Skip to main content

Day: 7 November 2017

DON’T PUBLISH (duplicate): Manchester named UNESCO City of Literature

Written by Amy Wei on . Posted in News.

Manchester’s bid to become a UNESCO City of Literature was successful.

As a City of Literature, Manchester will dedicate to pursuing excellence in literature on a local level and developing literary links across the world.

Other UNESCO Cities of Literature include Baghdad, Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, Melbourne, and Reykjavik.

The bid for Manchester to join their ranks was coordinated by a collaborative effort between The University of Manchester, Manchester City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University, the Manchester Literature Festival, and other literary organisations representing the city’s writers.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Dame Nancy Rothwell, said in a speech last week: “It was wonderful to learn that Manchester has joined the UNESCO global network of cities of literature, in a process led by colleagues in SALC and partners across the city.”

Manchester has a productive literary history. Novelist Anthony Burgess, who wrote A Clockwork Orange, was born and schooled in Manchester. He studied English Literature at the University of Manchester, where he met his wife and graduated with Upper-Second Class honours.

Elizabeth Gaskell moved to Manchester as an adult and lived in the city until her death in 1865. Industrial Manchester inspired many of her novels, for example North and South.

Manchester was also home to the first public lending library in the UK.

Charles Dickens attended its opening ceremony in 1852, and stated on the day: “In this institution, special provision has been made for the working classes, by means of a free lending library. This meeting cherishes the earnest hope that the books thus made available will prove a source of pleasure and improvement.”

To celebrate Manchester’s City of Literature status, a new writers’ hub will be established, and a libraries festival will be hosted by the city.

Manchester maintains four historic libraries: The Portico, John Rylands, Central, and Chetham’s libraries. Author museums Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation are also open to the public.

Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Schools, Culture, and Leisure, Councillor Luthfur Rahman, said: “We are extremely proud to become a UNESCO City of Literature, as we recognise the power of words to promote greater understanding, well-being and learning across our proudly diverse city.

“Building on the strong foundations of Manchester’s rich literary history, the council and our partners from the city’s universities and literary community will work together to create a programme of events which gives all of Manchester’s residents the chance to participate in and benefit from this thriving City of Literature.”

Professor John McAuliffe, from the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, stated that “This is a cause for great celebration, which will help us to strengthen our university’s many partnerships with the city and its communities. Our staff and student writers know that Manchester is a City of Literature, a place whose graduates include Anthony Burgess and the war poet Alun Lewis, Jeanette Winterson, Booker winner Barry Unsworth and bestseller Sophie Hannah.

We all benefit from the presence in the city of great publishers like Carcanet and Comma and from what this announcement recognises — the enormous array of literary events, festivals, and opportunities for engagement with new writing and new audiences which Manchester offers.”

1.5 per cent turnout in All Student Vote on Exec Officer roles

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in News.

The All Student Vote to choose new Executive Officer positions for the 2018/19 academic year, which closed on the 30th of October, had an incredibly low voter turnout of an estimated 1.5 per cent.

The motion to have the ‘preferendum’ was passed in the Students’ Union Senate on the 28th of September. Whilst the number of voters that participated has met quoracy by Students’ Union bylaws, the motion included a clause that at least 3000 votes would be required for the result to be considered valid.

The options were to keep the same positions, introduce a postgraduate officer, introduce an international officer, or introduce both.

However, the advertisements for the vote were not explicit in saying that the role of Campaigns officer would be if option four was chosen, and also that a new post of Liberation and Access officer would be created in some of the options.

Low turnout can be attributed to many factors, one being that the vote was run at the same time as part-time officer elections and NUS delegate elections, both of which were described as “very successful” by General Secretary Alex Tayler.

The elected national NUS Conference Delegates for 2017/2018 are Teddy Jinxiu Ouyang, Sara Heddi, Shereen Patel, Lawrence Rosenberg, Shamima Khonat, Saqib Mahmood, Sarah-Jane ‘Sully’ Smyth, Hafsa Rifal, Hammad Allana and Emma Atkins.

Lawrence Rosenberg, a third year student one of the successful elected NUS delegates for 2017/2018, told the The Mancunion that he didn’t vote in the referendum.

Lawrence said: “I didn’t even know there was an election, it wasn’t publicised nor even when I voted for NUS did I find the easy system to understand.”

The History and Politics student added that the options presented to students in the All Student Vote “just weren’t clear at all.”

When asked for his thoughts on the All Student Vote by The Mancunion, third-year Geography student, Iwan Williams, replied: “Which vote?” and that he had “no idea what you are talking about.”

Iwan’s comment was echoed by third-year History student, Benedict Wright, who told The Mancunion: “I didn’t even know the SU were holding a referendum” and it appears that many students were unaware that the vote was taking place.

Rather than reopen the All Student Vote or discard the result (which has not yet been announced), Alex Tayler told The Mancunion that the result “will be included in discussions within the Students’ Union Trustee board” where “a preferred result will be selected.”

This will then be “submitted to the Annual Members Meeting in December for final approval.” All students are eligible to attend this meeting and voice their opinion, and the General Secretary encouraged all students to do so.

He told The Mancunion that restructuring the Exec officer roles is still a good thing to do, regardless of the referendum turnout: “We’d be mad to miss this opportunity to reform and to represent our students as best we can.”