice that would be present within the texts, and I initially saw little opportunity for his work to make any positive contribution to our understanding of contemporary society.

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Sam: Yes, the question that kept popping into my head as we were studying Kipling was “what does this teach us about today?”. I think the example of the protesters erasing his poem stuck in my head and reminded me that Kipling – if not the ideas he represents – still hovers over a lot of modern British literature like a ghost. I think if you’re going to read a problematic narrative, it’s always very important to refer to the effect the writer has on modern discourse and try to reconcile them with our own times. The module helped me to keep that at the front of my mind: I wasn’t just looking into Kipling by chance, my tutor had a motivation for bringing him up and I was smart to make sure I followed suit. If you want to study Kipling critically, you can allow yourself to both sympathise and condemn him: he was as much an organic, living person as the rest of us, and he has moments of profundity as well as moments of repulsiveness.

Luke: At times there were slightly uncomfortable reactions from the group, especially when reading Kipling’s more outrageous work, but for the majority of the module people were intrigued, and for a lot of his work prejudice was not at the forefront of our thoughts. We were looking at texts that had gothic tropes and could be read through ecocriticism [examination of the ways literature treats the subject of nature]. We were more often intrigued than shocked.

Sam: I was surprised by the presence of India in a lot of his work, and how that came to characterise his writing.

A lot of his short stories – in The Jungle Books in particular – contain little linguistic flourishes which he obviously picked up from Indian religion or history. He’s a child of empire in the most literal sense: I think a lot of the class were surprised about the care and attentiveness which Kipling afforded his sister culture.

Kipling’s world was a lot more distant from London than I expected. There’s a conception of the man as representative of an exclusively British, white imperialism, but I think that narrative disregards the fact that he was himself raised in India. There’s an

interesting conflict in Kipling’s psyche – his love of India and his belief in the fundamental goodness of the British Empire – which characterises a lot of his literature.

Luke: Kipling’s biography is fascinating, and it was interesting to see how Kipling was almost caught between two worlds. An idea that, as we become increasingly globalised, seems to resonate with more and more people.

Sam: A lot of Kipling’s poetry does something to reinforce preconceived ideas of his views on race. ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’ and ‘The White Man’s Burden’ again spring to mind. The idea that the British empire was this paternal force does have a little contrast in ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’, however, in which Kipling appears respectful – even envious – of the prowess of natives which the British army is subduing. In general, you can see a lot of the social engineering the British imperial project was engaged in when it comes to Kipling’s writings about Africa in particular. It’s more than a little unsettling to think about how recent this was, but it also allows you to understand the mentality in a way you wouldn’t without reading it.

Luke: I’d recommend The Man Who Would Be King, to anyone who has a strong opinion of Kipling’s prejudice.

Kipling’s clear play with race and imperialism cast doubt on whether he was a straightforward imperialist. I did a presentation on how this particular text complicates conventional understandings of imperialism and even used postcolonial theory, which is often hostile to Kipling’s work, to liberate some of the oppressed voices.

Sam: I think my favourite works, from what we studied on the course, would also include The Man Who Would Be King, along with The Mark of the Beast. They explore the perspectives of white men that refuse to integrate into the culture of the Indian subcontinent, or at the very least pay homage to it, and find themselves paying the price. The hubris of expansionism and the undoing of homogenising colonisers isn’t something you’d expect from a man most associated with colonial literature.

I’m still very surprised that I got to bring a lot of my morbid interest in the events of the First World War into a module about Rudyard Kipling, a writer who I associated more with the colonies than the trenches. But his war poetry covers almost all of his life – he has a fascination with British military culture. Epitaphs of the War, in particular, is very moving. He manages to condense national suffering into often less than a stanza, and you can see a very interesting conflict again occurring in Kipling’s head: an imperialist and a believer having to reconcile himself with the idea that his country sent millions – including his own son – to an industrial-scale chopping block.

Luke: My favourite part of the course was finding new ways to read Kipling’s work and complicate common conceptions about him and his ideology. I was already highly interested in this area of study but the ideas that came from this module of complicating Kipling’s controversy consolidated research I was doing for my dissertation.

Sam: I took another Victorian-relevant module right after this one, and a lot of my reading around Kipling gave me an understanding of imperial attitudes which I brought into my coursework.

The module has absolutely let me understand a lot of the themes and archetypes at work in colonial literature, and has helped me identify them when they spring up in writers such as Tennyson who were a lot closer to the home islands than Kipling ever was. Read Tennyson’s Ulysses after Kipling’s Kim and tell me you don’t see at least some overlap.

Luke: Kipling’s work has become taboo, and this may be why he’s not taught much. I do think it’s important to highlight problematic ideas not only as a point of interest but to explore why people held these views.

Literature concerning patriarchal oppression seems to have no problems on university reading lists and I think it would only be a natural progression to highlight other problematic writers and see how we can understand these texts from a contemporary point of view.

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A KIPLING READING LIST

Sam: Laura prefaced and highlighted unceasingly elements of Kipling’s writings which were problematic or disturbing. I think it’s possible to teach colonial-era writers such as Kipling, making clear to the group that you can reconcile Kipling at his best with Kipling at his worst. He’s a writer who forms a vital bridge between two centuries where Britain rose and fell. If he isn’t considered, then we deprive ourselves of an important transitionary figure in British literature. This isn’t a reason, however, to stop acknowledging that some of Kipling’s work and the views he expresses are deeply, deeply problematic.

Luke: By going against common thought about Kipling the module allowed us to improve our critical skills greatly, as it was through looking for the ambiguities within his texts that we were able to create new meaning.

These skills are important not only throughout the development of our degree but also after, as it allows us to think critically about other situations outside the academic environment.

Finally, any words of advice for someone thinking about studying English Literature?

Sam: For anyone thinking of studying English Literature, my advice would be to set time aside for your reading.

There’s a lot of it. Study your reading lists before you enter a new year, write down every novel, and tear the things apart over summer. You’ll feel better for it later. I’m not ashamed to admit I missed or flunked a lot of my reading in my first year, and I absolutely think that affected my marks. The barrage of chunky novels can overwhelm you, but it will help you and your degree a lot.

Luke: Studying English Literature can be highly challenging at times, and I think the best advice I could give is to look at the modules in depth before applying, especially for the first year, as it sets you up with context and can give you an insight into what you will enjoy about the course.

The Mark of the Beast (1891).

The best-known monster of the Victorian age may be the vampire Dracula, but here Kipling offers us a kind of werewolf tale in which supernatural occurrences are caused by the white man's ignorance of local customs and beliefs.

Laura Eastlake, Senior Lecturer in English Literature “Kipling has come down to us as an imperial jingoist and apologist for empire, but he also wrote a vast range of children's stories, gothic tales, journalism and history. He wrote about loss, grief and trauma, and, at times, seems as capable of making incisive even scathing – critiques of white men in India as he is at penning troublingly imperialist poetry like ‘If’ and ‘The White Man's Burden’.

“On this module, students felt they developed the skills to think critically about how race, power and gender are constructed in any given time, and to think about these things in a way which is neither a rush to outrage nor an apologist response. They felt more able to talk about and tackle these problems as citizens in their own society, which is a skill that is particularly valuable in an age of social media, unreliable information, and fake news.”°

The Jungle Books (18941895). You may have seen the films, but if you've not read The Jungle Books then you'll be surprised at some of the differences.

Students on the course were pleasantly surprised at the power and authority of Mowgli's mother Raksha 'The Demon'.

'Swept and Garnished' (1915). Kipling, who lost his own son at the Battle of Loos (1915) writes very movingly about the loss and trauma of war. In Epitaphs of the War he imagines the impact of the conflict on people of different classes and backgrounds, but his short story ‘Swept and Garnished’ begins with an elderly German widow who, even in her comfortable Berlin flat, cannot escape the spectres of the violence happening elsewhere in Europe.

Laura Eastlake

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10 things I rate about shrew

In 2019 The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University staged a performance of Shrew, a radical feminist adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Set in a nightclub populated with drag kings and gangsters, this radical adaptation of the Bard’s text releases the play from its comedic origins to foreground Kate’s journey from strength to being trafficked into a forced marriage. he play was performed by Mrs Pankhurst’s Players, a staff and student feminist theatre collective emerging from the Edge Hill Drama Department.

Their remit: to make politically-engaged theatre committed to advancing gender equality. The collective’s first production was a revival of the first suffragette play Votes for Women! by Elizabeth Robbins, which was performed in June 2018. Shrew, their second production, premiered on International Women’s Day 2019.

First year Drama and English Literature student Phoebe Orsmond found out about Mrs Pankhurst’s Players at the beginning of her first term at Edge Hill. The philosophy behind the company “really resonated” and she was determined not to miss out. In Shrew Phoebe plays The Widow, a role only briefly alluded to in Skakespeare’s original play, providing the character with self-determination:

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“The whole process is about adapting a play that’s considered to be very controversial and has been so for many years. Even though the text has always been presented as a comedy, viewing the themes and perspective from a female point of view, showing Katerina as a victim, is something we wanted to achieve as a company. At a time when feminism is looking to be intersectional, recognising different gender identities and sexualities, this adaptation tries to present a range of characters that are more identifiable to a younger contemporary audience.”

The role was an early opportunity for Phoebe and the company to flex their dramatic muscles and stretch their imaginations: “I was able to explore my character, something that no one else has done before, to find out just who she really is.

Working with other members of the company to make moments in scenes made the process even more engaging.

We did exercises in which we had to focus on physicality which really helped me draw everything I could out of the role, literally and figuratively putting myself in my character’s shoes. Whenever we rehearsed, we made sure to clear the space and tried eliminating as many outdoor elements as possible to better focus, including things like us leaving our shoes outside the space.”

Hopefully Phoebe and the rest of Mrs Pankhurst’s Players remembered their footwear when they hit the road with Shrew, ironing out the creases, incorporating some of the audience feedback they’ve actively been encouraging, before they unleashed the show on an unsuspecting Edinburgh fringe festival crowd.°

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So, what was it like? We thought it would be a good idea to send two of their student peers to review the show.

“He is more a shrew than she”

Kate Leeming has just completed her degree in English Literature, and is now looking to pursue a career in teaching.

Stripping The Taming of the Shrew of its comedic sub-plot, Mrs Pankhurst’s Players create a feminist adaptation of the original play. Set in a club with a gangster, drag-king trio, the play opens with the introduction of the feisty and outspoken Katerina (Kate) and the beautiful younger sister Bianca with her many suitors. The focus remains on the father’s need to marry his daughters to whoever offers the highest financial gain, disregarding the legitimate complaints of the bride-to-be. This portrayal of women’s role in the marriage market already creates unease; however, this is hugely magnified by the introduction of Petruchio. We see him first learning of Kate’s behaviour and the dowry which made her attractive to him, talking of his plans to ‘tame’ her into the perfect, submissive wife. Unlike the way it was originally written, the abusive tyranny of this character was not hidden behind flowery language or witty responses but instead brought to the forefront of the stage. His hateful words were traded as physical blows, and Kate could do nothing but marry the man who would soon own her in every legal sense. After the wedding, to which Petruchio is late, he does not allow Kate to spend time with her family, instead dragging her to his home where she will be not only emotionally abused but also physically alone. Mrs Pankhurst’s Players highlight his barbaric nature, as Kate is beaten, starved and deprived of sleep, all in the name of love. The play concludes with Kate as a broken and isolated woman, renouncing her independence and voice because it was simply not allowed.

Mrs Pankhurst’s Players manage to unmask the witty remarks of Shakespeare’s play to reveal a tragedy of the independence and happiness of a young woman being sold to whoever will take her, highlighting the betrayal of a neglectful father.

William Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew has been a difficult play for the modern era. Many critics have denounced the play for its overt actions and statements of misogyny, while others have hailed the play for its highlighting of gender issues, domestic abuse and discrimination. Perhaps this dichotomy was in the mind of Edge Hill’s own Mrs Pankhurst’s Players in their recent adaptation and retelling of the famous drama.

Their performance began with a rendition of new age jazz, which, accompanied with the aesthetic of a Godfather-style setting, served as a visual representation of a new age of The Taming of the Shrew; a new rendition of the rhyme and metre of Shakespeare’s very own words. One aspect of the play was particularly interesting. Petruchio was portrayed as very charming but with a very dark underbelly which became most evident in his treatment of Katerina. His manipulation alienated Katerina from herself, and the violent grips he had on her hand symbolised this control. Petruchio was gaslighting Katerina, mentally manipulating her, altering her very perception of the world. Given this, Katerina’s final speech, which has been viewed as a criticism of women, becomes a lament about being trapped in an abusive relationship from which her family, era or even ability doesn’t allow her to escape: the very Taming of the Shrew.

Studying English Literature, here at Edge Hill, the portrayal of female suffering reminded me of many different things that I’ve studied. The idea of the Female Gothic by Ellen Moors seemed particularly appropriate. It states that the suffering of a woman in a dark or Gothic sphere demonstrates a criticism of the society that has failed her; a valid reading of the original play and, I believe, the intention of this new performance which brings these ideas into the modern era.

Mrs Pankhurst’s Players performed an admirable rendition of the Bard’s problematic play, and I personally look forward to more renditions of classical plays in this feminist mode: reclaiming those women, like Katerina, who have been lost in time.

Mathew Hunter has just finished the first year of his English Literature degree. He hopes to spend a semester studying with one of our partner universities in Canada.

We believe that access to the arts and culture is life-affirming and mind-expanding, and you can’t put a price on that.

So The Arts Centre membership comes free for all our students, complete with complimentary tickets to shows of your choice, special offers and competitions. Find out what’s coming up: edgehill.ac.uk/artscentre

#DiscoverEHU Open Days Saturday 9th November 2019 Saturday 23rd November 2019 ehu.ac.uk/opendays Search Edge Hill Follow @edgehill for live tweeting at open days. Use #EHUopenday to get involved.