Staff Newsletter (Week 2)
Welcome to Term message from Head of the Department
Welcome back and I hope you had a very enjoyable time over the summer break.
In the last few weeks we have welcomed the new MSc/PhD and Diploma students, who have all been busy at work as part of their Induction. Our new MSc students have also taken their assessment for the Introductory Maths and Stats pre-sessional. We also welcome back our returning undergraduate students, along with a new cohort of first year students.
Looking back, we had the Question Time 2017 event on Monday 2nd October and I know a number of colleagues were part of the event and so thank you for those people who attended and helped to organise it.
I would like to remind staff that over the summer the we have been working on both the Strategy Renew, but also on our response to the results of the NSS (National Student Survey for undergraduates), PTES (Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey) and PRES (Postgraduate Research Experience Survey). While these surveys indicated much which is great about the Department, it also indicated some serious areas which we need to work on and improve and over the coming period. Over time all of these surveys will form a part of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and the TEF will be assessed at a Departmental level and therefore this has become an increasingly important element of the standing of the Department.
Professor Jeremy Smith
Department News
Undergraduate Open Day - 21 October 2017
Open Day - Many thanks to admin and academic staff who have volunteered to help out at the Undergraduate Open Day. Details of the sessions and departmental involvement can be found on our website. You'll be receiving communication from Bozena and Charlotte about arrangements on the day.
Academic Support Librarian - Message from Helen Riley
How can the Library support you?
If you have recently arrived at Warwick, you may like to know how the Library can support your teaching and research.
- On the Library website, there is a staff section that tells you how we support your teaching and research.
- Check out the Wolfson Research Exchange on Floor 3 - a place to work away from your office, book seminar rooms and more.
- Explore The Teaching Grid on Floor 2 of the Library to if you ever want to try out experimental teaching methods with your students.
Please contact Helen dot Riley at Warwick dot ac dot uk if you have any more questions. All the best for the coming academic year!
New Starters - UG Office & Teaching Fellows
Ramkumar Govindaswamy has moved from his role as a Receptionist in Senate House where he has worked for a number of years to join us as an Undergraduate Teaching Programmes Administrator in the UG Office. Ramkumar will be replacing Maria Kehr. Ram has lots of experience of working at the University and we very much look forward to welcoming him.
We would also like to welcome Jingyi Mao and Luciana Nicollier, who have joined the Department as Teaching Fellows.
Research News
Congratulations to James Fenske, Bishnu Gupta, Clement Imbert/Roland Rathelot and Giovanni Ricco all of whom have been successful in being awarded grants in the latest round of funding under the British Academy/Leverhulme small grants scheme. James’s award will fund an RA researching “Sex Selection and Child Marriage in Colonial India”, Bishnu’s award will cover RA time on “Community Origins of Industrial Development”, Clement and Roland’s funding will cover an RA working on “Getting Rural Workers into Urban jobs; evidence form a training a placement program in India”, and Giovanni will be looking at “The Global Transmission of US Monetary Policy”.
The British Academy have announced the next round of funding for small grants with a deadline of 1st November 2017. These small grants (up to £10,000) cover direct costs, (travel, conferences, RAs) and can last up to 2 years. Please email Fiona Brown (f.brown@warwick.ac.uk) if you wish to apply to this scheme.
Free access to FT Online
We are pleased to inform you that we have renewed our subscription to the FT online and it is available now to all Economics staff and students. In order to start using your subscription you need create an account using your @warwick.ac.uk email address via the following webpage: www.ft.com/warwickeconomics.
Professor Nick Crafts - Jonathan R. Hughes Prize
Congratulations to Professor Nick Crafts on winning the Jonathan R. Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History. The Hughes Prize is awarded annually by the Economic History Association to recognise excellence in teaching economic history.
Dr Daniel Sgroi - Membership award
Congratulations to Dr Daniel Sgroi, who has been awarded associate membership of Nuffield College, Oxford.
Staff Profiles
A reminder to all staff to complete and keep update their individual profile page. This is the first webpage that internal and external users will see when they search for you on the University's website. All staff have been given access to edit their own webpage. A number of staff photos were taken recently by an external professional photographer. If you do require a photograph taken, please email economics dot news at warwick dot ac dot uk and we will add you to next round.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
The Department held a Coffee Morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support on Friday 29 September. A huge thank you to all who attended the event and purchased a slice or two of delicious cake. Special thanks to all of the bakers who took part in the Cake-Off Competition, these were Tina MacSkimming, Lisa Hayes, Delphine Christie, Gill Gudger and Fiona Brown.
The Winner, Annie Simper, produced a mouth-watering Victoria Sponge with fresh cream and strawberries. The judges, Jeremy Smith, Sarah Duggan and Robin Naylor had a tough job in tasting all of the cakes and deciding who the winner should be but they did a fabulous job, so thanks to them also. The amount raised during the event was £144.79p which has now been sent on to Macmillan to be added to their overall total.
Publications & Presentations
Sascha O.Becker participated in a special plenary session on “Populism, its causes and consequences” at the European Economic Association in Lisbon, presenting work with Thiemo Fetzer and Dennis Novy related to Brexit.
Eric Melander presented "Warfare, City Growth and the Rise of Europe" (joint with Sascha O. Becker, Andreas Ferrara and Luigi Pascali) at the ASREC Europe Conference (Bologna).
Eric Melander presented "Creating 'Us and Them': Racial Propaganda, Insularity and Right-Wing Ideology" at the CAGE-EHES-IAS Summer School (Warwick), the ASREC Europe Conference (Bologna) and the Annual Meeting of the Danish Society for Economic and Social History (Copenhagen Business School).
Andy Ferrara presented “Economic and Social Integration of Minorities: The Effect of WWII on Racial Segregation” at 3rd ASREC Europe conference in Bologna on September 8th 2017
Andy Ferrara also presented the same paper “Economic and Social Integration of Minorities: The Effect of WWII on Racial Segregation” at 29th EALE conference in St. Gallen on September 23rd 2017
Eric Melander presented "Creating 'Us and Them': Racial Propaganda, Insularity and Right-Wing Ideology" at the CAGE-EHES-IAS Summer School (Warwick), the ASREC Europe Conference (Bologna) and the Annual Meeting of the Danish Society for Economic and Social History (Copenhagen Business School).
Matteo Gamalerio presented “Not welcome anymore: the effect of electoral incentives on the reception of refugees" at the “CReAM/RWI Workshop on the Economics of Migration” in Essen, Germany on 30 September 2017.
Giovanno Ricco paper “Government purchases reloaded: Informational insufficiency and heterogeneity in fiscal VARs" was published on Science Direct on 21 June 2017
Nicolás Navarrete article “Unleashing Waste-Pickers’ Potential: Supporting Recycling Cooperatives in Santiago de Chile" was published on Science Direct on 10 October 2017. This is a joint work with Pablo Navarrete.
Advani, Arun presented at the Association of Public Economic Theory; European Economic Association; Oxford Development Conference. He also presented to HMRC (as part of the Impact Acceleration Grant he was just awarded).
Media Coverage
"Does the midlife crisis really exist?" - Andrew Oswald: Daily Mail - 30 August 2017
"Is the midlife crisis real - Andrew Oswald: Bloomberg - 29 August 2017
Vice-Chancellors' pay - Andrew Oswald: Times Higher Education - 15 September 2017
Quoted in "The power of populists" - Helios Herrera: The Economist - 22 July 2017
Department Diary
- Open Day | 21 October | All Day | Social Sciences Building / Campus
- Economics Careers Fair 2017 | 30 October | 4-7pm | Panorama, Rootes Building
- The Soviet Economy, 1917-1991: Its Life and Afterlife | 7 November 2017 | 6-7.15pm | M1 Lecture Theatre, Warwick Business School
- Tenpin Bowling (Yr 2 & 3) | 21 November | 8-12pm | Leamington Spa
- Tea @3 (every Wednesday) | 3.00-3.30pm | Staff Common Room | Social Sciences Building
Staff Interview
Beth Mansell is a new starter in the UG office - find out more about her in our staff interview.
Other News
Petition - AEA
An Economics PhD student would like to bring to light the 'Petition to the AEA regarding the Economics Job Market Rumors (EJMR) website'.
More info can be found here.
The Vice-Chancellor on the coming academic year
With the new academic year underway, hear from Vice-Chancellor Stuart Croft on the year ahead.
Reshaping Sport: Sports Day
Reshaping Sport: Sports Day - The SU has organised for on this Saturday 14 October, taster sessions and showcase events from clubs, active and social sports, intramural sport, rock-up-and-play sessions. This event is open to all.