Fifty students set to Rock and Roll at the University of Chichester’s Music Summer School

Fifty students aged 13 to 14-years-old from local schools in the Bognor Regis and Chichester area will have the opportunity to work with professional musicians and lyricists to discover their own musical talents at the ‘Chi Rocks Summer School’ from 7-9th July at the University Chichester.

The 5th annual Summer School, run by the University’s Widening Participation team, will be focussing on music for the first time and will enable the teenagers to run their own song writing company and this will culminate in seeing their song performed by professional band at a Chi Rocks gig in the University’s Student Union bar on Thursday 9th July.

The Chi Rocks event give these young adults the opportunity to learn about writing songs, recording and music technology and ways to market their own company. Those attending won’t necessarily have to play an instrument or sing, but they must love music. The schools taking part are Bognor Regis Community College, Bourne Community College, Manhood Community College, Thomas Bennett Community College and Westergate Community College.

Organise Carole Nairn said: “We’re really excited about this event which will give these students a fantastic opportunity to learn about different aspects of the music business from professionals who teach here at the University. To hear their songs performed by a professional band should be a really great experience for them and hopefully some of them will study music at university in the future.”

If you would like to find out more about this event please contact Carole on tel: 01243 812169 or email c.nairn@chi.ac.uk

‘Changing Childhood’ Conference to be held at University of Chichester

On 2nd - 4th July 2009 the Youth and Children’s Work Department of the Diocese of Chichester is hosting a conference entitled ‘Changing Childhood’.


Working in collaboration with the Children’s Society and the University of Chichester, where the event will be held, the conference will explore studies on childhood.

The year 2009 will commemorate not only the 30th anniversary of the UN International Year of the Child, but also the 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

Over the past few years the media has been abundant with issues concerning childhood and the well-being of children. Therefore this is the perfect time for the ‘Changing Childhood’ conference.

The conference will include the latest research initiatives on childhood studies from specialists in the field, in particular the Good Childhood Inquiry. Through plenary sessions, lectures and seminars the conference will explore childhood in three main areas: the Child and the Church; the Child and Society; and the Child and Culture.

Key speakers at the conference are: Professor Marcia J Bunge (PhD), Dr Rebecca Nye (PhD), Bob Reitemeier (CEO of the Children’s Society), Mary Hawes (National Children’s Officer C of E), Professor William Gray (BA, MA, BD, Th.M, PhD), Dr Sue Morgan (BA, MA, PhD), Rob Abbott (MA BACP), and Dr Robin Baker (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chichester).

Further information is available on the website www.yesonthenet.org.uk/events/yearofthechild/ or from the conference coordinator, Emma Hards on 01273 425684 or email emma.hards@diochi.org.uk.

William Blake and the Bard of Eartham: A Chichester Friendship

Diana Barsham of the University of Chichester presents an illustrated talk on William Hayley

As part of the annual Chichester Festivities Dr Diana Barsham, Head of English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, will be giving an illustrated talk on the extraordinary life of the Chichester poet, dramatist and biographer, William Hayley on 4th July. The work of Hayley has been ignored for the last 200 years but in the late Eighteenth Century he was one of the most popular poets of his day and his poem ‘The Triumphs of Temper’ was a best seller. Hayley created the heroine of this poem as a role model for women, advising them on how to respond cheerfully to the trials of marriage, especially when their partners were unfaithful. Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, and Nelson’s mistress, Lady Hamilton were both avid readers! Georgiana claimed the poem saved her marriage.

By the late 1790s Hayley was a famous and successful poet. It was at this time that a number of tragedies in his life led him to form a strong but ill-fated friendship with the artist, mystic and poet, William Blake. In 1800 tragedy struck when Hayley’s dearest friend William Cowper died. A week later his illegitimate and only son also died, aged only 19. Hayley’s estranged wife had died three years earlier and he was left inconsolable. Only William Blake seemed able to understand and address his sorrow. The ruins of time, he wrote, build mansions in Eternity.

As the friendship grew closer, Blake was persuaded to leave his native London to join Hayley in the village of Felpham near Bognor Regis. Hayley was the direct inspiration for Blake’s last two prophetic works, Milton and Jerusalem. In 1803, artist tensions between them led to a series of quarrels and Blake accused Hayley of stifling his genius. Just as Blake had decided to leave Felpham, he became embroiled in an argument with a soldier in his cottage garden. The soldier publically accused him of speaking treason against the King. When Blake was forced to stand trial for Sedition in Chichester, Hayley organised and paid for his defence and, after months of anxiety, Blake was finally acquitted. By 1803 Hayley’s career was in decline. Blake had blackened his character in a series of lampoons he later regretted writing while Byron and the new wave of Romantic poets ridiculed his style of writing. Hayley had had his day. After embarking on a brief and disastrous second marriage with a much younger woman, he lived out his last years as a recluse writing his own biography.

Dr Barsham argues: “As well as being a poet, a scholar and a model gentleman, Hayley was very much a man of the heart, benevolent and generous. Friendship meant everything to him and the rift with Blake darkened his life. For the past 200 years Hayley has been mostly ignored and forgotten. I want to bring back to life this once prominent and interesting man and re-evaluate his literary career.”

The talk, part of Chichester Festivities, will take place at the Mitre Theatre, University of Chichester, Bishop Otter Campus, on Saturday 4th July 2009, 2.30pm. Admission is free. To reserve a space please contact tel: 01243 816456.

An artwork featuring poetry by University of Chichester English lecturer Dave Swann has gone on display in the State Capital Building in New Mexico

The Santa Fe-based artist Clare Dunne has converted Dave’s work into a lavish hand-made book, featuring wood-cuts inspired by the poem.

Staff and students at the University of Chichester will get an opportunity to see Clare and Dave’s work on 8th October, when the English Department stages a series of events to celebrate National Poetry Day.

Currently, the artwork remains on display in Santa Fe, where Clare says it has been “well received by the public and media”.

Dave’s poem, ‘Number’, is a dramatic monologue written from the point of view of a life prisoner suffering guilt for his crime of murder.

He wrote it several years ago after working as a Writer in Residence at HMP Nottingham, where his job was to spread literacy skills in a jail populated by a wide range of offenders.

The poem will be included in ‘The Privilege of Rain’, a book based on Dave’s experiences in the prison, to be published by Waterloo Press in the autumn of 2009.

The book will feature wood-cuttings by Clare, whom Dave met while researching the life of the Nottingham-born novelist and poet, DH Lawrence.

“Since working at the jail, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by Lawrence,” explained Dave. “Frustrated by what he called the ‘narrowness’ of England, he and his wife Frieda took off on a so-called ‘savage pilgrimage’ – their search for the ideal place to live.

“When I learned that they had come closest to finding their idea of heaven on a ranch near Taos in New Mexico, I knew I had to go there one day.

“The ranch was the only place that the Lawrences ever owned – and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It’s high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with a view down over the Rio Grande. On the drive up there, a cougar crossed our path – which we took as a lucky omen!

“Standing under the tree where Lawrence wrote, with no-one else around – just the wind in the ponderosas – it felt as if electricity was coming up out of the ground. I could hardly believe I was there beneath the tree immortalised by the painter Georgia O’Keeffe. I just felt so lucky to be alive!”

After visiting the ranch, Dave encountered work by Clare which featured bold wood-cuts of trees.

“One way or another, those trees just seemed perfectly suited to the poems,” said Dave. “The prison was in Sherwood, and I liked the irony that the supposed old haunt of Robin Hood was still home to all those outlaws.

“Also, the wood-cuts themselves wouldn’t exist without trees, so there were all these fruitful connections between Lawrence and Nottingham and trees, which led to a new little thicket of poems about the jail.

“Writing can be a lonely business, and collaboration is sometimes a lovely way of finding new inspiration, as well as learning more about this strange world of ours.”

For her part, Clare is continuing to work on fusions of art and poetry, and is on the look-out for a gallery in England that may be interested in staging an exhibition of her art-books.

She said, “I am merciless with writers’ poems, carving them up and illustrating them the way I like, so I was a little nervous about doing Dave’s work, since I know it is quite a presumption. But so far the writers have been very gracious about it!”

One picture shows a tree created by Clare Dunne. The other shows Dave standing by the tree immortalised by the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who spent several weeks at the Lawrences’ ranch in 1929.

For further information on DH Lawrence’s connections with New Mexico, see http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/travel/22culture.html

Banging the drum for health, well-being and fitness

Scientific research has shown that you don’t have to be sporty to keep fit: a rock drummer gets as much of a workout during a gig as a premiership footballer during a match. And playing drumming-based interactive computer games such as Guitar Hero World Tour could provide real physical and mental health benefits.

During June this year the Clem Burke Drumming Project (a scientific collaboration between Clem Burke, the drummer from rock band Blondie, and the University of Chichester and University of Gloucestershire) was featured at both the Cheltenham Science Festival (3-7 June) and the London International Music Show (11-14 June) where scientists from the Universities of Chichester and Gloucestershire shared their recent research findings related to modern day rock drumming.

Visitors to both shows were able to witness the appliance of science to drumming as Darrin Mooney, the drummer from Primal Scream, was put through an incremental drumming test to the point of exhaustion whilst wearing the latest state-of-the-art sports science technology which measured the changes in his heart rate and oxygen uptake.

Dr Marcus Smith, Principal Lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Chichester said: “The Clem Burke Drumming Project welcomed the opportunity to be involved in the Cheltenham Science Festival and the London International Music Show. We were particularly pleased to be able to share with the general public our views relating to the science of drumming and how drumming may be used in the future to investigate important issues such as childhood obesity and autism.”

World-leading brain imagery scientist, Professor Steve Williams from Kings College London, has been working closely with Dr Marcus Smith and stated: “Patients with suboptimal brain function such as autism, dyspraxia or stroke may really benefit from this technology. Planning and learning these motor skills in such an entertaining manner may well enhance cognitive flexibility and facilitate recovery from an insult.”

Darrin Mooney said: “This test was very interesting for me because over the last six years or so Primal Scream’s music and touring schedule have become much more intense, which means I have to take many more things into consideration like my diet, enough sleep, and as I have got older I have even adjusted my set-up to try and relieve unwanted muscle and joint stress.

“I know it sounds strange but as I am getting older I am finding playing a two-hour, very fast show easier and easier. I put this down to practising almost every day for four hours in between tours, which saves any trips to the gym. I also believe the mental challenge of playing the drums to a high standard gives the brain a unique workout, as you are telling and forcing your brain to do things it’s really not wired to do naturally, and with all four limbs. Over the years I have had to work out systems which allow my brain to learn complicated rhythms and patterns. Some days after practising I feel mentally tired as well as physically tired.”

For more information please visit www.clemburkedrummingproject.com

University of Chichester welcomes Reverend John Dane as its new chaplain

The University of Chichester is pleased to announce that it has appointed a new chaplain।
Reverend John Dane was formerly a curate in the parish of Deddington in Oxfordshire and comes to the University with an enormous amount of experience relevant for the chaplain's role. He succeeds Reverend Hadge Hughes who was with the University of Chichester for four years before leaving to join a church in Queensland, Australia. Reverend Dane who is married with six children has an excellent track record in youth, alcoholism, mental health and community work as well as having business experience in the private sector. Reverend Dane said: “I am extremely excited about our move to Chichester and to working in a University that has created a unique reputation for itself in the Higher Education field for its commitment to supporting students in all aspects of their lives, not just the academic. The University was originally the ‘Bishop Otter’s School’, opened in 1840, in St. Martin’s Lane, Chichester, and was one of the first ‘Church Colleges’. This long association with the church is something to be proud of and I look forward to being a part of the reshaping of that association for a new generation.”

Previous to his role in Deddington Reverend Dane was a consultant to a British medical company. Prior to this he lived and worked in the United States for 15 years, mainly in the field of Drug and Alcohol rehabilitation. In this role he travelled in the US, Russia and Europe developing treatment programmes for a range of occupations including Doctors, Police Officers, Airline Pilots and the Clergy. He was also involved in providing treatment to the entertainment industry, specifically to those in the pop music and movie fields.

On the church front he was Director of Youth Ministry – providing pastoral care for youth and children at St Francis in the Foothills Methodist Church, Tucson, Arizona, a church heavily committed to working with refugees and other marginalised groups. Reverend Dane took up his position on 8th June 2009.

University of Chichester announces the promotion of four of its academic staff to Professors and Readers

The University of Chichester is pleased to announce the promotion of four members of its academic staff to the position of Professor and Reader.


Dr Bill Gray and Dr Alison MacLeod both from the English team have been appointed as Professors and Dr Andrew Chandler from History and Dr Benjamin Noyes also from English are appointed as Readers.

Dr Robin Baker, Vice Chancellor at the University of Chichester, said: “It is important to the University's future that quality research and teaching are recognised and that those who are successful in their applications are supported to enrich the research and teaching culture and achievement of the University.”

University of Chichester in the UK's top 10 for overall student satisfaction - The Times Good University Guide 2010

The Times Good University Guide 2010 published today (3 June) has ranked the University of Chichester as joint 8th in the UK for overall student satisfaction and the top modern university for the percentage of students who complete their degree.

The Guide is one of the most authoritative and widely respected guides to universities in the UK and is an essential and comprehensive tool for students and parents at home and abroad. It ranks 114 UK institutions according to eight criteria including satisfaction, completion rates, degree results and graduate prospects.

Chichester was joint 8th with a score of 81% for student satisfaction and is the top ranking modern university in the UK with 89.2% of its students going on to complete their degree courses.

The University was ranked 59th overall out of 114 universities for the second year running rating it amongst the top modern universities in the country.

University of Chichester Vice Chancellor Dr Robin Baker, welcomed the results and said: “We place a great deal of emphasis on the student experience at Chichester and it is very pleasing to see our outstanding performance in student satisfaction so clearly reflected in the Good University Guide. This Guide further consolidates Chichester's position as one of the UK's leading modern universities."

For more information visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/gug

Student Aaron Singleton Smith’s debut sci-fi novel published

Could University of Chichester Student Aaron Singleton Smith’s new series of sci-fi books be the next Harry Potter?

University of Chichester student Aaron Singleton Smith has had his debut novel The 7 Worlds Part 1: book A Splinter of Faith published. The book is in a series of eight fantasy stories for young readers.

Aaron who is currently studying for a BA Honours in Performing Arts and Media Production at the University started writing at a very young age, which acted as an outlet for his vivid imagination. His creativity has stretched to screenwriting and he has found his style benefiting from the wider influences offered through his degree. He has just finished the second instalment of this 7 Worlds series.

Aaron’s literary influences include J.K Rowling, Philip Pullman, J.R.R. Tolkein and Dan Brown, he said, “My advice is to carry a notebook around with you everywhere. You never know when you are going to get inspiration; it can come at the strangest of times. The idea for story crystallised while I was on a trip to Bath some five years ago, and the city has served as a great influence within the first book.”

A Splinter of Faith book charts the story of a student called Sam. Life was pretty uneventful for Sam until he received an unusual package which was to change everything – he was to be the saviour of the universe! Magic would be required and he was to face peril from unimaginable beings from the seven worlds. But first Sam and his friends had to work out where their journey to the first world would begin from and would they make it in one piece?

Aaron will be signing copies of his book at Waterstone’s in Chichester on Saturday 6th June from 11am and at Waterstone’s in Woking on Saturday 13th Saturday from 11am. For more information visit http://www.the7worlds.co.uk