8 April 2008

Westwood & Boyd to receive honorary degrees

World famous designer Dame Vivienne Westwood and acclaimed author William Boyd will be honoured by the University of Dundee at this year’s graduation ceremonies in June.

Dame Vivienne Westwood has been one of the world’s most influential designers for more than 30 years. Her designs combine a fearless unconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her gentle parody of Establishment styles, her use of very British fabrics such as Harris tweed and tartan and her re-use of historic garments such as the corset and crinoline.

While in Dundee she will, alongside students from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, deliver a reading of Manifesto as part of the second annual Dundee Literary Festival which will be held at the University concurrent with graduation.

William Boyd is one of the most critically acclaimed novelists alive - his novels and stories have been published around the world and translated into thirty languages.

He has been described as a wry historian of 20th-century life and his ninth book, `Restless’, won the 2006 Costa Novel of the Year which added to a clutch of previous awards. In her critical analysis of Boyd's style, Eve Patten has suggested that: "It could be said that both his stories and his novels are governed by the ideal of a 'discerning intellectual pleasure', one sustained by his ability to marry individual interest with historical scope, and to fuse conceptual purpose with the power of compelling narrative".

Mr Boyd will also take part in the Dundee Literary Festival, which is running at the University around the same time as Graduation.

"We are delighted that Dame Vivienne Westwood and William Boyd have agreed to accept honorary degrees from the University of Dundee," said Sir Alan Langlands, Principal of the University of Dundee."

Vivienne Westwood and William Boyd are true icons in their respective fields that our own students can aspire to.

William Boyd will receive his honorary degree at the morning graduation ceremony on Thursday June 19th. Dame Vivienne Westwood will be honored at the afternoon ceremony on the same date.

Details of other honorary degrees to be conferred at this year’s graduations at the University will follow at a later date, as will full details of Dundee Literary Festival 2008. For tickets to see Dame Vivienne Westwood or William Boyd at the Dundee Literary Festival, log on to www.dundeeliteraryfest.org. To be added to the mailing list for the festival, email dundeeliteraryfestival@gmail.com.

For media enquiries contact:
Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk