The University of Dundee is celebrating graduation this year with two special lectures as part of its Graduation Sensation festival programme.
Professor Charles McKean will deliver "The Greatest Minds" public lecture on Thursday 11 July at 7pm in the tented village which the University is erecting outside the Sensation Science Centre for the graduation celebrations. He will attempt to lift the amnesia from the Dundee - the City he describes as a "great Baltic port" and bring to life the golden age of pre-Jute Dundee. His lecture will be illustrated, giving an insight into Dundee's forgotten history and placing the City in a European context.
Charles McKean, Professor of Scottish architectural history at the University of Dundee and a popular local historian, has written about most periods of Scottish architectural history, from the Middle Ages to the current Scottish Parliament Building. His focus is periods of Scottish Renaissance when architecture flowered within a European context and when Scotland once again appeared to be striving for a new architectural individuality.
Renowned artist David Mach will return to his alma mater to deliver the annual Discovery Lecture in the Bonar Hall on Saturday 13 July. Entilted Hell Bent Mach will discuss art, his own work and the influence of his years in Dundee at Duncan of Jordanstone.
David Mach was famously commissioned to construct the national self-portrait at the millennium dome. After graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College in the late 1970s, Mach went on to make an international name for himself as a leading contemporary artist and sculptor. He built the makeshift Temple of Tyre in Edinburgh, the enormous Sumo Wrestler , the brick train at Darlington and his Big Heids on the M8 are seen by commuters and travellers on the Edinburgh Glasgow M8 every day.
The annual Discovery Lecture follows the University of Dundee's graduates' council AGM to which all alumni of the University are welcome. The AGM takes place at 10am and is followed by the Discovery lecture at 12 noon. These events are preceded by a staff/alumni party in the Graduation Sensation tented village on the evening of Friday 12 July. Tickets to this event are still available and graduates can purchase tickets by calling the University on 01382 344910.