Heroes & Villains – 10th annual Culture Day
Published On Thu 25 Sep 2014 by Grant Hill
Writers, musicians, computer scientists, biologists and historians are among those who will be exploring historic and contemporary representations of good and evil at the University of Dundee’s 10th annual Culture Day next month.
Students, staff and members of the public will be treated to a rich and varied programme entitled, ‘Heroes & Villains’ at the Baxter Conference Room 1.36 on Wednesday, 1st October. This year’s event takes place in collaboration with the University’s Centre for Scottish Culture, as part of Scottish Heroes & Villains Month.
Organised by its Culture and Arts Forum, the Culture Day is now firmly established in the University's calendar and has proved popular with a wide audience. The event features a series of 15-minute presentations and performances from members of the Forum and is intended to showcase a range of subjects relating to the theme.
Admiral Duncan, William Topaz McGonagall, Douglas Haig, Carl Linnaeus, David Hume and Shakespeare's tragic figures are among those whose reputations will be re-evaluated over the course of the day.
“People may have a very fixed idea of who is and who isn’t a hero or villain,” said event co-ordinator Matthew Jarron. “Often this is down to cultural norms of the time and how events and people were represented for a number of different reasons.
“What our Forum members will be doing is showing how the truth is often much more complex and will be re-examining their reputations with the benefit of hindsight to establish which figures have been treated kindly by the history books and those who have been unfairly demonised.”
‘Heroes & Villains’ takes place at the Baxter Conference Room 1.36, Tower Building, from 1pm-5.30pm on Wednesday, 1st October, with 12 short lectures planned to take place. As always, admission is free and visitors are welcome to attend as much or as little of the programme as they like.
More information is available at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/caf/.
The Centre for Scottish Culture and partner organisations are running Scottish Heroes & Villains Month throughout October. A series of academic and creative word-and-image events will explore the role and impact of real-life and fictional Scottish heroes and villains, from Wallace to Ossian, Dr Jekyll to Saltire, Scotland’s First Superhero.
The project brings together staff and students in English and Film Studies, Comics, Theatre Studies, Creative Writing, Scottish History, Archives, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and other departments across the University, as well as Dundee Literary Festival, JOOT theatre company, Great War Dundee, and other local groups.
More information about the events taking place can be found at http://www.dundeescottishculture.org/.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
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