Hello.

Just a small post to let you know that the headlines and stories from the school blog are now being relayed to our Twitter page which you can see here:

If you aren't familiar with Twitter or how it can be used in education then please click here.

Many thanks!

Paul.

The School of Health and Social Sciences now has an up and running Facebook page.

The page is there as another way for current and potential future students to learn about what we offer and what is happening within the School.

Check it out at and become a fan at - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newport/School-of-Health-and-Social-Sciences-UWN/36748165431 

Enjoy!!

A forum for topical research open to staff, students and the general public

“Choosing” Disability? - Dr Jackie Scully
Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre, Newcastle University

The new genetic and reproductive technologies offer an enlarged repertoire of ways to select against the birth of children with genetic impairments. Until recently, the debate over the ethics and regulation of prenatal selection focused on the problems of selecting against impairments. In the last few years, however, a new issue has arisen: that of parents who wish to select for defined impairments. The controversy came to a head earlier this year with the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, one clause of which forbids such usage – and which came under fierce criticism from some members of the Deaf community. This talk will address this issue, using ideas from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in addressing why anyone would want to “choose” disability.

 Venue: MB/A41 (Boardroom), Caerleon Campus
Time: 5.30pm

As usual, the session includes a talk, followed by the opportunity for discussion.  Refreshments will be provided. Though all are very much welcome, places are limited.  For further details, and/or to confirm that you would like to attend, please contact Gideon Calder.

You can wait for ages for a Social Ethics Research Seminar and then you get two in the space of six days. This time it's -

Dr Jonathan Webber (Cardiff University)

'Character and the Self'

Over the last decade, a debate about the empirical respectability of the traditional philosophical conception of character has polarised into two camps: those who see behavioural expectations as integral to the concept and those who argue that the concept should be understood purely in terms of inner mental events such as inclinations. Over the last few decades, philosophers have debated the conditions required for an inner mental event such as an inclination to be genuinely one's own. I intend to resolve both of these debates by arguing that both character and selfhood are essentially temporal concepts and that character is the unifying aspect of the self.

Venue: RM/E16, Caerleon Campus
Time: 5.30pm

Though all are very much welcome, places are limited. For further details, and/or to confirm that you would like to attend, please contact Enzo Rossi.

We've now gone through the data from our online 3 week evaluation and you'll find the School's response with this posting. Many thanks to those of you who took the time out to tell us about your experiences so far - it was much apprecitated. As you'll already have seen in this blog there will be further evaluations throughout the year at a module level, and we hope that you'll take part in those too - and that you'll encourage your friends and colleagues to do so also. Without your feedback we can't ever be sure of what your time with us is really like.

A forum for topical research open to staff, students and the general public

 12 November 2008

 Dr Jonathan Seglow - ‘Defending Open Borders’

In a climate of globalisation, economic flux and the general sense that ‘the world is getting smaller’, issues around migration between countries have become especially prominent.  This paper defends the moral ideal of open borders in immigration.  It distinguishes between an ideal theory of immigration and a non-ideal theory which seeks to address its moral and policy challenges here and now, and maintains we need both kinds of theories.  It offers a critique of the social justice arguments for open borders of the ideal’s best known advocate, Joseph Carens.  The core of the paper defends open borders on the basis of the right to freedom of movement, together with the presumption that individuals should have ultimate authority with respect to the exercise of their rights.  The paper concludes by examining when (if at all) the rights to democracy, freedom of association and territory might over-ride the right to universal freedom of movement.

Venue: RM/E16, Caerleon Campus
Time: 5.30pm

Though all are very much welcome, places are limited.  For further details, and/or to confirm that you would like to attend, please contact Gideon Calder.

Following the Exam Board held on 10th November, the results are now available to view on the mLE and posted on the noticeboards.

Letters will be sent out to those of you involved in a day or so.