News and events
Leicester Exchanges hosts discussions on North Korea
University of Leicester academics give their take on the political situation in North Korea
Academics ask whether UKIP can move beyond the European question
Political experts from the University have entered into the EU debate in a new blog
Air power in the new millennium
A military expert will give a lecture at the University of Leicester on the exercise of air power on Wednesday 20 March
University of Leicester event highlights new research into the Conservative Party
Leading scholars to discuss new findings on the Conservative Party at the University of Leicester
New Labour’s impact: lessons learned?
University of Leicester to host conference reflecting on thirteen years of New Labour
Are you thinking about postgraduate study?
University of Leicester to host Postgraduate Open Evening on Tuesday 19th March
Politics students to study official Houses of Parliament module
University of Leicester selected to deliver new module
New Labour: A Retrospective
A one-day workshop organised by the Intelligence, Security and Strategic Studies Research Cluster taking place on Wednesday 27th March
Come Along to a Research Lunch on 19th February
As part of the College of Social Science Academic Staff Induction Day on the 19th February, two research lunches will be taking place:
‘Digital Economies’ run by Professor Monica Whitty from the Department of Media & Communications which will discuss the work she has been doing under the theme ‘Digital Economies’ for RCUK, focusing on the Romance Scam Project.
‘Social Science & Sustainable Development’ run by Dr Nelya Koteyko from the Department of Media & Communications and Dr Roland Leigh from the Department of Physics & Astronomy which will discuss the launch of a university-wide Sustainability Network.
Colleagues from across the University are welcome to attend.
To book onto one of these research lunches please fill in this booking form. If you have any queries please contact Daniela Murphy on dm288@le.ac.uk
Professor of Politics delivers keynote address on Animal Rights
Professor of Politics, Rob Garner, recently gave the keynote address on 'Animal Rights in a Nonideal World' at the University of Macquarie, Sydney.
What influence has the UK had in shaping the EU as we know it?
University of Leicester academic appears on live panel discussion hosted by the European Parliament and Business for New Europe
Honorary Graduate No.1: Diana Garnham
Diana Garnham, Chief Executive of the Science Council and former University of Leicester student, was bestowed an honorary degree of Doctors of Laws from the University of Leicester on Friday 25 January.
LSE European Politics and Policy blog
'British politicians need to reclaim leadership over the UK’s EU membership debate' an article by Dr Oliver Daddow
Tribute to Dr John Day by Dr Bob Borthwick
John Day (1931 - 2012), who died just before Christmas, was a pillar of the Politics Department (as it then was) for 36 years between 1959 and his retirement in 1995.
John arrived in Leicester in 1959 having spent two tears as an Assistant in the History Department at Edinburgh University. Before that John had done his National Service in the RAF, been an undergraduate and postgraduate at Cambridge and had also spent a year at the other Cambridge in Massachusetts on a scholarship at Harvard.
John Day gave great service to both the Department and the University. He was renowned as a superb lecturer and devoted tutor. His first year lectures in particular were immensely popular (a status not easily achieved in the days of the compulsory five subject first for Social Sciences’ students). John took a huge amount of trouble in looking after his students. In the words of one of his tutees from the early 1960s: “For my generation of students, John was the best teacher any of us had – always clear, coherent, tolerant, friendly and always finding time to talk to us”.
Those first year lectures which achieved something of a cult status for him were on British Politics but John’s primary academic interests were in the fields of political theory and African politics. In both of these areas he taught very successful final years courses for many years. His interest in African politics had been enhanced by a term spent in what was then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in the summer of 1964. This led in due courses to his book on the Nationalist movement of that country International Nationalism.
John was hugely respected in the Department for his administrative skills. His sense of fairness, his calm judgment and his meticulous administrative ability served him in good stead when he had a long spell as Head of Department in the 1980s.
John’s wise counsel was much in demand at University level. He served as an elected member of Senate in the 1960s. Among his major contributions to University committees was his service on the Committee on Student Representation which had the thankless task of picking a way through the minefield of student discontent in the late 1960s. Scarcely easier was his role in chairing the committee which, some years later, had the task of reorganising the Combined Studies degree in the Arts Faculty. John approached these tasks, as he did all his academic activities, with a rationalism, derived perhaps from his study of the work of that central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume.
Away from work John had a wide range of interests; he enjoyed visiting old churches and it was very appropriate that in his retirement he should produce a history of his village church in Peatling Magna, He enjoyed travelling both at home and abroad, particularly Italy, Greece and the United States (where he spent the academic year 1976-77 as a Visiting Professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia). Less cerebral perhaps was his support for Leicester City where, particularly in the club’s cup runs of the 1960s, the calm academic revealed a rather more excitable side to his personality.
In his retirement John continued to do some teaching both at Leicester and at the University of Warwick. It was a matter of great sadness that his retirement was blighted by ill-health. Such a good man deserved better. His death removes the last link with the Politics Department headed by Bruce Miller. To his wife Ann and to their children David, Roger and Rosalind and their families we extend our deepest sympathy.
Dr Bob Borthwick
New Year Honours for University of Leicester staff member and graduate
Co-director of Embrace Arts and alumnus feature in 2013 list
Public lecture by Alastair Campbell, 16 January 2013 (sold out)
Please note that tickets for this lecture are now sold out.
Politics researcher lends expert view to Select Committee discussion
A University of Leicester lecturer has given evidence on the economic implications of Scottish Independence for the United Kingdom.
Literary Leicester: tickets still available for Chris Mullin talk
Events for the fifth annual Leicester Literary festival are nearly fully booked, but you still have time to book for the closing talk
Unique study reveals patterns of political defection
Leicester’s Dr. Wyburn-Powell investigates causes of defection in the first study of its kind
