Festival of Teaching
Join us as we celebrate creative teaching at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU). Our lively and thought-provoking programme is free, open to all and spans eight packed days at the start of March.
As a TEF Gold University, DMU offers outstanding teaching across a wide variety of subjects. From forensics to Shakespeare, the politics of migration to serious Lego play, our lecturers bring expertise and passion, and we’re proud to showcase their talents. We’re especially pleased that we’re launching the festival in partnership with the city of Leicester with ‘One Day in Leicester’ taking place across the city.
I’m sure you will find an event that intrigues you, and a topic that interests you.
Enjoy learning more about what DMU offers at our second annual Festival of Teaching!
Professor Jackie Labbe, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Friday 1 March
One Day for Leicester
DMU Business students will be taking part in a mass volunteering event across Leicester. The students will be carrying out a big clean-up of the city centre and at 24 community centres and libraries across Leicester. They will also be organising Meet Your Neighbour events at 15 centres across the city as well as doing a survey of residents.
For more information contact local@dmu.ac.uk
Friday 1 March, 10am-11.30am and 11.30am-1pm
DMU Forensics: CSI experience
Portland Building 2.15, DMU
This is an interactive session where we will take you from a mock crime scene straight to the forensic science laboratory where you will examine trace evidence, fingerprints, shoe marks and documents. What will you find? How can you assist the investigators?
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Sunday 3 March, 10am-1pm
Ceramics Table Centrepiece Workshop
Vijay Patel Building 0.82, DMU
Using the hand forming techniques of slab and coil building you will be shown how to make your own clay table centre piece, be it a larger shallow dish or serving platter. You will have the opportunity to decorate your piece so feel free to come along with your own ideas.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Monday 4 March, 10am-11.30am
Co-Creation at DMU: Students as Partners
Campus Centre 2.01, DMU
This event will share good practice and case studies OF existing co-creation at DMU. It will also explore how we have developed the principles of co-creation at DMU and collaborated with students to enhance the student experience.
If you want to hear more about how you might develop co-creation in your area, or would like to contribute to the project, please do come along.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Monday 4 March, 2pm-4pm
You CAN Speak Mandarin with Ease and Peace
Confucius Institute, Vijay Patel Building 1.13, DMU
Learning to speak Mandarin is not as difficult as you might think. In this interactive session you will be introduced to Mandarin and learn how the language is similar to English in terms of pronunciation and grammar. Through practical exercises you will learn some basic phrases. This session is suitable for beginners or anyone looking to refresh their knowledge of basic Mandarin.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Monday 4 March, 4.30pm-6.30pm
Leisure Reading For All: Discover the Gems of Kimberlin
Kimberlin Library 0.07b, DMU
Join us to explore the wealth of reading material available through Kimberlin Library and discover books and journals from different genres. Enjoy a drink and a slice of cake while sharing your thoughts about reading and your favourite books. Reading is a core skill enabling social inclusion, social justice and civic participation. Leisure reading has a big contribution to make to the development of this essential life skill and has many benefits: academic, social, health and wellbeing.
Benjamin Zephaniah commented:
“Reading stories of each other is the greatest kind of reading you can do, reading stories of everyday people, stories that can inspire us, that pick us up; reading stories that connect people across continents, those things are really important …”
Come and be inspired, talk to others who enjoy reading, dip your toes into the pools of text and imagery available at Kimberlin
References: Zephaniah, B. (2018) DMU Read launch, Campus Centre, De Montfort University, 19/2/18
Selected books for “Leisure reading for all” will be on display in Kimberlin 1/3/19 – 08/3/19. Our Leisure reading collection is available on Kimberlin ground floor.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Tuesday 5 March, 9.30am-12.30pm
Media, Identity and Avatars
Queen’s Building 0.14, DMU
If you were an avatar, what would you look like? How would you capture your identity and how other people see you? This session will use avatar technology to ask questions about identity. This session will demonstrate how the technology can be used to form alternative identities. We all may have alternative and fragmented identities and will link these identities to theoretical concepts in the social sciences. We will explore how media activists have used the power of media to challenge and change representations and think about how we would create our own media to reflect who we think we are.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Tuesday 5 March, 10am-11am
We are Family: How we make students feel supported
Hugh Aston 3.95, DMU
One key feature of our BA Graphic Design course is the supportive “family” of academic staff, welfare staff, and student mentors, who work together to ensure that all students feel supported in their studies.
With contributions from staff and students this workshop will outline how the Graphic Design “family” is constituted and maintained. This will be followed by a discussion panel and Q&A which will provide a range of perspectives on how to make students feel supported.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Tuesday 5 March, 2pm-4pm
Freedom to Achieve: addressing the attainment gap through student and staff co-creation
Campus Centre 2.01, DMU
Understanding and enhancing the experience of individuals and communities who have experienced marginalising structures and cultures has become an important area of research across higher education. This workshop will present an overview of the Freedom to Achieve project and its approach to co-creation, alongside examples from across the project programmes. We will also be launching our Student Curriculum Advisor’s Co-creation Guide as part of the event.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Wednesday 6 March, 2pm-3.30pm
Pause. Play. Reflect: Lego Serious Play for Wellbeing
4th floor POD, Vijay Patel Building, DMU
Feeling frazzled? Need some space to think? Then come and join us for some playful reflection.
This informal, drop-in workshop offers you an opportunity to pause and take time to reflect through playful, ‘Thinking with the hands’ exercises including a meditative Lego Serious Play activity.
These activities are designed to foster wellbeing through a focus on the visual and tactile senses, offering a ‘Flow’ experience where your mind is focussing solely on the activity at hand.
You will be guided through a series of exercises using playful materials in a relaxed environment, the aim being to reduce anxiety and promote wellbeing through creative activity.
The workshop will also promote reflection by the use of reflective prompts: the models built will allow you to gain new perspectives on a current issue or problem.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Wednesday 6 March, 6pm-7.30pm
The Real Shakespeare: His Life, his Career, his Plays
Campus Centre, 2.17 studio, DMU
Several new discoveries about Shakespeare have been made in the past few years. This talk will consider how they affect the image that we have of the man.
How did Shakespeare get started in the theatre? Did he get the inspiration for his plays from personal experiences and knowledge of the world?
What were his relationships with other writers like? Did he retire to Stratford-upon-Avon in his late forties, and if so why? And where are we getting the new answers to these questions?
DMU’s Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Gabriel Egan, General Editor of the New Oxford Shakespeare, a landmark new complete works edition will share the latest findings on how Shakespeare lived and worked in the London theatre industry hundreds of years ago.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Thursday 7 March, 10am-11.30am (drop-ins welcome and encouraged throughout)
Spray Painting Demonstration
Spray Room, 0.77c Vijay Patel Building
Drop in and watch airbrush painting in action. Technical Instructor Andy Shore will be creating masterpieces before your eyes using laser cut stencils and five different colours. Remarkably from start to finish these pictures only take approximately 10 minutes to create. Andy has a background in classic sports racing car restoration and is a professional watercolour artist with over 30 years of experience.
Come and see for yourselves. Not to be missed!
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Thursday 7 March, 12.30pm-1.30pm
#A Masterclass of tweeting: the dos and don’ts of using Twitter
Lounge, Innovation Centre, DMU
DMU’s Twitter has been rated best in HE by Edurank for the last two years. Join Paul Hindle, DMU’s Social Media Manager, to pick up some top Twitter tips and discuss the next steps for DMU’s account.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Thursday 7 March, 5pm-7.30pm (Drop-ins welcome and encouraged throughout)
Excellence in Arts Teaching: Five Fun and Informative Taster Sessions in Dance, Drama, Performance, Drawing and Designing a Festival
Pace Building, Studio 2, De Montfort University
Join us for five mini sessions where you can participate or just observe practical studio-based arts teaching. From dance and performance, learning through clowning, an introduction to drawing and the creation of your very own arts festival. The practical sessions will be punctuated with a thought-provoking presentation concerning ‘Notions of Excellence in Learning and Teaching for the Arts in University Education’. So, if you’d like to come and ‘have a go’ or would just like to observe some of the ways students learn through arts practice come along to this celebration of the excellent teaching practice in the arts at DMU.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Friday 8 March, 11am-2pm
Drop In and Draw (Drop-ins welcome and encouraged throughout)
Mill Studios 0.34, DMU
Drop into this workshop based on ‘Blind Contour Drawing’ and developing marks and fluidity in drawing.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Friday 8 March, 1pm-2pm
Should we turn back the boats? The law’s response to people crossing the sea to seek sanctuary from persecution
Trinity House Chapel, DMU
On 28 December 2018, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared the arrival of asylum seekers by boat a “major incident.” In September 2018, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported that more than 1,600 people died or went missing while attempting to reach Europe so far in that year. In this session, we’ll explore how the law responds to the competing demands of states for sovereignty over their borders and asylum seekers for sanctuary from persecution.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524
Friday 8 March, 1.30pm-3pm
Then, Now and Forever: how sporting memories can be good for our health
Civil Court, Leicester Castle Business School, DMU
The Sporting Memories Network has pioneered the use of sport-themed reminiscence therapy to help people experiencing dementia, depression, and isolation. Leicester City FC's Community Trust have developed their own project as part of this work, called Then, Now and Forever, which is reaching out to fans through a series of community events based around sporting memories. This session will introduce the project, and give you a chance to find out more about how the sporting memories approach works. It will also shed light on Leicester City's community work, and how this can make a positive impact on people's lives. The event will be chaired by Professor Martin Polley, Director of DMU's International Centre for Sports History and Culture and will involve various people who are working on the project.
Book your place:
Eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk
0116 250 6524