To all: Common Awards students,

I am delighted to announce that Queen's Student, David Gibbs has been elected as one of three student representatives to the Common Awards Management Board for 2019-20. David has already been working closely with the board over this last year as an invited member, but this will allow David to pursue matters on behalf of all common awards students on more of an official footing. For full details of the results see https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/students/representatives/  

Congratulations to David who has been an active voice on student matters on your behalf, for the past four years.

Secondly, Common Awards has decided that in order to try and reach more students they should move away from the idea of a single annual student conference and have several smaller events at different times throughout the year- all of which should be accessible online.  Frances Clemson, who is our Liaison officer and who many of you have met, is leading this and is experimenting with different formats for this year.  At last AMG your academic reps offered Queens as a regional venue for such events (where students gather in one location to join the event as a group).  In the meantime, two events are planned to take place.  For the event in June, see the attached poster which we were sent this afternoon (and register here:  https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/events/booking4june/ ) 

There is also an event next week on 21st May at 6pm -Ten Minute Talks : Judas

This will be the first in a series of Ten Minute Talks, in which a minister, scholar or other practitioner shares with Common Awards students a key idea from their current work. Students will be able to access the talk live online via Big Blue Button on the Common Awards Hub.

In this Ten Minute Talk, Dr Frances Clemson will speak about some recent work she has been doing on Judas’ appearances in theology and in art in the modern era.

·        What challenges emerge from the story of Judas for our thinking about human tragedies and divine providence?

·        What should we make of the ways in which artists, writers and film makers have tried to ‘fill the gaps’ in Judas’ story?

·        What did Karl Barth mean when he identified Judas as the disciple who ‘reserves the right to decide for himself … what discipleship really involves’?

After the Ten Minute Talk, there will be around 30 minutes for live Q & A. Students will be able to submit questions via Big Blue Button and social media.

In order to gauge interest and to send more detailed instructions to students about how to join in this live event, we are asking students to register in advance for this event via the Common Awards website. Registration will open in the week beginning 8th April. Register here:  https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/events/booking21may/

For news of all events see:

https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/

It would be helpful for academic reps to know if you have joined in on any of these events and what you got out of them, so do keep in touch.

Katherine Onion

Academic Registrar