12 September 2013

New lecture series explores the city of Dundee through academic eyes

The co-dependent nature of the relationship between Mary Lily Walker and the city she dedicated her life to improving will be explored at the first instalment of a new series of public lectures at the University of Dundee.

The first Engage Dundee Evening Lecture will see Eddie Small, a University tutor and the author of a new book on the pioneering social reformer discuss 'Dundee and Miss Mary Lily Walker: how they needed each other' at the Dalhousie building from 5.30pm on Thursday, 19th September.

Eddie's book focuses on Mary Lily Walker's achievements in helping the most helpless, but his talk will ask whether her work could have been more effective at another period in time, what Dundee would have been like without her intervention, and whether she needed Dundee, and its social problems, to give her life some purpose.

'Without Dundee to cosset, what could have become of Mary Lily Walker?' asked Eddie. 'Brought up in a family of strict Victorian values, but in a time when opportunities for women were beginning to appear, Mary Lily was torn between family loyalties and a desire to embrace change.

'All this happened in a town which she loved dearly but which was rife with social inequality and growing poverty and degradation. The course she took changed her, and changed Dundee.'

Engage Dundee Evenings have been organised to showcase the work of academics within the University's College of Arts & Social Sciences (CASS). The lectures are part of a wider Engage Dundee initiative by CASS to disseminate knowledge locally and globally in order to make a positive difference to the social and cultural wellbeing of society.

Two further events will be held this autumn as part of the inaugural series, both focusing on the city of Dundee. They are:

• 17th October - 'Dundee and the Tay: How Railways Changed the Waterfront' by Professor Rob Duck.
• 14th November - 'Dundee and the Great War: perspectives on a city at war' by Dr Billy Kenefick and Dr Derek Patrick.

'Dundee and Miss Mary Lily Walker: how they needed each other' by Eddie Small takes place from 5.30pm on Thursday, 19th September and will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

All lectures will be held in the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, and will be followed by a drinks reception. Entry is free, and places can be reserved by calling 01382 381184 or emailing cassoffice@dundee.ac.uk.

More information is available at www.dundee.ac.uk/cass/events/

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277