On Thursday, 17th November 2011, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies was pleased to host its second “Thursday Seminar”. Musa Odamah delivered a paper on his recently completed Ph.D., which looked at the coverage of religious conflicts in Nigeria in the country’s newspapers. Comparing the coverage of the conflicts in papers in the North and those in the South of Nigeria, he demonstrated ways in which Nigerian newspapers are regionally, ethnically and religiously inclined; they are particularly affected by factors like ownership, location, staffing and audience perception, which determine how they tailor reports. He argued that the newspapers are not usually the cause of religious crises but they stoke the problem through biased and sometimes inflammatory reports. Situating the press against the backdrop of Nigeria’s political, social and economic history and culture, he suggested that the role of newspapers in the conflicts has been one of amplification rather than mitigation. Dr. Odamah concluded by suggesting ways in which the press could become a conduit for breaking down differences and emphasising similarities within the Nigerian population in order to reduce tension and prevent conflict.

Wednesday 16th November to Saturday 3rd December

Hope's annual Cornerstone Festival starts this week. The Festival is based at the Cornerstone, with performances and events taking place in the main building and in the Capstone Theatre.

This year, there are more than 35 events to choose from, with Mozart to Electroacoustic Flavours 2011 and Graduate Dance to Growing Old (Dis)Gracefully.

For more information about all the events and details of how to get tickets, please visit: www.hope.ac.uk/cornerstonefestival or tel: 0151 219 3578.

Professor Ron Geaves has been appointed as an AHRC peer review panel member for History, Thought and Systems of Belief. He will be assessing proposals submitted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for this scheme. In addition his article ‘Fatwa and Foreign Policy: New Models of Citizenship in an Emerging Age of Globalisation’ has been published in Negotiating Identities: Constructed Selves and Others, ed Helen Vella Bonavita. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011).

The second in a series of open lectures on the prospects election for Mitt Romney in 2012 takes place this week. 

On Tuesday 15th November, between 13:00 - 14:00, in FML058 Dr Robert Busby shall assess the campaign and provide the inside track on the race for the Whitehouse. 

Dr Busby's research is primarily in the field of American politics, political scandal and aspects of political communication. He has published three research momographs, two on political scandal and one on comparative political marketing. 

Liverpool Hope University honoured one of its most illustrious names on Wednesday 9th November, as it dedicated a building to Revd Alexander Jones.

Following the mothballing of the original Alexander Jones Building, the building which houses the Departments of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies; English; and Politics History, Media and Communication has been re-designated to commemorate the former Head of Divinity.

In addition to holding the post of Head of Divinity at the then Christ's College, Liverpool, Revd Jones also led the team that spent ten years translating the Jerusalem Bible in the 1960s.

Dr David Crilly, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Performing Arts, has been invited to be on the panel of judges for a new BBC documentary currently being filmed at Television Centre in London.

This autumn nearly 2,000 young people will take to the stage to perform a famous Shakespearean speech. They will be competing in the BBC’s Off By Heart Shakespeare – a recital contest for secondary schools that is being filmed for a BBC 2 documentary for Spring 2012.

UK students will compete against their peers to win a place in the televised final on the RSC stage in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The aim is to ignite a real passion for Shakespeare in young people by unlocking Shakespeare's language and sharing a sense of excitement about performing his words.

Dr Crilly currently teaches Shakespeare in Performance to third-year Drama students and is also the Artistic Director of The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.

Following the mothballing of what was the Alexander Jones Building, the building which houses the Departments of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies; English; and Politics History, Media and Communication (accessed via the Gateway Building) has been re-designed to commemorate Alexander Jones.

The formal opening of the new Alexander Jones Building will take place 4:30pm on Wednesday 9th November. As you will know, the Revd Alexander Jones was Head of Divinity at the then Christ's College, Liverpool and led the team that spent ten years translating the Jerusalem Bible on what is now Hope Park in the 1960s.

Light refreshments will be available from 4.30pm outside the Faculty of Arts & Humanities Administrative Office and we hope you are able to join us on this important occasion. Please R.S.V.P: Jane Reilly, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hope students and staff are warmly invited to a lecture by Professor Keith Ward, one of the most distinguished British philosophers of religion of his generation.

The lecture is entitled ‘Is there a Soul?’ and it will take place in Lecture Theatre B on Hope Park on Wednesday 9th November at 2pm. The lecture will be followed by questions and discussion, ending at 3.30pm.

Professor Ward has held many distinguished posts, among them Regius Professor of Divinity from 1991-2003. He is author of nearly forty books, including More than Matter (Lion Hudson, 2010), The Word of God? The Bible after modern scholarship (SPCK, 2010), Pascal’s Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding (Oneworld June 2006) and God, Chance, Necessity (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1996). He is a gifted communicator to academic and non-academic audiences alike (his previous public lecture in Liverpool drew over 100 people).

A Christian philosopher, he has engaged extensively with science and with other faith traditions, as well as doing battle with contemporary atheist thinkers. More information on his career and publications can be found at http://www.keithward.org.uk/ The lecture is being organised by the philosophy staff in the Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies department, For more information, contact Steven Shakespeare: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Wednesday 9 November 2011; 5.30 pm Liverpool Hope University ( L16 9JD) in Room EDEN108

The Department of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies is delighted to welcome Professor Ricky Abad (http://www.dsa-ateneo.net/personnel/ricardo-g-abad-ph-d) as a visiting fellow, from 5-18 November 2011.

Professor Abad's visit will include lectures, seminars and workshops with undergraduate and postgraduate students. All are welcome to attend this public lecture, in which he will draw on his extensive experience as a translator and interpreter of Shakespeare’s plays.

Professor Abad's teaching achievements have been recognized by two prizes: the Most Outstanding Senior Lay Teacher Award given by the Association of Parents of Ateneo College Students (1993), and the Most Outstanding Teacher Award granted by the Metrobank Foundation (2001).Alongside this sociological enterprise lies Ricky Abad’s work in the theater. He has been moderator and artistic director, since 1984, of Tanghalang Ateneo, the college theater company, where he has directed and acted in over 80 productions, and twice awarded for his work as Outstanding Moderator in the University’s Service and Excellence awards (1991, 1999).

He has also directed and acted for professional companies like Teatro Pilipino and Tanghalang Pilipino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the Metropolitan Theater Guild. Many of his theater productions interrogate classics of western drama in terms of a Filipino and Asian sensibility. He also helped to establish the Fine Arts Program of the Loyola Schools (2000), becoming its first Director and continuing to serve as Coordinator of Theater Arts. He also uses theater techniques as the basis for workshops in presentation skills for students, teachers, and professionals in corporate settings. But his home base remains with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology where Professor Abad, in addition to teaching, is presently doing research on social capital and writing a book on introductory sociology. His recent work, The Asian Face of Globalization (2004), assembles papers on ways in which global and local forces reconstruct identities, institutions, and resources in five Asian countries.