Gazette: Michaelmas week 1

MCR events

Term card

The MCR Committee has been preparing a fantastic line-up of events for new and returning students alike; please see the term card below or here. 

If you have any questions, please get in touch, and we hope to see many of you over the term.

MCR Bar Training

Learn about the MCR bar and how you can open it whenever you want.*

Join us on Saturday 1 October at 7pm at the MCR Common Room for the training.

*With some limitations

Sunday Roast

Get to know your MCR colleagues over classic Sunday lunch served in Hall on 2 October from 12pm. 

Let’s meet at the Hall a few minutes before noon; bring your student card to pay for the lunch. Vegetarian options will be available,  others are subject to the menu that you can find here.

Consent Workshop

Consent workshops will take place at 4pm on Sunday 2 October in the Wolfson Hall.

Access breaks and tea and biscuits will be provided at these workshops. You will also be able to leave the workshops at any time. As ever, if you would like to talk to anyone about what will be in the workshop, please feel free to contact one of the MCR team. We will be providing signposting in the session and send it around afterwards but now is a good time to highlight that if you would like to get in touch with anyone in the College about your wellbeing Louise is the College’s Wellbeing Coordinator and always a friendly face to talk to (wellbeing@chu.cam.ac.uk ).

Parents night: wine and cheese

The MCR is inviting you to this year’s Parents night. Come to ask questions and chat with your parents over
(free) wine, soft drinks and cheese on Wednesday 5 October at 20:00-23:00 at Jock Coville Hall.

Everyone signed up as a parent and all kids will be notified about the families soon.

Social Night: Pub Quiz at Vicious Penguin

Test your trivia against your fellow Churchillians with this unique pub quiz. Join us on Thursday 6 October at  19:00-23:00 at MCR Common Room.

BBQ

Come and enjoy some BBQ as we wrap up our first week of term on Friday 7 October at 16:30-18:30 on the fields (subject to the weather). Keep an eye on your emails for further details.

Around the College

Wellbeing Seed Library

What is the Wellbeing Seed Library?

Growing your own produce locally not only saves money but is great for mental health and wellbeing. The Garden Society, Grounds and Gardens team, and College Library have teamed up to provide free seeds, to encourage people getting their hands dirty!

The Wellbeing Seed Library provides free seeds for students and families to use in the garden. Seeds currently include basil, chives, parsley, spinach, lettuce, rocket, radish, mizuma, nasturtium, corn, leek, spring onions, courgette, carrot, pak choi, tomatoes, beetroot, turnip, celery, sweet pea and sunflower.

You can find the Seed Library in the College Library, in the entrance foyer of the Bracken reading room. You do not need a University Card to access this area. Simply take a pinch of seeds from a packet, put them in an empty envelope, label your envelope with the variety, and then you’re ready to get started.

Where can I garden?

In the 70 Storey’s Way Garden there is a student gardening club greenhouse and some raised beds that can be used by students and families.

Compost, pots, a watering can and plant labels are kept in the greenhouse for student use, and the College gardeners will be on hand for any advice.

I’ve never grown anything before, where do I start?

Our suggestions for first-time gardeners are sweet peas, lettuce, or spinach. The Royal Horticultural Society website and Vital Seeds have some helpful tips for growing different kinds of plants.

The College Library also has a collection of books on Gardening and Wildlife.

University Challenge Applications

In the next couple of weeks, Churchill JCR is hosting a session to nominate the members for Churchill College’s University Challenge team this year. Read more about the University Challenge here. MCR members are also welcomed to attend and join the team if they qualify.

If you are interested, go to the session at 12.30pm on Sunday 9^th October in the Club Room (subject to some change due to Freshers’ Week). It will start with answering questions on pen and paper individually – so please bring a pen and paper!

Boat club

Join the Churchill College Boat Club!

Rowing at Churchill is super fun and a great way to stay active, make friends, and experience an iconic aspect of college life. This October, the Boat Club is holding two events for beginners who want to try rowing for the first time.

Boatie BBQ

• Where: Jack Colville lawn (just outside the corridor connecting the buttery to the porters lodge)
• When: 5pm Tuesday 4^th October
• Come along and chat to both current and prospective members of the boat club. This is the perfect opportunity to ask any questions you have about rowing. You can have a go on a rowing machine (and enjoy lots of free food!) Can’t wait to see you there!

Try Rowing Day

• Where: On the river! Meet outside porters lodge to cycle to the boathouse in groups.
• When: Saturday 8^th October (sign up for 1.5 hour slots)
• This is the perfect taster session if you’re considering joining the boat club. Each boat will be assigned experienced rowers, who will demonstrate how the equipment works and explain the basics. Sign up forms and more information about Try Rowing Day will be sent round nearer the time.

If you have any questions, or if you are keen to try rowing but unable to attend on these dates, then please reach out to one of our committee who will be happy to help!

Virtual tours around the Churchill Gardens

You may be interested in the videos below which John Moore (our Head of Grounds & Gardens) has made, and also the mindfulness courses available to both staff and students on the following link:

Wildflowers, hedgehogs and honey; a walk on the wild side of sustainability | Alumni (cam.ac.uk)

Churchill College Perimeter Path Walk with John Moore – Bing video

Spring around the Perimeter Path – Spring May 2021 – YouTube

Churchill Connect

Churchill Connect is a special networking platform just for Churchillians.

It works a bit like a cross between Facebook and LinkedIn (you can use it for tracking down/keeping up with friends after you graduate, as well as informal networking and mentoring from alumni), but with no ads and no selling your data to anyone!

This is the website we use particularly to advertise opportunities that we hear about such as internships, and you can also reach out to alumni who have marked themselves as willing to help, in order to get some career-related advice.

You can search for users by degree, industry, company, etc, and message them within the platform to ask for help, perhaps by looking over your CV. Registration is free, join here: Churchill Connect.

Around the University

Invitation to St Edmund’s Family welcome event

St Edmund’s would like to extend an invitation to any Churchill students with pre-or primary school aged children to their St Teddy’s Club welcome event on Sunday 16th October at 11am to 1.30pm.

Venue: The Garden Room, St Edmund’s College, Mount Pleasant CB3 0BN

What’s on?

• Yummy Picnic food
• Children’s creative play (aimed at ages 0-8 but all welcome).
• A chance to meet other student families & college staff.

If you are interested to join, please RSVP to Maria Gloag, Director of Student Welfare (mgfg3) and include number and ages of children and any dietary needs.

New Cambridge open access fund

Career Essentials for PhDs & Postdocs

University of Cambridge Fairs

If you are not sure what the job market has to offer for you, visit the different Fairs and collect all the information you need to plan your career. It doesn’t matter at which stage you are in your studies, mark the dates and register for any you are interested in, using the links below.

• Consultancy Fair 2022: in person or virtual
• Banking & Finance Fair 2022: in person or virtual
• Law Fair 2022: in person or virtual
• Maths & Quantitative Finance Fair 2022: in person
• Economics Fair 2022: in person
• Engineering Fair 2022: in person or virtual
• Tech Fair 2023: in person

Cambridge University Travel Society

Cambridge University Travel Society (CUTS) is looking for people to join its committee. CUTS is a new platform for students interested in travel to meet, share travel ideas and experiences, access exclusive travel and career opportunities and promote sustainable travel. Read more about the society’s aims here and apply for a committee position here.

Join the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Join a worldwide community of scientists and enjoy a regular series of lectures by well-respected speakers, relevant networking opportunities, a programme of events and visits just for Members, funding support and reduced (free to PhD’s) subscription to our two journals – Biological Reviews and Mathematical Proceedings.

The Society currently offers:

• A diverse lecture programme in the Lent, Easter and Michaelmas terms
• Two established and distinguished publications
• One-day international meeting
• Department visits
• Travel Grants
• Research Studentships
• Henslow Research Fellowship

Membership of the Society costs £20 and is paid by annual subscription. Find out more here.

Cambridge Graduate Orchestra is recruiting

Working restrictions for full-time PGR students – share your views

Upcoming Medical Library research skills training

Postgraduate Researcher Development Training Calendar

You can now access a Training Calendar of all upcoming courses provided by the Postgraduate Researcher Development team. It is a useful tool designed to make finding upcoming courses a lot easier!

Click here for further details!

CUL Research Skills Programme

Cambridge University Libraries Research Skills Programme

As a researcher you need to find, manage and share information effectively. Have you ever found yourself wondering where to start with a literature review? How to get more people to read your articles? Whether it is safe to share your hard-earned data online?

If interested, please search available courses and book your place here.

The Engaged Researcher series

The Engaged Researcher training covers all aspects of creative engagement with research through session ranging from storytelling, films, podcasts, illustration, animations etc. Sessions include topics on storytelling, public engagement with impact, policy engagement, creative writing and many more.

To find and book your course, please click here.

Precision Health Initiative Launch Symposium

The Organisers are delighted to invite you to the launch symposium of Precision Health Initiative at the University of Cambridge. It will be held in the afternoon/evening 4th November at St Catharine’s College, including the symposium, panel discussion, poster session and college dinner.

EnterpriseTECH

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday 17 October

Are you curious about the start-up world? Could you be an entrepreneur or a future founder? EnterpriseTECH helps you build your entrepreneurship skills, understand commercialisation pathways and early-stage business development.

Programme fee: £650 (for Cambridge researchers)
There will be small number of discretionary scholarships available for University of Cambridge researchers who can not secure funding from other sources (e.g. their College).

Click here for further details!

Newcomers and Visiting Scholars – Michaelmas Term

Newcomers and Visiting Scholars is a volunteer run group for University members and their families.  You are invited to become part of this community and discover more about Cambridge.

There is a Welcome Coffee Morning every Tuesday, along with activities and events throughout the week, most of which are free to attend.

Highlights of some events for Michaelmas Term

• Walking tours
• International Cookery classes
• Art classes for children
• Discussion groups
• Traditional Afternoon Tea
• Tours and Day trips: Ely Christmas Market, Farm visit

To join go to the NVS website  and click on  “Register with us”.  You will then receive a weekly newsletter including passwords to sign up for events.

St John’s College Hinsley Memorial Lecture

Postgraduate Outreach Recruitment Drive

Recruitment is open for two types of position available in the Postgraduate Outreach scheme.

Applications are only open until the 05/10/2022, although they anticipate that they will recruit for these positions again soon however they do look forwards to receiving applications within this cycle!

The application to apply for the Event Supervisors position can be found here

The application to apply for the Session Leader position can be found here

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Leigh-Anne Hastings at  PGOutreach@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Outreach teaching opportunity at Caius

The Caius Outreach Team is pleased to be opening applications from PhD students interested in conducting teaching (supervisions and lectures) on its outreach programme during the 22/23 academic year.

This is an exciting opportunity to work sustainedly with year 12 students from state schools in the College’s link areas of Norfolk, Hertfordshire and several London boroughs, and to build up your body of teaching and outreach experience. They will prioritise applications from supervisors who can commit to their full programme of teaching (details on the application form), and their compulsory training session.

To sign up, please follow this link and complete your application by midday on 21^st October.

For more information about outreach at Caius, visit our outreach webpages here, or take a look at our strategy.

If you have any questions pre-application, please direct them to Dr Chris Scott, Caius Tutor for Admissions & Outreach, on tao@cai.cam.ac.uk.

Other opportunities

COV-BOOST national vaccination trial at Addenbrooke’s

A team from Cambridge is inviting individuals aged 18 to 30 years to enrol in a national vaccination trial (COV-BOOST) which is assessing the use of lower doses of 2 approved vaccines for COVID-19: BNT162b2 – (Pfizer) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) when given to young adults as a 3rd or 4^th dose booster vaccine. You’d be randomised to receive a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) at either full or “fractional” dosage in the Clinical Research Facility at Addenbrooke’s Hospital during a few dates in October.

If immune responses to full and fractional doses are equivalent, this study may change COVID-19 vaccination schedules both in the UK and internationally – with the use of reduced vaccine dosage providing the potential to greatly increase the availability of COVID mRNA vaccines worldwide, including developing nations. If you are interested in taking part, further information is available here.

Cambridge cycle tour for students

Camcycle is a local charity which has been working for more, better and safer cycling in the Cambridge area since 1995. As a charity they run organised cycle rides throughout the year, and this year they have decided to run a number of ‘Welcome to Cambridge’ tours for new students.

As the first event, they have planned a relaxed 2-hour, 25-kilometre ride for which students can register here and it is completely free on 4th of October. The tour will show students the best routes for cycling around the city and stop at all of the colleges.

Symposium of Biological and Life Sciences

SymBLS is a free event for all postgraduate biological and life science students across all departments and institutes at Cambridge University. This year it will be held on Friday 25^th November at Magdelene College, with a theme of ‘Overcoming Adversity in Science’.

Find out more by visiting the website.

For registration, click here!

Abstract submission for talks and posters is also open! If you would like to present a poster or give a talk, follow the ‘submit an abstract’ link on the website, and follow the instructions. SymBLS is a great opportunity to present your research in a friendly environment to a wide group of Cambridge postgrads!

Cambridge Zero Research Symposia

This Michaelmas term, Cambridge Zero in collaboration with Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement are running four half day symposia. The aim of these symposia is to showcase the ground-breaking research related to sustainability, climate change, and net-zero that is happening across Cambridge, to connect researchers from across different communities and disciplines, and encourage new collaborations. Attendance is free.

The list of symposia is as follows:

• 28th October – Economy & Society: achieving sustainable development using natural capital, social capital and sustainable finance.
• 8th November – Carbon Capture & Climate Repair: what, where, when, how, by whom and for whom?
• 21st November – Behavioural Change & Education: tackling misinformation and promoting institutional and individual action
• 7th December – Climate & Disease: drivers, impacts and solutions

Each symposium will be held in the Pavilion Room at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. They will run from 1pm to 5.10pm with lunch from 1pm – 1.50pm. There will also be a drinks reception from 5.10pm until 6pm.

Each symposium will feature a number of keynote presentations from senior Cambridge academics, and we are inviting submissions from Early Career Researchers (Cambridge Postdocs and PhD students) to present their research in a series of 10 minute presentations. There is also the option to give a 2-minute ‘lightning’ presentation instead of a 10 minute one. This would consist of a single slide and a (very) brief explanation of your research. This may be a suitable option for those just beginning their research project or to present ideas for future research projects.  

We invite interested researchers whose work fits under the broad remit of sustainability and/ or climate change to submit abstracts via this form.

The audience is likely to predominantly internal Cambridge researchers, but we also expect some external interest.

If you would like to attend without presenting, you are also welcome. In this case, please email Daniel Robins djr80@cam.ac.uk so that we know how many will be attending.

2023 CSAR Student Award

Join us to view and discuss the acclaimed 2019 film ‘Sorry we missed you’ with the film`s Director Ken Loach. We are fortunate also to have secured Professor Robert Gordon (Centre for Film and Screen) and Gordon Harold (Professor of the Psychology of Education and Mental Health) both from the University of Cambridge. Robert will set the scene as a leading expert on the important early social-realist film Bicycle Thieves (1948, director Vittorio de Sica). Gordon will present current evidence on how household economic stress affects family dynamics and mental health and the implications for policy.

This rare afternoon will appeal to those interested in the development of the social realism film genre over the last century, in interdisciplinary studies of inequalities in health and a commitment to policy development and action.

The two films follow the lives of families contending with the everyday realities of economic stress and how these pressures impact on wellbeing at the individual, family and relationship levels Both are part of the ‘social-realism’ film movement that show and tell compelling stories set amongst poor and aspiring working-class families and filmed on location, often using non-professional actors.

The circumstances of the difficult economic and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy in “The Bicycle Thieves” stand interesting comparison with those of “Sorry We Missed You” and the present times; exploring our current zero hours gig economy and its effect on families.

We invite attendance from all those interested including people with lived experience of these circumstances; academics from across the arts and science- including film makers and historians, sociologists, educationalists and psychologists and policy makers.

Together we will compare perspectives to better understand the scope of social reality films in reflecting and informing evidence and moving it forward into policy. In particular we will think about how these films can help us to understand the social origins of mental health difficulties in families and policy to alleviate them.

We aim to develop creative relationships between people who may not often have the opportunity to discuss these topics together; they include those with experiences overlapping those portrayed in the films, those interested in the development of the social realism film genre over the last century and all those committed to studying and reducing inequalities in physical and mental health.

This event is free of charge. Donations will be collected at the event for two local Cambridge charities who work to support vulnerable people in need of a safety-net.

Title: Precarious lives: inequalities in health through the lens of the film maker

Location: St John’s College Palmerston Room St John’s College Cambridge CB2 1TP

Date: Wednesday 30 November 2022

Time: 13:45 – 18:30

Please can you register for the event here Eventbrite . More details, including the full programme, is listed on CRASSH’s website. The event has also been promoted in the SJC Bulletin.