Semester 1 2021-22

15 September 2021 – Children’s Rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely supported international human rights treaty. Kate Mackenzie (Department of French/Strathclyde Law School) and Debora Kayembe, human rights lawyer and Rector of Edinburgh University, discuss what this actually means for children around the world and in Scotland. Do children know their rights; how can they access them; and what will change with the proposed incorporation of the Convention into Scots law?

29 September 2021 – Around Distant Suns

Join Emily Finer (Department of Russian) in conversation with Emma Puranen, St Leonards interdisciplinary PhD student in Modern Languages, Biology and Astrophysics. Emma is editor of a new anthology of science fiction stories authored by pairs of creative writers and scientists from the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science. There will be readings from the anthology and reflections from contributors on how science and science fiction inspire each other in this interdisciplinary creative collaboration.

13 October 2021 – Love Songs Lost

Join Dr Ted Bergman, Dr PJ Lennon and Dr Javier Letrán from the Department of Spanish and artists from the duo AURIC for a performance based on Spanish classical poetry translated and adapted to English by Paula Rodríguez and set to music by Arthur Astier. The theme for the evening is love. Verses from both Spanish Medieval and Golden Age traditions will be discussed and brought into the modern age through the universal power of music and the spoken word.

10 November 2021 – Italy is Out

Mario Badagliacca is a Sicilian photographer who documents human mobility, its culture and constraints. His book, edited with Derek Duncan (Department of Italian) Italy is out, contains a selection of portraits of Italians who have emigrated accompanied by a study of objects which they chose to represent their ongoing attachment to Italy. It also contains a series of short written pieces – historical, fictional, academic, autobiographical. Join them to discuss the multiple ways of responding to these very moving images. Mario and Derek will be joined in conversation by the Italian-American writer Edvige Giunta, featured in the book.