Published this week by , the volume investigates the lives and public work of Henry and Emily Simon, and Ernest and Shena Simon, a family shaped by their German ancestry and 91ֱ��’s mercantile class.

The book is written by , Senior Lecture in Geography, , Doctoral Researcher in History, Dr Diana Leitch MBE, former Deputy University Librarian of the John Rylands Library, , Professor of Intellectual History, and , Professor Emerita in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Although many in 91ֱ�� are familiar with the Simon name – through the University’s Simon Building, Simonsway in Wythenshawe and the 91ֱ�� College’s Shena Simon Campus – the family themselves are often overlooked in favour of other prolific local individuals. This volume aims to boost their profile by illuminating their deep contributions to public life, both locally and nationally. 

The book aims to study the family collectively, by highlighting the marriages of Henry and Emily and of Ernest and Shena as strong partnerships in which the women played important roles not just as mothers and housewives but also as philanthropists, activists and public figures.

Dr Diana Leitch said: “Emily Simon was one of the first women to be awarded an OBE in 1920, shortly before she died aged 60, for her tireless work at the Red Cross Hospital she ran in her home in very tragic personal circumstances. It was a tribute to her courage and resilience through the First World War.”

The first section of the volume, ‘Cosmopolitan 91ֱ�� and the Simons’, focuses on the four Simons as individuals; the four biographical chapters are framed by a study of Manchester’s German community. The second part, ‘The Simons’ contribution to society’, emphasises the family as a unit and spotlights their economic, social and political endeavours in 91ֱ��. 

In a later chapter, ‘Burghers and citizens: The Simons and the University of Manchester’ Professor Stuart Jones and Dr Professor Chris Godden examine the relationship between the University and the Simon family. Ernest and Shena were at the heart of the University for many decades, and the family have a long connection with the institution and its precursors. 

In 1898, as a leading benefactor, Henry Simon was asked to lay the foundation stone for the new Physics Laboratories for Owens College, later integrated in 1903 into The University of Manchester. It was in these same laboratories that Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger and their colleagues first split the atom. 

Ernest Simon’s substantial personal investment in social science research - notably through the Simon fellowship scheme - was conceived as a contribution to the cause of citizenship education, to which he devoted much of his public work from the 1930s onwards.

Professor Stuart Jones comments: “As a senior lay officer at the University for a quarter of a century, as a leading benefactor, and as a practically-minded thinker, Ernest Simon did more than anyone in his time to sustain a vision of what it meant to be a civic university: a university for the city.”

The family greatly enriched 91ֱ��’s cultural and civic institutions, worked to improve the lives of its citizens and helped to spearhead profound national reforms in healthcare, women’s rights, housing, civic planning and education. 

• Read the full text of The Simons of Manchester .

On Tuesday 23 April, President Higgins attended a conferral dinner at The Whitworth during which he was presented with his honorary degree. In 2011, Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland and re-elected in November 2018 to serve a second term in office. The President undertook postgraduate studies at The University of Manchester from 1968 -1971.

Speaking at the conferral ceremony, President Higgins said: “The conferral of a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from this esteemed University is an honour I very much appreciate, receiving it as I do in what is a very special year for The University of Manchester as it celebrates its 200^th anniversary. This honour that you have bestowed on me has a particular personal resonance, given my family connections with 91ֱ��. My two sisters came to 91ֱ�� in the late 1950s and married and reared their families here. This was followed by my own experience as a postgraduate student at this University in the late 1960s, times of hope and promise.

“This period and the work of scholars I met and worked with instilled in me a profound and lifelong interest in migration. This honour I accept today, not just for myself, but for all migrants and those who study and care for them.”

A passionate political voice, a poet and writer, academic and statesman, human rights advocate, promoter of inclusive citizenship and champion of creativity within Irish society, Michael D. Higgins has previously served at every level of public life in Ireland, including as Ireland's first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

Speaking about the visit Professor Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University said: “In conferring an honorary degree upon President Higgins and looking forward to his lecture we celebrate power of sharing knowledge to unite us and inspire change. It is especially important during our bicentenary year in which we celebrate 200 years of our incredible people and community and look toward the future.”

On Wednesday 24 April, The President will deliver the first of a new annual series of lectures at The University of Manchester named the John Kennedy Lecture Series. The lecture series will run for five years as part of the University’s . The lectures will promote topics related to the island of Ireland. The lecture will be .

The title of the inaugural lecture, presented by President Higgins is: ‘Of the consciousness our times need in responding to interacting crises and the role of Universities as spaces of discourse in facilitating it.’

The President’s lecture will touch on themes including; Universities providing grounds for thinking freely and empowering students to think freely for the betterment of society and especially their own societies.

The new lecture series is so named in honour of Dr John Kennedy CBE. Dr Kennedy was brought up in a large family in Ireland, he came to Northwest England and founded John Kennedy Civil Engineering. Over the next three decades, turnover grew from £10,000 to £60 million, making it one of the UK’s most successful construction and engineering companies.

Commenting on the inaugural lecture of the John Kennedy Lecture Series at The University of Manchester, Dr John Kennedy, said: “It is an honour and tremendous pleasure to welcome the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins to the first in this new series of lectures. I am very proud to not only support education in the UK but in particular to be alongside The University of Manchester as it celebrates its 200^th anniversary and remains a pioneering centre of excellence and achievement. I know that tonight’s lecture will be inspiring and thought provoking at a time when the world is in need of peace and wisdom.”

This event, coinciding with Black History Month, provides a unique opportunity to directly engage with the insights of BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) scholars, advocates, and activists on the harms of colonialism and how to recognise and overcome them. 

The lecture will take place on Thursday 12 October from 6-8pm. Admission is free, but booking in advance is essential - to confirm your attendance, please book a ticket on .

 

The paper – “Political Astroturfing on Twitter: How to Coordinate a Disinformation Campaign” – was published in the journal . ‘Astroturfing’ comes from the way in which agents appear to be part of a genuine grassroots movement, when in fact, they are part of an orchestrated and centrally managed campaign.

Using court records from a case in South Korea, where the National Information Service (NIS) was caught trying to influence the 2012 presidential election, the researchers were able to identify 1,008 Twitter accounts controlled by NIS agents. They then examined the patterns of interaction between these known ‘astroturfers’, discovering that they showed clear traces of coordination.

This coordination emerged from what University researcher Dr David Schoch calls “the principal agent problem”. He says; “The campaign organizer (or "principal") wants things done a certain way. For astroturfing campaigns, this means that the agents should try to appear as if they are part of a legitimate grassroots campaign. The "agents", however, may lack the motivation to do so and try to cut corners to please the organizers.”

Their desire to speed up the process leads to the agents copy and pasting messages across several accounts, which allowed the researchers to look for tweets with exactly the same content, which were posted in a short time window.

“In summary,” says Dr Schoch, “the coordination patterns we looked for are two accounts posting the same tweet within a short time window, and two accounts retweeting the same tweet within a short time window.”

A key point which makes this paper notable is that it focussed on networks of real, human agents, rather than the automated ‘bots’ which we usually think of when we talk about fake news on Twitter. In fact, the results of the study show that networks of human actors actually display more coordinated patterns than bots.

The authors also had the NIS data to use as a “ground truth” dataset, says Dr Schoch. Otherwise, they would “have to rely on detection algorithms being 100% accurate, which of course is wishful thinking!”

Applying this information to the Twitter data obtained from the court case, the researchers were able to detect a further 921 suspect accounts likely to be involved in the NIS campaign.

They are also investigating previous campaigns, Dr Schoch adds; “We are currently studying around 10 more recent campaigns around the globe to see whether these coordination patterns can also be observed. Preliminary results suggest that this is indeed the case.”