LLC celebrates International Women's Day 2019
Join a range of amazing LLC staff and students for events celebrating women’s contributions to literatures, languages and cultures.
Better the balance, better the world.
International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated annually in March, Women’s History Month. It’s a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity, with this year’s theme being #BalanceforBetter.
Across the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) - both on and beyond campus - our staff and students are involved in a range of events celebrating women’s contributions to literatures, languages and cultures and encouraging people of all genders to join them.
Here’s a flavour of what’s going on:
The Sense of a Woman - Tasting
Thursday 7th March 2019 (7.15pm, Potterrow Dome, 5/2 Bristo Place, Edinburgh. Charge applies / booking required)
Join the University of Edinburgh Water of Life Society, including our own Elaine Newton-Bruzza (Tutor and PhD student in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies) for stories and a dram that connect women to the world of whisky.
Out of the Air: Women, Creativity and Intelligence Work
Friday 8th March 2019 (10am-5:30pm, The Mansion, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes. Charge applies / booking required)
Convened by Natalie Ferris, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, this one-day symposium will bring together writers, artists, scholars and technologists to explore the role of women in surveillance, transcription, cryptography, espionage, translation, observation, visualisation and recording.
Women of Edinburgh - a Wikipedia event for International Women's Day 2019
Friday 8th March 2019 (11am-5pm, Argyle House, 3 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh. Free / booking advised)
Organised by the University's Wikimedian in Residence, this Wikipedia edit-a-thon will focus on improving the quality of articles about notable women; with a particular focus on women associated with Edinburgh. The event will be held in the Brenda Moon room at Argyle House, with guest talks, badge-making and the official room naming ceremony taking place over lunch (provided) at 1-2pm.
Poema de la semana: women poets from Latin America
Friday 8th March 2019 (1pm, Portuguese Centre Coffee Area, 3rd floor, 50 George Square, Edinburgh. Free / no booking required)
The weekly postgraduate poetry reading group in Spanish will be reading and discussing poetry in Spanish by women poets from Latin America.
Celtic and Scottish Studies seminar series: IWD 2019 celebration
Friday 8th March 2019 (1.10pm, Project Room, 50 George Square, Edinburgh. Free / no booking required)
Join a wonderful line-up of women poets, singers and scholars - including Meg Bateman, Gerda Stevenson, Christine De Luca, Valerie Gillies and Katherine Campbell - to celebrate the life and work of Professor Catherine Kerrigan, editor of the pioneering Anthology of Scottish Women Poets (1991), in poetry and song.
Find out more
Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival - wine, tapas and Perfect Strangers
Friday 8th March 2019 (6.15pm, Screening Room, 50 George Square, Edinburgh. Charge applies / booking required)
Led by and organised by Marian A. Aréchaga and Patricia Rueda, both of whom teach in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival prepares for its sixth annual run with a fundraising event. Following a commemorative toast to International Women's Day, enjoy wine, tapas and a screening of the 2017 film "Perfectos desconocidos" (Prefect Strangers) with an introduction by Bárbara Fernández Melleda (Teaching Fellow in Spanish).
Shoreline of Infinity Event Horizon – An evening of women in science fiction
Thursday 14th March 2019 (7.30pm, Frankenstein, 26 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Free / no booking required)
Guest hosted by Pippa Goldschmidt, this event will feature music, poetry and prose readings, including a science fiction short story by our own Jane Alexander (Senior Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing), part of a collection of uncanny short fiction about contemporary science and technology.
Find out more on the Shoreline of Infinity website [external site]
Trad. Reclaimed - Women in Folk
Friday 15th - Sunday 17th March 2019 (various times, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London. Charge applies / booking required)
Co-curated with Rachel Newton, Trad. Reclaimed features musicians and singers - including our own Lori Watson (Lecturer in Scottish Ethnology) - from the contemporary folk scene. Celebrating iconic female figures in the scene’s development, this is the first time the event will feature an all-female line-up in its programme of performances, workshops and talks.
Find out more and book on the Kings Place website [external site]
Centre for the History of the Book Seminar Series: Lucinda Byatt
Friday 29th March 2019 (12.10pm, Project Room, 50 George Square, Edinburgh. Free / no booking required)
In a Women's History Month special, join our colleague Dr Lucinda Byatt for a talk on Janet Coats who, 100 years ago this year, founded the James Tait Black Prizes. The Prizes are the only major book awards judged by scholars and students, specifically senior staff and postgraduate students from English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.