Saturday Evening Lecture Series 2016

Published On Mon 1 Feb 2016 by Grant Hill

Subjects ranging from the Arctic to Afghanistan, crime to comics, and disease to design will be explored during this year’s Saturday Evening Lecture Series (SELS) at the University of Dundee.

The flagship series will begin its 2016 run on Saturday, 13th February when Greenpeace activist Ben Stewart recounts the peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic that led to 30 of his colleagues spending months in a Russian jail after being charged with piracy.

SELS is Scotland's oldest continuous free public lecture series and attracts thousands of people each year eager to hear from prestigious, world-class speakers. The inaugural event will be followed by a further five talks between February and May.

Stewart is Greenpeace's Head of Media and was a leading campaigner to have the Arctic 30 released following their arrest in September 2013. His lecture, ‘Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg’, takes its title from the critically acclaimed book he wrote based on exclusive access to the activists, Russian sources, Greenpeace campaigners and high-profile supporters.

“The intention was to hold a classic piece of non-violent action with the aim of drawing attention to the first rig that was to attempt to pump oil from the icy waters of the Arctic,” he said. “It was very quickly evident that the Russians were reacting differently to the protest than other national authorities had in the past.

“Guns were very quickly pulled and the Russian coastguard fired a cannon as commandos stormed our ship, the Arctic Sunrise. The protestors expected to be released, as was normal in such cases, when they reached shore but instead found themselves in court and accused of piracy, an offence that carries a 10-15-year prison sentence in a country where 99 per cent of people charged with a crime end up being found guilty.

“It was frightening for us but for the guys who were thrown in jail it was truly terrifying. After several months incarceration they were eventually pardoned by Putin on the same day as Pussy Riot. As I spoke to my friends when they were released they told me the most incredible stories about their experiences of being imprisoned in Russia and I knew I wanted to write a book about it.

“The title, Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg, is an old Russian prison motto that some of the Arctic 30 were told by fellow prisoners when they were locked up. Using this and other techniques they managed to survive jail.”

All lectures in the 2016 SELS programme take place in the Dalhousie Building and begin at 6pm. They are followed by a drinks reception and, where relevant, a book signing. The full programme is as follows:

• 13th February – ‘Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg’ by Ben Stewart.
• 5th March – ‘International Crime’ by Professor Sue Black, Professor Niamh Nic Daeid and Dorothy Bain QC, with a very special guest.
• 28th March – ‘From Kabul to Raqqa: How we have gone from Afghanistan to a more dangerous world’ by Christina Lamb.
• 26th March – ‘Clouds, Comics and Gaming: Too cool for school?’ by a panel of academics and industry experts.
• 14th May – ‘What is the University of Dundee doing about infectious diseases?’ by Professor Mike Ferguson.
• 28th May – ‘Menswear Designer’ by Patrick Grant.

The tradition of holding public lectures dates right back to the founding of University College Dundee in 1881. The early professors and staff were keen to establish and strengthen ties with the people of Dundee and Tayside by holding evening classes, giving public lectures and undertaking welfare.

The public lecture programmes reflected research interests of College staff as well as topics that were of a more general nature. The evening lectures as we know them today can be traced back to a series of lectures held jointly with the Dundee Naturalists Society beginning with a lecture by Principal John Yule Mackay on Primitive Man in October 1924.

Free tickets for all events in the 2016 Saturday Evening Lecture Series can be obtained by visiting www.dundee.ac.uk/sels, emailing events@dundee.ac.uk, calling 01382 385108 or from the University’s Tower Building Reception.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 384768
Mobile: 07854 953277
Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk