Professor Julia Black has been appointed Interim Director of the School for a period commencing on 1 September 2016 and ending on 31 August 2017, or earlier upon the successor to Professor Craig Calhoun taking up appointment.

Professor Black will continue to hold her current role as Pro-Director (Research), to which she is appointed until 31 July 2018, in parallel with the Interim Directorship.

An LSE postgraduate student has been appointed as a High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth by the United Nations (UN).

In her new role, Alaa Murabit, who is studying for an Executive Masters in International Strategy and Diplomacy, will help promote action to meet the global shortfall of trained health workers, achieve Universal Health Coverage, and meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

On 17 March 2016, the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards, sponsored by DWF LLP,  recognised the dedication of student committees across the country offering their members innovative careers events and comprehensive pro bono and mooting activities, alongside traditional socialising with peers.

The LSESU Law Society won the award for being 'Best at student engagement'. Congratulations to everyone in the LSESU Law Society!

Final year undergraduate students, don’t forget to complete the National Student Survey.

The survey closes on 30 April 2016.

Due to popular request, we have extended the early bird and Santander travel bursary application deadlines to Friday 15 April 2016.  

The LSE-UCT July School is held in South Africa against the stunning backdrop of Table Mountain and courses are taught by faculty from LSE and the University of Cape Town. The LSE-PKU Summer School is held in the historic and dynamic city of Beijing, with courses taught by faculty from LSE and Peking University.  

Dr Sander de Ridder, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications, is looking for students to have an engaging conversation on popular smartphone dating applications for his research project Digital Intimacy: Desires, Love and Closeness. He is interested in hearing about what you think about these apps; your own experiences of using them, and your opinions about using digital media for finding love, friendship and intimacy. Participants can be those who love using dating applications, hate them, need them, have been using them, or maybe never will. You can be a ‘heavy’ daily consumer, or not; maybe these apps are very present in your life-world, without you using them (but you still have something to say about them).

If you’re interested in starting an offline/online conversation, contact Dr de Ridder direct using email (S.De-Ridder@lse.ac.uk), or join Digital Intimacy: Desires, love and closeness Facebook page. 

The LSE Volunteer Centre is on the lookout for nominees for the LSE Volunteer of the Year award and the LSE Voluntary Organisation of the Year award. The winners will be announced at our annual LSE Volunteers event on 28 April 2016.

If you know of an LSE student or organisation that should be recognised for going above and beyond the call of duty then nominate them for an award. This is your chance to make sure that their work is recognised by the LSE community. Read about previous winners and nominees on the Volunteer Centre blog.

The Student Accommodation Satisfaction Survey will close at 23:59 TOMORROW (Thursday 24 March)!  If you have any comments about your stay in halls – positive or negative – now’s the time to tell us!  With your help we can keep improving the halls experience for you and for future residents.

Search for ‘qualtrics’ in your LSE email inbox to find your personalised unique link, or email residential.life@lse.ac.uk to request a new one.

SADL was out partying on Wednesday 16 March to celebrate a fantastic year of learning and collaboration, using digital technology.

Friday 8 – Saturday 9 April

Up to 35 LSE Undergraduate and Masters’ students are invited to take part in a marketing challenge to develop a campaign idea for Pepsi Max to introduce a creative and innovative way to get Pepsi Max in the hands of more millennials.

The challenge is being held in collaboration with the Millennial 20/20 Summit and all student participants will receive free access to the second day of the conference.

According to Statista, this was the average consumption of a British child in 2015, with each child receiving £56 worth of Easter gifts, many of which were consumed over 4 days!

This is just one of the reports that you can access using LSE Library market research resources.

The Library runs regular training classes on using these sources throughout term time. Look out for the forthcoming Introduction to financial, market and company data training session, which will be bookable via the training and development system.

Calling all second and third year students - are you living in private accommodation and would you recommend your landlord/home to other LSE students? Perhaps you’ll be moving out of your house this summer, or perhaps only one of your flatmates will move out and leave you with a vacant room to fill?

Studentpad is LSE’s tailored lettings portal which connects LSE students with landlords to make househunting that little bit easier.

Please encourage your landlord to register with us on Studentpad, to help them (and you) find new tenants for their property. Landlords can register at studentpad.co.uk/landlords or contact private.housing@lse.ac.uk for more information.

Help us to help other LSE students to find a reliable home for next year.

We currently have vacancies in halls - search here.

Thursday 21 April, 9am-5pm, New Academic Building

With speakers including Jon Snow, Polly Toynbee and others from BBC, Sky, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Vice, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières and more.

Discussions will include 'Reporting Refugees', 'Europe on the Brink', 'Reporting Terror' and the 'Power of the Image' alongside workshops on verification, new platforms and social media innovations. 

Places are free but registration is required.

Interested in women’s history at LSE? All students are invited to a free public lecture and drinks reception: hear the Gender Institute’s Mary Evans on After Beatrice: the hidden women in LSE’s history chaired by Julia Black, on Thursday 24 March at 6.30pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building.

Are you looking for inspiration? Keep up to date with #LSEwomen on social media for more on LSE’s inspiring women such as alumna and historian Margaret Gowing and LSE co-founder Beatrice Potter Webb, or see the LSE Careers blog  for female graduate profiles and volunteering opportunities at women’s rights charities. There is also still time to visit the LSE Library’s exhibition on Women, Peace and Equality, which is open Monday-Friday 9am–7pm and weekends 11am–6pm until Saturday 9 April 2016.

Check out the LSE History blog for more on #LSEwomen.

In response to growing public interest in egg-freezing, an exhibition exploring fertility and social egg freezing is being held on the 1^st floor of the Saw Swee Hock until 24 March 2016.

‘Timeless’ is a prime example of a knowledge-exchange project, involving academic staff from the LSE  and funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, where academic research helps to inform current international debate and encourage greater awareness and engagement with non-academic audiences.

What Are Prisons For? 
Speakers: Dr Christopher Bennett, Professor Kimberley Brownlee, Andrew Neilson
Recorded: Tuesday 15 March 2016, approx. 82 minutes  

Each Age Gets the Inequality it Needs: 20,000 years of hierarchy 
Speaker: Professor Ian Morris
Recorded: Tuesday 15 March 2016, approx. 97 minutes    

londonschoolofeconomics Stunning#spring day on campus #lse#partoflse

Wednesday 27 April, 2-3pm, Old Theatre, Old Building

This session focuses on final preparations and strategies for sitting the exam, which was covered briefly in the introduction session. We will discuss the exam-taking experience and how best to prepare for it.

We are offering five sessions to prepare you to work independently on your MSc dissertation over the summer break. Each session will be given TWICE, once in week 6 of Summer term (afternoon sessions) and again in week 7 of Summer term (morning sessions).

Click the links below to select a session and book a place:

Managing your research project
Tuesday 31 May, 2-3pm, NAB LG.08
Monday 6 June, 11am-12pm, Old Theatre
Claudine Provencher (LSE Teaching and Learning Centre) talks through the key steps involved in producing a quality, research-based MSc dissertation, and gives an insight into what supervisors are looking for when they read dissertations.

Telling the story of your research: developing a narrative and flow throughout your dissertation
Wednesday 1 June, 2-3.30pm, Old Theatre
Tuesday 7 June, 11am-12.30pm, Old Theatre
Effective dissertations have a clear narrative built across each section of the text­­­ - a "flow". During this workshop, facilitated by Helen Amelia Green (LSE Teaching and Learning Centre), you’ll reflect on how each section of your dissertation tells the story of your research. You’ll have time and guidance to develop the narrative of your own project.

Making an "original" argument
Thursday 2 June, 2-3pm, Old Theatre
Wednesday 8 June, 11am-12pm, Old Theatre
Helen Amelia Green (LSE Teaching and Learning Centre) shows examples of originality in dissertations and suggests where there may be potential to emphasise the originality in your own work.

Psychological challenges of dissertation writing
Thursday 2 June, 12.30-1.30pm, PAR 2.03
Thursday 9 June, 1-2pm, LRB.R.505
Ohemaa Nkansa-Dwamena (LSE Student Counselling Service) helps you explore some of the psychological and personal issues involved in writing your dissertation.

Citing, referencing, and avoiding plagiarism
Friday 3 June, 2-3pm, Old Theatre
Thursday 9 June, 11am-12pm, Old Theatre
Andra Fry and Heather Dawson (LSE Library) give a general overview of citing and referencing for your dissertation and advice on how to avoid committing plagiarism. Come along to get some helpful tips and to practice citing in your chosen style.

Prove your Office skills and land your next job. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification is available in 2013 and 2010 all year round. For more information on MOS, see the IT Training website.

The Library is now planning its Learning Support programme for the Summer term. The programme will include a series of workshops and support surgeries to assist your studies and research. Use the training and development system to register your interest for specific courses and you will be contacted as soon as the programme is finalised.

  
If you prefer, you can discuss your research needs by contacting your Academic Support Librarian for a meeting.