Tag: northumbria university

TV Architect George Clarke Speaks To Packed Northumbria Audience

By on 1st May 2016in In & Around

Speaking as part of the University’s free public lecture series, George spoke to a packed audience of 600 people about his experiences in architecture, design and media…

His lecture proved so popular that the University had to move it from the original venue to its Students’ Union, which has capacity for an extra 200 attendees.

George used his public lecture to speak about his professional practice; the success of TV series such as George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and Restoration Man and his views on British domestic architecture, innovation and the UK construction industry.

It was the first time he has returned to Northumbria after being awarded an honorary degree last summer, when he praised the University’s architecture courses, which are regularly ranked in the top 20 in the UK.

The renowned architect, who runs his own practice alongside his broadcasting career, said: “A lot of architectural schools do theoretical pieces of architecture that just stay on paper and never get realised. Everyone involved in this University are trying to create real projects out there in industry that are being planned and developed and built, so the students are constantly getting the chance to work on a real-life project. I think this makes Northumbria very distinctive because there aren’t many other places that are doing it.”

Each year, the University arranges a number of free lectures which are open to members of the public, as well as its staff and students. Past speakers have included conservationist David Bellamy; House of Commons Speaker John Bercow; former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and leading politician Lord Heseltine.

For more information on public lectures at the University, visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/publiclectures.

Northumbria Design Alumni In Copyright Battle

By on 22nd March 2016in In & Around

A Northumbria University graduate has lost a Supreme Court copyright case over his design for the Trunki – the world’s biggest selling suitcase for children…

Rob Law MBE, who studied Design for Industry, 2000, is founder and director of Magmatic, which sells the suitcase in more than 1,564 stores across 62 countries worldwide.

Following an appearance on BBC’s Dragon’s Den programme where he first introduced his creatively designed suitcase, Rob went onto international sales success and was later appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to business.

When a rival company,PMS International,launched the Kiddee Case, Rob’s company Magmatic claimed it had been ‘ripped off’ andoriginally won a high court judgement in 2013., However, this was overturned in favour of PMS by the court of appeal, first in 2014 and then again earlier this month.

Speaking to Sky News, Rob said: “We created an original product in Trunki and protected it by computer generated registered design – a process used to protect a third of designs across Europe.

“In my honest opinion, the Trunki was wilfully ripped off.

“We stood up to this behaviour, held it to account and took our case all the way to the highest court in the land – only for the judges to rule that we are not protected against the copy.

“They’re effectively sending knights into battle without armour,” he added.

Following the court appeal, Rob has now launched his ‘Protect Your Design’ campaign, which has been backed by a number of leading designers and entrepreneurs from across the UK. This campaign has called for tougher legal protection for the 350,000 designers who contribute £33.5 billion to the British economy each year. 

Rob added: “I urge the Supreme Court to re-examine this muddled judgement and do the right thing – not only for Trunki but for the hundreds and thousands of creative British companies that make the UK a thriving economy.”

To find out more about Rob Law’s campaign, you can use the #ProtectYourDesign hashtag on Twitter.

Northumbria offers a range of courses through its award-winning School of Design. For more information go to: www.northumbria.ac.uk/design.

Journalism Student Nominated For National Radio Award

By on 3rd March 2016in Lifestyle

A final year Journalism student from Northumbria University has been nominated for a national award that recognises her talent for broadcasting…

Lizzie Longley has been shortlisted for ‘Student Journalist of the Year’ in the prestigious IRN (Independent Radio News) awards, which are run in association with Sky News.

The awards celebrate and showcase the very best journalism in UK commercial radio – and this year has seen a record number of entries.

Lizzie submitted a piece of radio news which looked at the debate around the provision of sexual consent workshops for young men in UK universities. The 20 year-old travelled around the country to interview key individuals, before recording and editing all the footage herself – all while studying for the final year of her degree. She was over the moon to find out that the hard work paid off.

Lizzie said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw my name alongside the other nominees – I kept having to double check, then I rang my Mum and burst into tears.

“I’ve wanted to be a journalist since I was 10 years old, so to be graduating from university in a few months with so many opportunities ahead of me is just a dream come true.”

The ‘Student Journalist of the Year’ award recognises an individual who ‘excels in producing and presenting news content’, and is sponsored by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) – the UK’s largest independent journalism accreditation body who accredit Northumbria’s journalism courses.

But the IRN judges aren’t the first to spot Lizzie’s talent. Mark Davenport, Programme Leader for Journalism at Northumbria, whose industry background includes 12 years as a Senior Producer with ITV Tyne Tees, said: “Lizzie has a flair for broadcasting and has shone as a radio reporter as well as a TV presenter.

“Our journalism course aims to give students practical skills like interviewing technique, writing across a range of media, and audio and video editing. We also ensure they are given an insight into theories so they can understand and analyse news.

“Lizzie’s brought those skills together and combined them with her own drive and determination, and her nomination is the fruit of her efforts. I think we’ll be hearing and seeing a lot of her in the industry in the very near future.”

The winners of the IRN awards will be announced on Thursday 10th March at a ceremony in London, hosted by Sky News and Sky Sports presenter Sarah-Jane Mee.

For Lizzie, this will be the perfect networking opportunity ahead of her graduation – which she admits will be bittersweet.

“I’m so glad I studied at Northumbria. It’s the best thing I could have done, so I’m excited to start my career, but really sad to be leaving university.

“The lecturers have been so supportive. They will always make time to help you if you need it, and really go above and beyond to make sure you have the best possible experience. You can completely trust their opinions because they have had successful careers as journalists themselves.

“For me, the biggest thing I’ve gained over the past three years is confidence. At school, teachers said I had no confidence, but the academics here really make you believe in yourself and feel like you can achieve anything you put your mind to.”

For more information about studying Media and Communication courses at Northumbria, click here.

Northumbria People’s Show Art Competition Results In Tie

By on 23rd February 2016in Lifestyle

The most popular artwork at The People’s Show 2016 at Northumbria’s University Gallery resulted in a double winner, after a tie in public votes…

The People’s Show – one of the North East’s most celebrated open competitions for artists – returned to Northumbria last month with a £5,000 prize named after the late painter Norman Cornish.

There was also a £250 cash prize for the artwork which proved most popular with visitors. After more than 200 votes from the public, two artists found themselves with the exact same number of votes, and will now share the prize. The winners were artists Deryck Simpson with Fun on Longsands (acrylic on board) and Trevor Watson with Ladies Luncheon (watercolour).

Professor Keith McIntyre, Head of Arts at Northumbria, said: “We are delighted that 215 votes were cast by visitors to the People’s Show. After counting, there was a tie for 1st place so it seemed only fair to split the prize of £250.”

Held at the University Gallery at City Campus, the People’s Show is designed to foster the creative talent of the region, and is open to amateur and professional artists based in the region. Any medium of art can be entered as long as the subject-matter is people. This year’s exhibition took place last month, and featured the work of more than 30 artists from the region. Each year, the most significant single piece of work from the show is chosen by a judging panel, with the 2016 winner receiving the £5,000 Norman Cornish Art Prize. This year, the panel, consisting of Northumbria’s Head of Department for Arts, Professor Keith McIntyre, Professor Jean Brown, artist Helen Baker, and former People’s Show winner Carly Rybak, selected a painting by artist Lizzie Rowe entitled Sixty as the winner.

 

Professor McIntyre added: “We were delighted to host the People’s Show once again in the Northumbria University Gallery. There is an extraordinary spirit and energy to this exhibition, profiling the work of 33 artists from across the region.”

Northumbria has a very strong relationship with the family of the late artist Norman Cornish, with the University housing a permanent collection of his work and engaging in a variety of activities to preserve his legacy. His family kindly allowed his name to be used alongside the People’s Show prize to become the Norman Cornish Art Prize at this year’s exhibition. The news follows recent announcements about ongoing plans for the Cornish legacy involving Northumbria University and Spennymoor Town Council. The Coming Home exhibition will see a permanent collection of the artist’s work on display at Spennymoor Town Hall in the new Norman Cornish Room. For more information about this exhibition, click here.

To find out more about the University Gallery, visit www.gn.northumbria.ac.uk.

Northumbria Glaciologist Secures Funding For European Alps Research

By on 23rd February 2016in In & Around

A Geography researcher will spend his summer doing fieldwork in the Miage Glacier, after receiving a grant from the British Society of Geomorphology…

 

Dr Matt Westoby will travel to the Italian Alps to research how climate change is affecting the region’s glaciers and mountain ranges, after being awarded an Early Career Researcher Grant. His research will utilise advances in technology such as unmanned drones and photogrammetric surveying to focus on glaciers with a layer of debris on their surface. These so-called ‘debris-covered glaciers’ respond very differently to climate change than ‘clean ice’ glaciers. The ‘debris’ generally comes from the mountain slopes, with frequent rock falls onto the glacier surface being one of the common causes.

Dr Westoby said: “Traditional methods to monitor just how much and how frequently debris is added to these glacier surfaces are typically indirect, such as digging pits in the surface debris, measuring its thickness, and using these data to estimate a debris flux. This is an extremely labour-intensive undertaking.

“Instead, this research will use a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and cutting-edge advances in photogrammetric surveying technology to undertake repeat surveys of rock fall source areas in order to refine our estimates of how quickly these slopes are back-wasting and contributing to the growth of the surface debris cover.”

The results of this research will contribute to numerical modelling to explore how such glaciers will respond to climatic change. It is hoped that the research will prime future projects in areas such as the Himalayas.

Dr Westoby is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Geography, at Northumbria, and is currently employed on a NERC-funded project to reconstruct the glacial history of the Heritage Range, Antarctica. He is also involved in consultancy-based coastal erosion monitoring for South Tyneside District Council alongside staff in the Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering. His research interests are broad and varied, and have to date included the 3D reconstruction and analysis of glacial landscape evolution using original surveying technologies, as well as numerical modelling of catastrophic Himalayan glacial lake outburst floods. He has undertaken glaciological fieldwork in the European Alps, Norway, and the Nepal Himalaya.

The British Society for Geomorphology is a registered charity with a mission of fostering geomorphological research and outreach. It administers a range of grants to support geomorphological research by postgraduates and early-career and established researchers. For more information, visit www.geomorphology.org.uk.

Northumbria offers a range of courses in Geography, and is ranked Top 30 in the UK, based on research power following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014. To find out more about studying at Northumbria, visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/geography.

£20,000 Art Prize Open For Applications

By on 20th February 2016in In & Around

Student artists from across the UK can now apply for one of the UK’s most generous arts prizes…

 

The Woon Foundation Prize, jointly hosted by Northumbria University, Newcastle, and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, offers an exceptional opportunity for final year undergraduate fine art and sculpture students.

The first prize is £20,000 cash and a 12-month studio space based in the Woon Tai Jee studio at BALTIC 39 in Newcastle city centre. The year-long fellowship includes mentoring from staff from both institutions and a final exhibition with catalogue at the end of the Fellowship. There are also two generous runner-up prizes of £9,000 and £6,000, plus a further £5,000 discretionary award.

The Prize is fee-free, and applications can be made via www.woonprize.co.uk up until 31st March 2016. The shortlisted artists will be selected by a panel of judges including Laurence Sillars, BALTIC Chief Curator, Christine Borland, Turner Prize-nominated artist and BALTIC Professor at Northumbria University, and Karen MacKinnon, Curator and Director, Artes Mundi.

Up to 12 artists will be shortlisted from the open submission for an exhibition at BALTIC’s project space at BALTIC 39 in summer 2016, with a solo exhibition concluding the Fellowship at Northumbria’s Gallery North.

Northumbria and BALTIC jointly award and present the The Woon Foundation Prize for Painting and Sculpture as an important part of the successful strategic partnership between the two organisations. Now in its fourth year, the Prize is open to all UK undergraduate Fine Art students who are in their final year of study, graduating in summer 2016.

The £40,000 prize fund is generously donated by The Woon Foundation. One of its trustees, Mr Wee Teng Woon, studied law at Northumbria and is passionate about creating opportunities for new and emerging artists.

Professor Borland said: “On behalf of the judging panel, we are really excited to begin to receive the applications for this year’s Woon Foundation Prize. The generous nature of this prize is unique in all respects; for the selected Woon Fellow, to receive not only a studio and a one person show with a catalogue, but the support of the community of artists, students, and academics at BALTIC 39 in the heart of Newcastle.

For the other prize winners, the freedom to spend their prizes however they choose; on travel, materials, or to pay the studio rent, is surely a game changer. Association with the Prize, and an exhibition at BALTIC 39 will, I’m certain, be a welcome addition on any young artist’s CV.”

Sarah Munro, BALTIC Director added: “BALTIC is absolutely delighted and proud to be a key partner in the Woon Foundation Prize. From the remarkable generosity of the prizes to the chance for young artists to have their work seen by an esteemed panel of artists and curators, this is the absolute must-consider prize for undergraduate fine art students in the UK.

“We are proud that BALTIC’s curatorial staff form part of the judging panel each year, and the shortlist exhibition is presented in BALTIC’s project space at BALTIC 39. Crucially, the Woon Foundation Prize is one of the continuing ways BALTIC supports talent development of artists in their formative years. We hope it also sees all shortlisted finalists engage in the burgeoning artistic community here in the North East.”

The prize was launched in 2012, and the inaugural winner was artist Holly Hendry, who completed her Fellowship in September 2014. The next Fellow was Ramona Zoladek, who held the Fellowship until September 2015. The current Fellow is Kayt Hughes, who recently met Mr Woon when he visited the UK in January.

Mr Woon said: “The Woon Foundation is delighted that applications are open for the Woon Art and Sculpture Prize 2016. We look forward to seeing the work of this year’s shortlisted applicants, and encourage you to take part.”

The Woon Foundation Prize 2016 is open for applications until 31st March 2016. For full terms and conditions, and to enter, visit www.woonprize.co.uk.

Bestselling Writer To Headline Crime Story 2016 Festival

By on 12th February 2016in Entertainment

Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, will headline this year’s Crime Story festival, delivered in partnership by Northumbria University and New Writing North…

Crime Story is an innovative festival for readers and writers of crime fiction, providing rare access to experts from the fields of forensics, criminology, pathology and law, who reveal and interrogate the facts behind crime fiction.

Appealing to crime readers, as well as fans of TV series such as Serial and Making a Murderer, the day-long festival invites audience and experts to pick apart a fictional crime, which will be written by Paula Hawkins. For crime writers, the festival also offers an extraordinary opportunity to challenge and improve the authenticity of their writing, by giving unique access to a wide range of experts in police science, as well as crime writers and publishing industry leaders.

Paula Hawkins said: “I attended Crime Story in June 2014 on a whim. I thought the concept sounded interesting – a group of crime writers and readers get together to try to solve a fictional murder aided by a handful of experts – detectives, forensic specialists and legal experts. I expected to have an entertaining weekend. I didn’t expect to walk away with ten A4 pages crammed with detailed notes covering all aspects of police procedure, and a head brimming with new ideas.

“Crime Story gives writers the kind of access to senior detectives, blood-spatter experts and forensic psychiatrists that most of us could only dream about. I found it fascinating and invaluable, and have been looking forward to the next one ever since, so am absolutely thrilled to have been asked to come up with a murder scenario for this year’s event.”

Northumbria’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Engagement), Lucy Winskell OBE, said: “I was delighted to hear that international bestselling author Paula Hawkins will be headlining Crime Story 2016 at Northumbria University. Her involvement in this year’s event is hugely exciting news and a real endorsement of this innovative festival’s appeal to writers, readers, academics and professionals in the field.

“Delivered in partnership by Northumbria and New Writing North, Crime Story draws on the University’s teaching and research expertise across criminology, criminal law, forensic science and creative writing, to explore the facts behind the fiction.

“I’m sure Paula will write a fascinating and compelling whodunit for our experts and audience members to investigate during the course of this unique day-long festival.”

Crime Story takes place in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Saturday 11th June. The full programme will be announced and tickets released on Thursday 10th March at Crime Story: Portrait of a Criminal, a special event in which two award-winning writers explore the minds of two of the most notorious criminals of recent times. Writers Dan Davies and Andrew Hankinson will discuss the subjects of their work, their own methods and the place of true crime in literary writing. Ticket holders for Portrait of a Criminal: Crime Story will receive £10/£8 off their Crime Story festival ticket price.

Tickets are now available for Crime Story: Portrait of a Criminal on Thursday 10th March by clicking here. Find out more about Crime Story 2016, taking place on Saturday 11th June at Northumbria University at www.crimestory.co.uk. Northumbria offers courses in a wide range of disciplines related to this special event, including criminology, criminal law, forensic science and creative writing. For more information about studying at Northumbria, go to www.northumbria.ac.uk/courses.

Northumbria Graduate Invited To Exhibit At Prestigious Exhibition

By on 9th February 2016in Entertainment

Artist Joanna Hutton has been invited to exhibit at a prestigious European exhibition less than a year after graduating from Northumbria University, Newcastle…

A graduate of the BxNU Master of Fine Art (MFA) course, delivered in partnership with BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Joanna will exhibit at EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art.

Entitled Still (the) Barbarians, the exhibition opens on Saturday 16th April 2016, and has been curated by Koyo Kouoh, the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, Dakar, and the curator of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York. Artists’ projects were selected through an open and invited call for proposals, and exhibitions will take place at Limerick City Gallery of Art, Cleeve’s Condensed Milk Factory and various locations across Limerick. Since its foundation in 1977, EVA International has worked with some of the world’s leading artists and curators, bringing outstanding exhibitions to audiences on the west coast of Ireland.

Joanna said: “I am thrilled to have been invited to participate in the 2016 edition of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial titled Still (the) Barbarians. I applied for the opportunity in June straight after completing my MFA at BxNU proposing the work I made for my final show. It is a great opportunity for me to be involved in such a prestigious event, and feel privileged to have been selected.”

Developed in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Northumbria’s two-year MFA course offers ambitious artists the opportunity to participate in a unique postgraduate degree programme, centred on the vibrant and dynamic studio culture of the BxNU Institute of Contemporary Art at BALTIC 39 in Newcastle’s city centre. The institute, directed by the BALTIC Professor and Turner Prize-nominated artist Christine Borland, houses a network of internationally active artists, academics and curators who provide world-class teaching and mentorship in fine art practice and research.

Professor Christine Borland, Turner Prize-nominated artist and Northumbria’s BALTIC professor, teaches on the BxNU MFA. She said: “We are delighted to see alumni from the our first graduating BxNU MFA cohort, Joanna Hutton’s name amongst the stellar list of artists participating in this year’s EVA International.

“Joanna will exhibit her piece from the graduating exhibition ‘Milkilling’ held in the project space at BALTIC 39 last summer. We look forward to following Joanna’s career and we’re sure she will be the first of many of our graduates to go on to international art world acclaim.”

Joanna is currently Associate Fellow at Paper Studio Northumbria, (PSN) a unique facility for the research, teaching and scholarship of paper in relation to fine art, conservation and archiving, as well as for the practice of papermaking.

Northumbria offers a range of courses in the Arts, and was rated in the UK Top 10 for research power in the Research Excellence Framework 2014. For more information about studying Arts courses at Northumbria go to: www.northumbria.ac.uk/arts.

Creative Fuse North East Project Set To Spark Economic Growth

By on 31st January 2016in Local Biz

A major new project is being launched to explore how the creative, digital and IT (CDIT) sector in the North East can be developed in order to play a leading role in the region’s economy…

The new £3m ‘Creative Fuse North East’ project will involve all five of the North East’s universities – Northumbria, Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Teesside – and is funded jointly by the universities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The universities will work with the 12 local authorities in the North East, businesses, artists, cultural organisations and partners to research how the CDIT sector can ensure it has the right skills for a sustainable future. The project will also look at how the skills within the region’s CDIT sector can benefit the wider regional economy, for example by exploring opportunities for placing creative practitioners in businesses in other sectors as a way to increase innovation, along with how to develop more entrepreneurial graduates.

The 30-month project will begin by mapping the creative, digital and commercial landscape of the North East in terms of the mix of skills, knowledge and support available. This will be followed by work to identify opportunities for more effective use of resources and best practice in workforce development as well as highlighting ways in which the region’s universities can support the sector more effectively.

The project will draw on expertise from more than 40 academic and business support staff from across the five institutions, from creative arts, cultural heritage and digital humanities to business schools and cloud computing.

Northumbria University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor George Marston, said: “Creative Fuse represents a real opportunity to sustainably build innovation and growth across the creative, digital and IT sector by bringing together the unique expertise of the North East’s universities, local authorities, businesses, artists and cultural organisations.

“Northumbria’s recent achievements in the Research Excellence Framework 2014 and our reputation for world-class research, design innovation, business engagement and award-winning partnerships, puts us in an excellent position to contribute to this exciting, collaborative project.”

Professor Eric Cross, Dean of Cultural Affairs at Newcastle University and the project’s Principal Investigator, said: “To ensure that the North East’s CDIT sector can realise its full potential, businesses and creative practitioners need to be able to connect with, and benefit from, the best that our universities have to offer in terms of research, training and talent.

“Creative Fuse North East will work hand-in-hand with the CDIT sector to discover and promote best practice, join up support, and drive creativity and innovation across the North East’s economy.

“By bringing businesses, artists and academics together, this project will create value – both in economic and cultural terms – regionally and nationally.”

Creative Fuse North East builds on a similar project in Brighton launched in 2011. A report published in November 2015 highlighted that, as a result of the Brighton Fuse project’s evidence that was used to lever European funding, Brighton and Hove’s digital and creative economy is now worth more than £1 billion to the city each year. Research carried out by Brighton Fuse also showed that ‘fused’ businesses grow three times faster than unfused businesses.

Professor Andrew Thompson, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Research Council said; “Creative Fuse North East combines the research strengths of the region’s five universities with a range of local authorities, cultural, creative and digital sector partners in ways that will facilitate new interactions between researchers and businesses, education and entrepreneurship.

“A multi-disciplinary range of subjects are involved from the initial scoping work, business analysis and networking through to potential platforms for deeper engagement between creativity and economic growth.”

Northumbria offers a range of courses across the arts and humanities. In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, Art and Design was ranked in the UK top 10 for research power while English and History were rated 15th and 20th respectively for the quality of their research publications. To find out more click here.

For more information about Creative Fuse, email info@creativefusene.org.uk.

Holocaust Survivor Marks Memorial Day At Northumbria Uni

By on 28th January 2016in Have Your Say

One of the youngest known survivors of the Holocaust has spoken about her experiences at Northumbria University, Newcastle, to mark this year’s Memorial Day…

Eva Clarke was born in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria in 1945, three days prior to the collapse of the Third Reich and liberation of the camp by the US Army. Eva and Anka, her mother, were the only remaining survivors, following the death of 15 other family members in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Northumbria student Michaela Crawley contacted Eva to give a talk at the University, and helped organise the lecture for Holocaust Memorial Day, which was held in partnership with Newcastle City Council, and in conjunction with the Holocaust Education Trust and the Anne Frank Trust.

Michaela, a first-year History student, said: “For the last three years I have been active in organising Holocaust Memorial Day events following a Holocaust Educational Trust course known as the Lessons From Auschwitz. This, coincidentally, was also when I came into contact with Eva for the first time. Following a very successful event that I arranged last year in my school, I felt I had to try and bring the event to the University with me to involve even more people in Holocaust education.

“I spoke to the Head of History at Northumbria, Michael Cullinane, to ask if it would be possible, and managed to contact Eva and confirm that she would speak at our event. I have heard Eva’s testimony twice now, and I am honoured to finally get to meet her in person, as it was her story that convinced me that I wanted to teach and that History was definitely the discipline I wanted to specialise in.”

She added: “One of the first sources I was ever presented with when learning about the Holocaust was a quotation from a German philosopher claiming ‘we learn from History that we do not learn from history.’ I believe through education we can prevent humanity from repeating its mistakes, and that is why I am taking an active role in Holocaust education and preventing prejudice.”

Eva has shared her story with communities, schools, colleges and prisons, and has campaigned to ensure that those who died during the Holocaust are remembered. Her mother’s story is also featured in a new book by bestselling author and journalist Wendy Holden. Born Survivors highlights the experiences of three expectant and new mothers living in concentration camps.

Also speaking at the event at Northumbria was Newcastle City Council Leader, Councillor Nick Forbes, and the University’s Associate Dean for Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Professor Tom Lawson.

He said: “We are delighted that Eva Clarke has been able to join us for Holocaust Memorial Day. Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity for us to reflect on our collective past and our obligations to all members of the international community in the past, present and future.

“The theme of this year’s commemorations encourages us to think about our role as bystanders to atrocity, which is an essential theme as we face the challenges of our interconnected world. We are especially pleased to host this event as it is organised by one of our History undergraduates, showing how far Northumbria students are impacting on the world from the very beginnings of their studies with us.”

Michaela’s tutor, Dr Michael Cullinane, Reader in US History and Head of History, added: “This event owes a great debt to one of our most enterprising undergraduate students, Michaela Crawley. Michaela, a first-year student on the single-honours History programme, expressed an interest in raising awareness of the Holocaust, and reached out to the Head of History and Associate Dean Academic of the Faculty of Arts, Design, and Social Sciences.

“While the University often hosts public events on Holocaust Memorial Day to stress the social importance of holocaust education, the initiative to do so has never come from a first-year student. We in the History subject group are proud that Michaela has organized a wonderful event, and are as proud that she is one of ours.”

Northumbria offers a range of courses in History. In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, the University was rated Top 20 in the UK for the quality of its History research publications. For more information about studying History at Northumbria, go to www.northumbria.ac.uk/history.

Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. To find out more about courses, go to www.northumbria.ac.uk.

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