Other News

• Are you interested in Human Rights?
• Are you under 25?
• Do you want to win a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian landlocked enclave in Azerbaijan)?
• Do you want your work to be published in an internationally-circulated newsletter with a readership of thousands?

For the fourth year, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) is running the HART Prize for Human Rights. The HART Prize for Human Rights aims to engage young people (ages 12-25) with our partners around the world. These groups have little presence in the international media and the humanitarian situations they face are largely unknown and unreported. Many live behind closed borders, meaning it is difficult for aid and support to get in, and for information to get out.

HART works with marginalised communities who are deeply affected by conflict, poverty and human rights abuses. HART focuses on groups and issues which are underrepresented in the international media and neglected by the international community. By running a twin-track programme of advocacy and targeted aid, HART helps marginalised communities to address issues which they themselves consider most important.

We are calling for essays and artwork which focus on the political and humanitarian situations faced by our partners around the world, and which raise awareness of human rights violations.

This year's grand prize will be a trip with HART to visit its partners in Nagorno-Karabakh!

For more information please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our webpage on the competition here. A short 2-page brief explaining the Prize for Human Rights can be found here.

If you would like further information please contact Edwin O'Connell, current HART Research and Campaigns Intern, at edwin.oconnell@hart-uk.org.

The application period for URSS bursaries 2014/15 is now open until Sunday 1^st February 2015.

URSS bursaries of up to £1000 are available to all Warwick undergraduate students in any year, from any department and support living costs during a research project carried out over the summer vacation.

Speak to lecturers in favourite subjects (not necessarily in your own department) to see if they have a project you could work on and if they would be happy to supervise you.

Both you and the supervisor need to complete an online form.

URSS can help you stand out from the crowd, by giving you the opportunity to develop valuable skills to transfer to further study and future career, learn to reflect on and articulate your skills and experience more effectively and have your living costs supported whilst you work on real research.

Full details: www.warwick.ac.uk/URSS

The Islamic finance industry is rapidly expanding. With an annual growth rate of 15 per cent, it is widely regarded as a ‘development to watch’. This has led to debate among policy makers and market practitioners about whether there is something distinctive about Islamic finance or whether it is simply emulating conventional finance.

This was the central theme at a recent workshop organised by Dr Lena Rethel (PAIS), Dr Kerstin Steiner (Monash University) and Dr Jikon Lai (The University of Melbourne) and hosted by Monash Business School. It brought together eminent national and international academics from the fields of law, political science, economics, international political economy and sociology to debate and review recent developments in the Islamic finance industry.

Representatives from Australian regulators were in attendance, as were their international colleagues from the Shariah (Islamic religious law) Advisory Council at the Central Bank of Malaysia and the Securities Commission. Legal practitioners and business representatives, including the chairperson of the Australia Malaysia Business Council and the Consul-General of Malaysia to Victoria also attended the workshop.

For further information, please follow this link: http://news-events.buseco.monash.edu.au/2014/11/islamic-finance-debate-brings-leaders-to-monash-business-school/

Stuart Elden has recently published an article in The Geographical Journal entitled "The Geopolitics of Boko Haram and Nigeria's 'War on Terror'" (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geoj.12120/abstract). Alongside this he contributed a short piece to the Royal Geographical Society's 'Geography Directions' blog on the parallels between Boko Haram and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (http://blog.geographydirections.com/2014/11/17/another-islamic-state-the-shifting-tactics-of-boko-haram/).

His work on this theme, which links to his wider historical and conceptual work on territory, was also featured in an article in Geographical Magazine (http://www.geographical.co.uk/worldwatch/geopolitics/item/394-the-winter-of-middle-east-discontent).

Dr. Erzsebet Strausz, Teaching Fellow here in PAIS and 2013/2014 Warwick Awards For Teaching Excellence (WATE) Commendee, has been featured in a leaflet on inspirational teaching ideas.

To find out more about WATE, please visit click here.