Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER)

Events Archive: 2015/16

Date: 19 May 2016  
Venue: Room 104, Fulton Building, University of Sussex
Speakers: Various (see below)

Including Roma Communities in European Higher Education: Celebrating Successes and Identifying Challenges

This conference is part of the Higher Education, Internationalisation and Mobility (HEIM) research project funded by the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Programme located in CHEER, in partnership with the Roma Education Fund (Hungary), and the Universities of Seville (spain) and Umeå (Sweden).

Speakers include:

  • Professor Nafsika Alexiadou: Umeå University, Sweden
  • Dr Stela Garaz: Roma Education Fund, Budapest, Hungary
  • Dr Tamsin Hinton-Smith: CHEER, University of Sussex, UK
  • Ms Tanja Jovanovic: CHEER, University of Sussex, UK
  • Dr Andrzej Mirga: Chair of the Roma Education Fund, Budapest, Hungary
  • Professor Louise Morley: Director of CHEER, University of Sussex, UK
  • Mr Ciprian Necula: State Secretary, Ministry of European Funds, Romania
  • Dr Mayte Padilla-Carmona: Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
  • Dr Maria-Carmen Pantea: Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
  • Professor John Pryor: CHEER, University of Sussex, UK
  • Mr Paul Roberts, Doctoral School, University of Sussex, UK

The event will provide opportunities to:

  • Share information about findings from the project to date
  • Explore enabling interventions to promote Roma inclusion in higher education
  • Exchange knowledge with diverse stakeholders, including community organisations, policymakers and scholars concerned with Roma communities
  • Promote change, impact and positive outcomes.

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Date: 14th-17th March 2016  
Venue: Harry Bloom Suite, American Express Community Stadium, Village Way, Brighton, BN1 9BL
Speaker: Various

The Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) and The Doctoral School, University of Sussex, UK along with The Postgraduate School of Educational Sciences, School of Education, Umeå University, Sweden, will work together for 4 days to examine theories, methodologies and doctoral work-in-progress. This free 4-day seminar will include:

  • Opportunities to present your work and receive feedback from international experts
  • Networking and knowledge exchange between Sussex and Umea students and faculty
  • Social events
  • The following presentations: 
    - Troubling Intra-actions: Gender, Neo-liberalism and Research in the Global Academy 
    Professor Louise Morley 
    - The Impact of Marketization and New Public Management in School: The Swedish Example 
    Dr Ulf Lundström 
    - The Making of the Neoliberal Academic: The State, the Market and the PhD 
    Professor John Pryor 
    - Values in Education, Knowledge and Neoliberal Narratives 
    Dr Joakim Lindgren and Professor Karin Sporre
  • The following Methodology Workshops: 
    - Doing Research in a Feminist Way: Utilising Feminist Methods in Empirical Research 
    Dr Tamsin Hinton-Smith 
    - Studying Classroom Dynamics Using Mixed-Methods and Interventions 
    Professor Eva Lindgren. 
    - Challenging the Mechanistic within Research Methodologies: Using Butler to Work both ‘Within and Against Interpretivism’ 
    Dr Rebecca Webb

25 places are available for University of Sussex researchers. To apply, send a one-page summary of your research, including a 150 word abstract and a 150 word reflection - on what you hope to get out of the programme to simone.robinson@sussex.ac.uk by 12 December 2015. 
Participants must commit to attending the whole 4-day programme, including social events.

Promo:  CHEER/Umea 4-day seminar event: March 2016 [PDF 120.38KB]  

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Date: 22nd February 2016
Time: 2-4pm
Venue: Room G36, Jubilee
Speaker: Professor Valerie Hey, CHEER / Department of Education, University of Sussex 
With tributes from Professor Carole Leathwood (London Metropolitan University) & Professor Rosalyn George (Goldsmiths, University of London)

On Not Taking Oneself Too Seriously: Some feminist questions about affects, authority and authenticity

A celebration of Professor Valerie Hey's career.

In this celebratory event, Professor Valerie Hey created and commented on positive affect. The theme arose in response to colleagues remarking on Valerie’s laughing as a notable aspect of her persona. Although Valerie claims never to have taken humour seriously before as an ‘object’ of analysis, the remarks piqued her curiosity about the im/possibility, power and persistence of humour in (academic) life. 

Valerie’s ‘experiment’ involved a reflection on what Butler calls ‘serious play’, encompassing a satirical take on academia drawn from ‘fictive’ vignettes of ‘doing feminist academic’. She also drew serendipitously on her own auto/biography which has been shaped by others’ previous work, urging the authoring of a political vocabulary of critique that is not ‘po-faced’.

The lecture was chaired by CHEER Director, Professor Louise Morley and followed by responses from Carole Leathwood, Emeritus Professor (London Metropolitan University) and Professor Rosalyn George (Goldsmiths, University of London).

Seminar Promo:       CHEER lecture promo: 22feb2016 [PDF 779.14KB]  

Celebrating Professor Valerie Hey: Feb 2016

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Date: 8th February 2016   
Time: 1-3pm  
Venue: Room G31, Jubilee 
Speakers: Caroline Berggren, Senior Lecturer, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with PhD in Education researcher, Daniel Leyton, University of Sussex

Troubling Widening Participation in Higher Education Internationally

This seminar comprised two presentations interrogating some of the complexities of widening participation polices in higher education in Chile and Sweden. 

Seminar Promo:      CHEER seminar promo: 8feb2016 [PDF 128.43KB]  
Presentations:         Widening participation in Sweden from a Gender Perspective: BERGGREN [PPTX 427.77KB] 
                               Trajectory of Widening Participation in Chilean Higher Education: Trends, Policy, Discourse and Subjectivities: LEYTON [PPTX 435.96KB]

Widening Participation in International HE: 8 Feb 2016

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Date: 21st January 2016 
Time: 2-4pm
Venue: Room 104, Fulton
Speakers: Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka / Lynne Heslop, Director of Education, British Council, Myanmar / Professor Louise Morley - Director of CHEER & Dr Barbara Crossouard - Senior Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Sussex

Higher Education in the Asian Century: Does expansion mean inclusion?

A co-hosted seminar with the Sussex Asia Centre.

The seminar comprises three presentations raising questions about whether higher education, the globalizing political economy of neo-liberalism, the growth of the Asian Century and social inclusion and justice collide or co-exist. The papers draw upon a range of theoretical approaches including feminism, the affective economy, democratisation, peace-building and micropolitics to scrutinise the success story of Asian university expansion in relation to opportunity structures and the lived experiences of marginalised groups. Paper titles include:

  • From Protest to Peacebuilding? Higher education and social justice in Myanmar
    Lynne Heslop
  • Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Sri Lankan Universities: Contradictions and complicities
    Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe 
  • Women in Higher Education Leadership in South Asia: Rejection,refusal, relectance, re-visioning
    Professor Louise Morley & Dr Barbara Crossouard

Seminar Promo:          CHEER/Sussex Asia Centre seminar: Jan 2016 [PDF 260.54KB]

Seminar presentation: Lynne Heslop: Higher education and social justice in Burma/Myanmar [PPTX 1.49MB]

 
NOTE: Due to technical issues on the day, the first of the three presentations of this seminar was not recorded so Lynne Heslop's presentation is available above to view/download. Lynne is the Director of Education for the British Council in Burma.

Asia Seminar: 21 Jan 2016

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Date: 2nd November 2015 
Time: 10am-12.30pm
Venue: Gallery 2, Conference Centre, Bramber House
Keynote Speaker: Dr Iulius Rostas, Visiting Lecturer, Corvinus University, Budapest & Associate Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Central European University

Inclusive education and ethnic identity: Educational policies for Roma in Central and Eastern Europe

The last 25 years have seen numerous initiatives addressing the Roma predicament in Europe. The most prominent of these were the national Roma strategies developed by the governments of Central and Eastern Europe during the European Union enlargement process, the Decade of Roma Inclusion and, most recently, the EU framework for Roma National Integration Strategies.In spite of the generous policy objectives, the situation of Roma continued to worsen as research from the field indicates - a policy paradox that needs to be explored. The question of why these policies had such a limited impact is one that policy-makers, scholars and activists must provide answers to. One of the causes for the lack of impact is the lack of ethnic relevance of these policies - their failure to take into consideration Romani ethnic identity.

In his keynote presentation, Dr Iulius Rostas will analyse the inclusiveness of educational policies towards Roma using ethnic relevance as an indicator. He will also analyse the educational policies in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania as part of the EU Framework for Roma National Integration Strategies though the lens of Roma ethnic identity, using policy design theory and critical race theory as relevant theoretical frames. How are the Roma defined by the policy-makers?

What are the problems faced by the Roma identified by policy-makers? How are these problems defined? Who exactly is part of the policy target group? What are the limits of the ethnic group set by policy-makers? These questions will be the guide.

Promo:       Inclusive Education and Ethnic Identity: A Roma conference [PDF 209.40KB]

Iulius Rostas Seminar: 2 Nov 2015

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Date: 2nd November 2015
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Room 155, Jubilee 
Speaker: Philip Brown, Distinguished Research Professor, School of of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff

Employability, opportunity and the prospects for social mobility

There has been renewed policy interest in higher education and social mobility as a route to a fairer society. In this seminar, Professor Brown will argue that the current policy agenda will fail because it ignores the sociological evidence that social fluidity depends on reducing inequalities in relative life-chances, rather than simply improving the employability skills of graduates.

In assessing the prospects for social mobility, he will also suggest that existing sociological theories - most notably based on the study of origins and destinations in relation to class mobility - need to be extended if we are to understand the prospects for higher education, employability and social mobility.

Seminar Promo:       CHEER Seminar Promo: 2nov2015 [DOC 142.50KB]

Photo Gallery

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