Lectures - Caryl Phillips and Tom Devine

An eminent black British writer is to deliver a public reading of his work in conjunction with a special conference organised by the department of English next month. Caryl Philips, winner of the James Tait Black memorial prize and shortlisted for the Booker prize will be giving a reading in DCA's small gallery on Saturday 10 November at 6.30pm.

Philips is a writer of international repute whose novels include The Nature of Blood (1997), Crossing the River (1993), Cambridge (1991), Higher ground (1989) and The Final Passage (1985). He has worked in the theatre and is widely known as a critic. He teaches at Colombia University and is currently adapting VS Naipaul's novel, The Mystic Masseur for a film.

The one day conference - "A Black British Canon?" will debate the formation of this canon taking as its focus the materiality of the text. It will explore the production and marketing of anthologies, journals, the history of publishing, the visibility and invisibility of particular ethnic groups and explore the question of regional voices in relation to a more English metropolitan and urban scene. The conference will also explore the definition of Black British against a backdrop of devolution and transnationalism. Dr Alison Donnell, editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Black British culture will deliver the keynote address. For more information on the conference contact Dr Gail Low in the English department g.low@dundee.ac.uk

Tom Devine

Professor Tom Devine of the University of Aberdeen will deliver the Royal Society of Edinburgh lecture in the Tower Extension lecture theatre on Wednesday 21 November at 6pm. "Stranger in a Strange Land? Two Centuries of the Irish in Scotland" will address the marginalisation of Scotland's largest immigrant group in our historiography. Professor Devine will present a revisionist view of the Irish in Scotland based on new research and fresh interpretations. Tickets of admission are required for this free event and can be obtained from The Royal Society of Edinburgh 0131 240 5000 www.royalsoced.org.uk.

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