Public Events Programme
2017
University Centre Shrewsbury is proud to play a role in the cultural life of Shropshire.
Many of our events are free, and they are open to anyone.
Our public talks and workshops span the five learning and research areas of UCS,
which are aligned to local, regional and national socio-economic needs:
• Medicine and Health;
• Sustainable Business and Community Development;
• Societal Innovation;
• Design, Heritage and the Built Environment;
• Creativity, Culture and Place.
Within these areas, subjects in our 2017 programme of events range from local
history and children’s literature to European politics and medical ethics.
Whichever of our talks is of interest to you, we look forward to welcoming you to the
University Centre.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
JANUARY
APRIL (continued)
Tuesday 10 Arts and Crafts Stained Glass:
Margaret Rope’s Windows onto Heaven
Saturday 29 Georgian Shrewsbury: Town of Leisure.
Wednesday 25 Military History talk
about Eric Lock DSO, DFC and Bar
A Study Day in Memory of Julia Ionides
MAY
Saturday 6 The Russian Revolution through
FEBRUARY
Literature
Wednesday 8 The Early History of the Other
Friday 12 Medical Consent – Is the Law out
Of Touch With Young People?
Shrewsbury
Sunday 12 The Darwin Memorial Lecture 2017
Monday 13 Darwin Symposium: Generating
Wednesday 17 From Battlefield to Burkini:
A Journey into Franco-African History
New Ideas – Scientific Innovation and the
Discovery of Evolution by Natural Selection
Wednesday 31 Sense and Sensibility:
Rethinking Jane Austen
Wednesday 15 Kingship, Warfare, and
Conversion in Early Anglo-Saxon England
JUNE
Saturday 18 Whose Heritage Is It Anyway?
MARCH
Wednesday 8 A Writer’s Irony
Friday 17 Why Teaching Young People about
Death is Important
Wednesday 22 Reprogenetics: The View from
Wednesday 7 Breaking the Mould: Challenging
Stereotypes and Celebrating Diversity in
Children’s and Young Adult Fiction
Wednesday 14 The Sonnet: Perfection in Miniature
Wednesday 28 Let the Teachers Teach
SEPTEMBER
Sociology
Saturday 9 Reading Group Meeting: Bob Dylan –
APRIL
Wednesday 20 Tolkien and His Work
Saturday 1 The Story of Silk
Tuesday 4 Nursing Men with Psychological
Trauma during the First World War
Thursday 6 Uncovering Hidden Gems
– What Unexploited Intellectual Property Can
be Found Lurking in the Bottom Drawers of our
University Labs?
Wednesday 19 From Leprosy to Ebola:
The Impact of Stigma in Medicine, Health
and Social Care
Saturday 22 Rereading Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford
Nobel Prize Winner
OCTOBER
Wednesday 11 Poetry – A Private Art or
a Public One?
Saturday 28 Reading Group Meeting: JK
Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone – Twenty Years Later
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 8 What Does Good Inclusive Growth
Look Like?
3
JANUARY 2017
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 6PM
ARTS AND CRAFTS
STAINED GLASS: MARGARET ROPE’S WINDOWS ONTO HEAVEN
Dr Claire FitzGerald
This lecture will address
female participation
in the field of Arts and
Crafts stained glass,
looking at Shrewsbury
native Margaret A Rope’s
(1882-1953) oeuvre in
particular. A student
of the progressive
Birmingham Municipal School of Art at the dawn
of the 20th century, Rope learnt her craft under
the guidance of Henry Payne (1868-1940). This
entailed an integrated approach to design, in
which the artist was involved throughout its
realisation. A love for the compositional strength
and quality of materials found in medieval
windows, was combined with contemporary
design and technologies. Moved by a deep
engagement with Catholicism, Margaret Rope’s
art decorates Catholic edifices across Great
Britain, as well as in Italy and Australia. Alongside
the analysis of the rich symbolism and narrative
quality of her windows, a case will be made
for the compatibility of some of the ideals of
the Arts and Crafts movement with Rope’s
journey of faith. The continuation of her artistic
career from within a Carmelite convent offers
4
an intriguing model for the logistics of artistic
production. It also created specific conditions
which would contribute to the process of the
erasure of her presence from art history. This talk
participates in efforts to reinstate her reputation,
in collaboration with an exhibition of her work
at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery towards
the end of last year.
Dr Claire FitzGerald is an art historian who
specialises in late 19th- and early 20th-century
British art and design. She recently completed
a PhD at the University of Warwick, which was
funded by a University of Warwick Chancellor’s
Scholarship. Her thesis focused on Birminghamtrained craftswomen working in book illustration,
tempera painting, stained glass and embroidery.
She is currently preparing elements of her
research for publication. Lately, her attribution of
a long-lost embroidery to the artist Mary Newill
received attention in the press.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
JANUARY 2017
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1PM
ERIC LOCK DSO, DFC AND BAR
Mike Bradbury
Mike was born into a farming
family at the Bridge Farm
Stapleton, just south of
Shrewsbury in 1938 and
educated at Dorrington C of
E School and later Church
Stretton Secondary Modern
School. On leaving school
he worked with his father on
their farm. At the age of 18, he
registered for National Service
with the RAF. He later joined
the Royal Observer Corps on 16
Group Golf Three Dorrington
post, over the next four years
gaining promotion to become
the Chief Observer (Sergeant
in the RAF). This post was closed in a reorganisation of the ROC in 1968 and Mike was posted to
16 Group Echo One Post Bomere Heath. In 1971 he gained promotion to the rank of Observer
Officer (Pilot Officer in RAF), a rank he held until the Royal Observer Corps was stood-down on
30th September 1991. Being a founder member of the Royal Observer Corps Association, he is now
treasure and standard bearer.
Mike is also a member of Shrewsbury Branch of the Royal Air Force Association where he is Social
Secretary and Liaison Officer to No 1119 Squadron Shrewsbury of the Air Training Corps.
In 2016, Steve Brew and Mike launched their book A Ruddy Awful Waste, which tells the story of Flight
Lieutenant Eric Stanley Lock DSO, DFC and Bar, born like Mike into a farming family at Bayston Hill on
19th April 1919, who joined the RAF to become Britain’s highest scoring Battle of Britain Pilot. Mike is
related to Eric and he is the subject of his talk.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street, Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
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FEBRUARY 2017
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1PM
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE
OTHER SHREWSBURY
Dr Rachael Abbiss
The Dominion of New England (1686-1689) was
the first substantial attempt to consolidate the
colonies and the military under royal authority.
Defence across New England improved
significantly during the reign of James VII and II.
Regular officers and soldiers travelled throughout
the colonies to observe defences, deliver troops
and supplies, and organise military resources.
To support the army and provide better security
for the colonists and territory, forts and garrisons
were rejuvenated and constructed between
1686 and 1689. This lecture will consider the
early history of Shrewsbury in Massachusetts and
the impact of defensive measures and military
organisation in New England, prior to the town’s
official formation in 1717.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2PM
DARWIN MEMORIAL LECTURE
2017: COINCIDENCE?
DARWIN, WALLACE AND THE
CO-DISCOVERY OF EVOLUTION
BY NATURAL SELECTION
Dr Andrew Berry, Harvard University
Evolution by natural selection is biology’s
central idea and arguably its most important
one. That this disarmingly simple notion was
independently discovered synchronously
by both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace suggests that our focus should be
on what they had in common, the milieu –
social, cultural, technological, political – in
which they lived. This lecture will review some
of those factors, emphasizing the implicit
lesson for the history of science – that a full
understanding needs a multidimensional
reconstruction of the world in which scientists
lived and worked.
Venue: Walker Theatre, Theatre Severn
Admission: SOLD OUT
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 6PM
DARWIN SYMPOSIUM 2017: GENERATING NEW IDEAS – SCIENTIFIC
INNOVATION AND THE DISCOVERY OF EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION
Dr Andrew Berry leads a symposium that seeks to deconstruct the way in which innovation actually
happens, challenging the notion that scientific discovery necessarily involves some kind of ‘eureka!’
moment. Join Dr Berry and Professor John Williams, Director of Postgraduate Medicine at UCS, in this
exclusive symposium aimed at sixth formers, college students, and anyone with an interest in the topic.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Shrewsbury SH3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
6
FEBRUARY 2017
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1PM
KINGSHIP, WARFARE, AND CONVERSION
IN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Dr Tom Pickles
Following the end of Roman rule in Britain, the 5th and 6th centuries saw a period of
migration from northern Germany and southern Scandinavia, and a patchwork of petty
kingdoms emerged in what is now England, inhabited by Anglo-Saxon peoples and their
kings. Though initially understood to be non-Christians, the kings and their peoples converted
to Christianity in the 7th century. This lecture will consider the emergence of Anglo-Saxon
kings, the central role of warfare in sustaining their authority and power, and the impact of
conversion to Christianity on the relationship between kingship and warfare.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street, Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 12.30  1.15PM
NATIONAL FESTIVAL OF LGBT
HISTORY: WHOSE HERITAGE IS
IT ANYWAY?
Dr James Pardoe and Emma-Kate Lanyon
– Team Leader, Collections and Curatorial
Services, Shrewsbury Museum
This talk is part of a weekend of events
marking the National Festival of LGBT History.
The launch takes place at UCS at 6.15pm on
Friday 17 February and the weekend features
school collaborations, entertainment and
film at UCS and The Hive, as well as this
exploration of the ‘ownership’ of heritage.
Venue: Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free; booking via Eventbrite.co.uk
Contact: [email protected]
7
MARCH 2017
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1PM
A WRITER’S IRONY
Professor Alan Wall
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1PM
WHY TEACHING YOUNG PEOPLE
ABOUT DEATH IS IMPORTANT
Dr Judith Wester
Professor Alan Wall, a novelist and
poet, teaches Creative Writing at
University Centre Shrewsbury and
the University of Chester. His talk will
offer a reflection on how writers have
engaged with irony. Professor Wall
will consider irony as a fracture in
the surface of meaning. Writers have
always used it. It lets them exploit the
gap between ‘what I am saying to you’,
and ‘what I actually mean’. This talk
will explore ironic manoeuvres from
antiquity to the present day.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact:
[email protected]
8
The talk will include:
understanding what death
education is; problems
associated with early
childhood loss; a review
of a 2014-16 case study
– Community Education
in Death Awareness and
Resources (CEDAR) Life
Lessons in conjunction with
West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner; and
results from Healthwatch research on the project.
Dr Judith Wester’s first degree focused on behavioural
science and psychology, which she brings into
the classroom to enhance the teaching-learning
experience of young people. Her MPhil research
focused on a comparative study between how death
education has been taught in the USA in the 60s
and 70s and how it has subsequently developed in
UK post-1980 higher education. Her PhD research
focused on the history of death in Western medicine
and the changes that have occurred within the endof-life medical treatment decision-making processes
as a result. The basis of her work centres on improving
communication around death, dying and loss for
young people, adults and professionals.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
MARCH/APRIL 2017
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 7PM
REPROGENETICS: THE VIEW FROM SOCIOLOGY
Dr Caroline Wright, Principal Teaching Fellow in Sociology at the University of Warwick
Reprogenetics is the
use of reproductive
and genetic
technologies to
select and genetically
modify embryos.
Why has it provoked
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
THE STORY OF SILK
Professor Deborah Wynne
Venue: Macclesfield Silk Museum,
Park Lane, Macclesfield, SK11 6TJ
Admission: £20; booking via the Museum
Contact: 01625 613210
fears of ‘designer babies’ and are these fears
justified? Are ‘saviour siblings’ ethical? What
does reprogenetics mean for women’s
embodied experiences? Does it matter that
mitochondrial replacement, now licensed in
the UK, means a child can have three genetic
parents? This lecture explores reprogenetics
from feminist sociological perspectives,
considering the tensions with eugenics
alongside the role of women (and their body
parts) in the genetic revolution.
Venue: SGH206, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
9
APRIL 2017
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1PM
NURSING MEN WITH
PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA
DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Dr Claire Chatterton, Staff Tutor, School of Health,
Wellbeing and Social Care, The Open University
Nurses during the First World War were
expected to deal with both physical and
psychological trauma and suffering. Hallett
(2009) however has drawn attention to the
invisibility of nurses in accounts of what she
terms the ‘emotional containment’ side of
their work. By the end of World War One, the
British Army had dealt with over 80,000 cases of
what was commonly referred to as ‘shell shock’
(Leese, 2014) and accounts have continued to
fascinate, as the success of Pat Barker’s bestselling novel Regeneration and the subsequent
film bear witness. Famous medical men such
as Rivers and Yealland are frequently discussed
in accounts of the treatment of psychological
trauma such as shellshock, but much less
is known about the nurses who worked
alongside them and were expected to provide
an environment which would promote and
aid recovery. This talk draws on an analysis of
archival sources and articles from contemporary
journals. It aims to give an insight into this
aspect of nursing work during World War One
and illustrates the diversity of the medical and
nursing approaches that were undertaken.
Venue: SGH019, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 6PM
UNCOVERING HIDDEN GEMS –
WHAT UNEXPLOITED INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY CAN BE FOUND LURKING
IN THE BOTTOM DRAWERS OF OUR
UNIVERSITY LABS?
Dr Simon Brown, Visiting
Professor University
of Wales Trinity
Saint David, Head of
Enterprise Development
(National Centre for
Entrepreneurship in
Education), Enterprise
Education and
Employability Consultant
Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK, FRSA
SETsquared is a partnership of incubators
between the Universities of Southampton,
Bristol, Bath, Surrey and Exeter. They are
acknowledged as the top incubator network
in Europe and second globally. Recently, the
partnership has been involved in a programme
to uncover intellectual property (IP) hidden
10
APRIL 2017
in their universities’ research groups, with the
aim of exploring the potential for exploitation.
The pilot programme, funded by the Higher
Education Funding Council for England and
Innovate UK, has generated some outstanding
impacts. The team is exploring the next phase of
the programme; the roll-out and scale-up of the
pilot to the whole of the UK.
Alan Scrase (SETsquared Centre Manager for
Southampton) and Dr Simon Brown (Consultant)
will introduce the ICURe Innovation-toCommercialisation programme, the findings
from the pilot, and the impact of the roll-out to a
national programme.
Discussions will be invited around the
opportunities for the region and specifically
Shropshire. It will be of particular interest to a
wide range of stakeholders to see how universities
in the region look to increase their role as local
anchor institutions and engines for regeneration.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1PM
FROM LEPROSY TO EBOLA: THE
IMPACT OF STIGMA IN MEDICINE,
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Professor Elizabeth Mason-Whitehead
All of us, as members of humankind, are
travelling on a journey where stigma in all its
guises is ever-present and remains one of the
most distressing experiences to endure and
challenging behaviours to overcome. Within
the disciplines of medicine and health, leprosy
has become a condition associated with shame
and enforced isolation. Curiously, leprosy is not
a particularly infectious disease and yet remains
one of the most stigmatised diseases in the
world, where myths and acts of discrimination
have become larger than the disease itself.
Despite our increasing knowledge, we have
made limited progress in halting public reaction
and the impact of stigma upon the lives of
victims who live with diseases and conditions
associated with prejudice. Challenging stigma
appears at times to be an impossible mountain
to climb, yet any progress will be worth
overcoming the huge effort, particularly for
those people in society who are most vulnerable
and have the quietest voice.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1.30PM  3.30PM
READING GROUP MEETING:
REREADING ELIZABETH
GASKELL’S CRANFORD
Katie Baker
This reading group will consider Elizabeth
Gaskell’s most loved novel, Cranford, and its
television adaptation.
Venue: SGH021, Guildhall,
Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
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APRIL/MAY 2017
SATURDAY, APRIL 29
GEORGIAN SHREWSBURY:
TOWN OF LEISURE
A STUDY DAY IN MEMORY OF
JULIA IONIDES
Dr James Pardoe
Together with architect Peter Howell, the late
Julia Ionides (1942–2015) ran study days and
visits focused on 18th-century Shropshire and
environs under the umbrella of the Dog Rose
Trust. To honour Julia’s legacy, a day of talks by
friends and colleagues will culminate in a walking
tour of Georgian Shrewsbury. Morning coffee/
tea and a ‘Shropshire Buffet’ lunch are included
in the cost of the day. Speakers: Joanna Layton
(‘The Manufactory’ in Georgian Shrewsbury), Gareth
Williams (The Hidden Hand of Genius: Robert Adam
and the Pulteney Estate in Shropshire), Timothy
Mowl (The Wandering Artist – Thomas Robins
in Shropshire and the Midlands) and Advolly
Richmond (The Quarry Park: A Pleasure Ground for a
Leisure Town). Tickets are £30; booking is essential.
Venue: SGH018, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: £30
Contact: [email protected]
12
SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1.30PM  3.30PM
READING GROUP MEETING:
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
THROUGH LITERATURE
Dr Giulia Miller
It is one hundred years since the Russian
Revolution took place, and this event will
consider how writers responded to the
Revolution in their work. We will discuss
George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and
the work of key Russian poets. If you would
like to attend, please read Orwell’s novel
in advance. Copies of the poems will be
available on the day.
Venue: SGH018, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
MAY 2017
FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1PM
MEDICAL CONSENT
– IS THE LAW OUT OF TOUCH
WITH YOUNG PEOPLE?
Derek Willis
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1PM
FROM BATTLEFIELD TO BURKINI:
A JOURNEY INTO FRANCOAFRICAN HISTORY
Professor Claire Griffiths
The lecture takes as its starting point key
political debates that have put France in the
global spotlight. It invites the audience to
take a journey back through four centuries
of French history in Africa to explore some
of the roots of cultural and political debates
that today define France’s role in the world.
Derek Willis is medical director of Severn Hospice
and a lecturer in Bioethics at the UNESCO Centre
at the University of Birmingham. He gained an
honours degree in Medicine at the University of
Birmingham, and trained in palliative care and
general practice. He gained a Master’s in Health
Care Ethics as well as being GP to the Birmingham
Royal Ballet. He was involved in writing and
teaching the Graduate Entry Course at Birmingham
Medical School where he was both Graduate Entry
Moderator and Honorary Lecturer. He was also on
the Children’s Hospital Ethics committee.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
Derek has worked in New Zealand as a GP and
locum consultant in palliative care, and GP to the
national basketball team; he lectured in ethics
there in his spare time!
He has published widely in the areas of ethics,
palliative medicine and primary care.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
13
MAY/JUNE 2017
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1PM
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY:
RETHINKING JANE AUSTEN
BREAKING THE MOULD:
CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES
AND CELEBRATING DIVERSITY
IN CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG
ADULT FICTION
Professor Deborah Wynne
Jane Austen has popularly been associated
with romance plots yet, as those who enjoy her
novels have long known, her work is much more
complex than this suggests. Her stories explore
broader themes, such as money and power;
a woman’s social place; communication and
miscommunication; the nature of society and
the pain of social exclusion. This talk explores
some of the sub-texts of Jane Austen’s work,
showing how her central proposition based
on achieving a balance between ‘sense’ and
‘sensibility’ characterises all of her novels.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
Dr Lucy Andrew
British and American
children’s literature has
long been dominated
by a white, middleclass, heteronormative
construction of
childhood and has
frequently been guilty
of marginalising or
stereotyping groups which do not fit this ideal.
In recent years, however, children’s and young
adult fiction has become increasingly committed
to diversifying its representation of youth
identities and experiences.
Dr Lucy Andrew will trace the history of
constructions of childhood in texts for young
people from the mid-19th century to the
present day and will consider the ways in which
modern children’s and young adult fiction
gives a voice to previously marginalised and
disempowered groups such as BME and LGBTQ
communities, the disabled, low-income families,
young offenders and psychologically vulnerable
young people.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
14
JUNE/SEPTEMBER 2017
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 6PM
THE SONNET: PERFECTION
IN MINIATURE
LET THE TEACHERS TEACH
Dr Bill Hughes
Following on from his Brief Delights lecture last
year, Bill Hughes keeps the theme of the short
poem as he examines the art and artistry of the
sonnet, a form used by poets from the 16th
century to the present day. Taking examples
from Shakespeare to Robert Frost via Christina
Rossetti and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, he will
illustrate the amazing variety of the sonnet’s
highly structured fourteen lines. You will also
gain an insight into a sonnet’s creative process
as you look at manuscript versions of Wilfred
Owen’s famous ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.
Dr Hughes is a former Principal Lecturer in
English at the University of Chester. He is Chair of
Storyhouse, the arts production company that
runs the popular open-air theatre in Chester, and
the city’s new £37million Cultural Centre.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
Professor Anna Sutton
In this talk, part of the
Baxter Lecture series, UCS
Provost Anna Sutton will
reflect on a lifetime in
education as she explores
the challenges and
opportunities of teacher
education.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1.30PM  3.30PM
READING GROUP MEETING:
BOB DYLAN – NOBEL PRIZE
WINNER
Dr Giulia Miller
This discussion
group will
consider the
importance of
Bob Dylan’s work
in the light of the recent Nobel Prize for
Literature award.
Venue: SGH021, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
15
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1PM
TOLKIEN AND HIS WORK
Professor Chris Walsh
JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit,
which celebrates its
80th birthday this year
(it was first published
on 21 September 1937),
is subtitled There and
Back Again. Among other things, it is an
exploration of home and the homely, a theme
Tolkien elaborates in its sequel, The Lord of
the Rings (1954-55). Why was the idea of
home so important to Tolkien, and what is its
significance? In this lecture, Professor Chris
Walsh examines Tolkien’s fascination, in his
Middle Earth writings, with leaving home,
longing for home, and returning home.
Professor Chris Walsh has been an enthusiastic
reader of Tolkien for nearly half a century. For
many years Head of English at the University
of Chester, he was the University’s first Dean of
Humanities, and has written and published widely
on 19th and 20th-century fiction and poetry.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
16
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1PM
POETRY – A PRIVATE ART
OR A PUBLIC ONE?
Dr Bill Hughes
‘Take breath and read it with the ears,’ said
Gerard Manley Hopkins about his own
poetry. In this event – part performance,
part discussion – Bill Hughes illustrates and
explores the difference between poems read
privately and poems performed publicly. He
has wide experience of performing poems, and
particularly in designing programmes which
mix poetry and music. Bill has mainly chosen
poets from the 20th century; they include Hardy,
Betjeman, Carol Ann Duffy and Edward Thomas,
and range from the comic to the deeply moving.
Dr Hughes is a former Principal Lecturer in
English at the University of Chester. He is
Chair of Storyhouse, the arts production
company that runs the popular openair theatre in Chester, and the city’s new
£37million Cultural Centre.
Venue: SGH026, Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1.30PM  3.30PM
READING GROUP MEETING: JK
ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER AND
THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE –
TWENTY YEARS LATER
Dr Lucy Andrew
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the
publication of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in the series
that was to change the landscape of children’s
literature publishing worldwide. Now a global
phenomenon, the Harry Potter franchise boasts
a host of film adaptations and spin-off texts –
including the hugely popular stage play, Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child as well as the Warner
Brothers studio tour, Rowling’s Pottermore
website and a devoted fandom.
Join this group to discuss the novel that started
it all and to consider how and why Rowling’s
wizarding world has had such a dramatic
impact upon the children’s literature market,
our reading habits and the ways in which we
engage with fiction.
Dr Lucy Andrew is a lecturer in English Literature
at University Centre Shrewsbury. Her primary
research specialism is in children’s and young
adult literature and she has research interests in
crime fiction, comics and graphic novels, fandom
and popular culture. She has published on ‘penny
dreadfuls’, supernatural detective fiction for young
readers, and Veronica Mars, and she has coedited
Crime Fiction in the City: Capital Crimes with Dr
Catherine Phelps. Her forthcoming monograph
for Palgrave Macmillan is entitled The Boy Detective
in Early British Children’s Literature: Patrolling the
Borders between Boyhood and Manhood.
Venue: Rowley’s House, Barker Street,
Shrewsbury SY1 1QH
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 6PM
WHAT DOES GOOD INCLUSIVE
GROWTH LOOK LIKE?
Paul Kirkbright
With factors such as health, job security,
affordable housing, and a positive work-life
balance contributing to a thriving economy
that works for people and delivers profits,
Deputy Provost of UCS Paul Kirkbright
explores how progressively-minded
stakeholders collaborate to ensure economic
growth is both ‘good’ and ‘inclusive’. This is
the second in the UCS Baxter Lecture series.
Venue: Guildhall, Frankwell Quay,
Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ
Admission: Free, but booking essential
Contact: [email protected]
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