American Friends of the University of Edinburgh
Newsletter - March 2002
Ó American Friends of the University of Edinburgh
CONTENTS
- Another San Francisco Frolic
- Washington DC Events
- New York Burns Supper
- University News
- A Jury
- Fraser MacHaffie Honored
- Marshall Scholars Choose Edinburgh
- Amanda Sloat - AFUE Scholar PhD 2000
- David Finkelstein - AFUE Scholar PhD 1990
- Architectural Internships
- Visiting Edinburgh?
- First Prize
- The Low Road - A Scottish Family Memoir
- John Rae 1813-93
- Edinburgh Memories
ANOTHER SAN FRANCISCO FROLIC
It was unanimously agreed that the San Francisco Bay Dinner at the St Francis Yacht Club was the "First Annual .."
This success encouraged organizers David Walker and Rem Remedios to arrange another event - this time a casual, downtown affair to celebrate Tartan Day, at the famous Irish Bank, 10 Mark Lane (just off Bush Street between Grant and Kearny Streets tel: 415 788 7152) on Tuesday 2 April from about 6.30 pm - in the 'back room'. This is one of David's favorite places - he eats here regularly, especially their award-winning fish and chips - and says it is the most authentic traditional pub from the British Isles he has ever encountered in North America! Entree prices range from roughly $10 to $15, and entrees typically include steak and chips, fish and chips, shepherd's pie, etc.
The pub needs a rough head count, so please contact David at 415 928 5375 or dwalker225@aol.com if you can come.
Alan Mackay, from the International Office, will be visiting Washington and would enjoy meeting local alums on Sunday afternoon, April 21st. He'll be staying at the Holiday Inn in Chevy Chase.
On Friday, May 31st, members of the AFUE board will be in town and would very much like to meet with alums around 6.00 pm at a hotel (yet to be determined) in the DuPont Circle area.
All queries and acceptances to Deryl Davis at 202 364 4301 or wmwdad99@yahoo.com
NEW YORK BURNS SUPPER
by Simon Cunningham
Our Burns Supper was again a great success. We had a full programme: Piper, Address to the Haggis, Immortal Memory, Toast to the Lasses and Reply, as well as singing. Clancy's again provided us with the backroom and prepared the food for us. Without them, this event would not have been possible. Please show your appreciation by spreading the good word and by patronizing them.
Of the volunteers, pride of place goes to Hans Corell who once again delighted us with his superior piping. Now for some self-congratulation: the organizing Committee all pitched in - June Chesney organized the singers (Douglas Rose, Katie Cangelosi, Peter Homan and Brenda Behan) and helped serve the haggis; Kathryn Gordon served before delivering a blistering Reply to Simon Cunningham's Toast to the Lasses (reproduced on the web page); Colin Reid was Master of Ceremonies; Stasha Mills helped expand our out-reach to the alumni of Edinburgh University. The alumni office of Heriot-Watt notified the Watt Club of the event and we welcomed their joining our group. Chis Lafferty gave his usual wonderful rendition of the Address to the Haggis. Unfortunately, it will be his last as he is leaving for Australia. We need a volunteer to read the address next year.
George McBean delivered the Immortal Memory. This was his first Burns Supper for our group and we congratulate him for an excellent Address and for his bravery. Ewen Buchanan again said the Selkirk Grace. Stephanie Parker took pictures during the evening, and these have now been posted on www.geocities.com/burnssupper2002. Andrzej Krassowski returned from London to collect the entry monies and Denis Sheridan made an extra trip to Kearny to buy some more haggis on the day of the supper. To be included on our mailing list, contact cunningham@un.org
Research Assessment
In the latest Research Assessment, the five yearly exercise which grades the research strengths of universities, Edinburgh came 5th in the UK (after Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and University College, London). Nine departments rated 5* - the highest level denoting international excellence. A further 19 departments were rated 5. Overall, 75% of the academic staff are in 5* or 5 departments.
5* departments: Hospital-based Clinical subjects, pure mathematics, computer science, electrical and electronic engineering, geography, Middle Eastern and African Studies, English language and literature, German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages, philosphy. Full results at http://www.rae.ac.uk
Pay
The Scotsman (9 February 2002) reported that university principals received average pay rises of 8.5%. Some had received much more. The Principal of the Open University received a more than 100% increase to £309,000. Lord Sutherland received 3%, bringing him to £161,000, the most substantial in Scottish higher education and the 12th largest in the UK. (Lecturers' salaries begin at £20,000 and researchers at £17,000.)
Pay Gap
The Scotsman (25 January 2002), in an article on pay inequality, reported that "Edinburgh University was recently revealed as one of the worst offenders in the UK after a survey showed the average gulf within its staff was 22%, compared with the Scottish average of l9%. Female academics at Edinburgh earn an average of £26,867 compared with £34,344 for their male colleagues." … "Part time female workers earn just 61 per cent of the male full-time wage."
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. - Robert Frost
The Stranraer and District Local History Trust gave a reception for Fraser MacHaffie BD'72, New College organizer in the US, to launch the publication of his book Portpatrick-Donaghadee: The Original Short Sea Route. This covers the history of the old mail route from about 1600 on. Fraser signed copies and a good time was had by all.
MARSHALL SCHOLARS CHOOSE EDINBURGH
Marshall Scholarships cover the cost of tuition, books, travel and living expenses in the UK. The award is worth approximately $50,000 over two years. Two of this year's Marshall Scholars have chosen the University of Edinburgh.
Carrie Theisen, University of Pittsburgh, will study cognitive science and psychology. Matthew Ryan Harsh, summa cum laude from Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, with departmental honors, will enroll in the MSc program in science and technology to study the role of public policy in the interaction between technology and communities.
AMANDA SLOAT - AFUE SCHOLAR PhD 2000
Amanda writes "In summer 1997 I was awarded $4,000 by AFUE to pursue a one-year Masters at the University of Edinburgh. It was the emotional and financial boost I needed after being turned down by other scholarship organizations. Within months I dropped the MSc and picked up the PhD in Politics instead, which I completed in 2000. My research examined the relationship between the newly established Scottish Parliament and the European Union. At the time many AFUE members expressed interest in my research. I have now published a book which draws heavily on my PhD research. Thanks again to AFUE for your support - this book would never have been written without your help!"
In October 2000, Amanda moved to Brussels where she worked for 6 months in the European Commission with the Secretariat General team that was drafting the White Paper on Governance. She returned to Edinburgh for 6 months, during which time she wrote the book and advised the Scottish Parliament's European Committee during its governance inquiry. In September 2001 she accepted a post as Research Fellow at the new Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen's University Belfast.
Scotland in Europe: A Study of Multi-Level Governance published by Peter Lang http://www.peterlang.net or customerservice@plang.com
DAVID FINKELSTEIN - AFUE SCHOLAR PhD 1990
"Since graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1990 I was, with aid of grants from four foundations, an archivist in the National Library of Scotland cataloguing the Blackwood publishing papers. From 1991-94 I returned to the English Department at the University of Edinburgh as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, during which time I undertook the general research that forms part of my new book which is coming out in April. I'm hoping to hold a launch at the Blackwood firm's old headquarters in 45 George Street.
From 1994-2000 I was lecturer, then senior lecturer, in Print Media, Publishing and Communication Department at Napier University, Edinburgh, and from 2000 onwards Head of the Media and Communication Department at QMUC. Summer 2001 I was a visiting professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand where I undertook research on 19c Scots-New Zealand émigré printers.
Over the past 10 years I have edited 5 books, including an Index to Blackwood's Magazine (Scolar Press, 1995), the Book History Reader (Rutledge 2001), and Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities (Palgrave 2001). Current research interests include media culture and history, the history of print, and Scottish cultural history."
The House of Blackwood: Author-Publisher Relations in the Victorian Era, Penn State University Press, April 2002, ISBN 0-271-02179-9, $55 cloth.
John C Chadwick BArch'74 writes "I received my Bachelor of Architecture in 1974, and a Masters of Architecture and Urban Design from Cornell in 1980. I recently arranged for two University of Edinburgh students to work as interns at my firm, Perkins Eastman Architects, in New York city, and am hoping to place another this fall. Jonathon Thomas (BArch03) joined us in July 01 and retirmed to Edinburgh in December after a very positive experience. Robert O'Neil (BArch01) joined us in October just after graduating and is working with me directly. He has fitted into our large firm extremely well and I am not sure I will be able to let him return to the UK! His wife joined him and we were able to place her with one of our consulting engineers.
I was in Edinburgh in October 2000 for the first time in 15 years, and met the intern coordinator for the Department of Architecture, Fiona McLachlan, to see how we could help place interested students. Our firm has employed many foreign interns over the years. The experience is almost always positive, both for the host firm and the intern, since it is only students with initiative and drive who make the effort to apply for foreign iternships in the first place."
John is interested in informally developing and extending the internship program to other companies and other professions. If you are interested in furthering this project contact John at J-Chadwick@peapc.com or eileenmacmillan@attbi.com.
VISITING EDINBURGH?
by Rob Chell, Accommodation Services
The Edinburgh First team, the commercial arm of Accommodation Services, is looking forward to the completion of the new building development, Chancellor’s Court, which is taking place at Pollock Halls. This new facility will provide 526 bedrooms for use by commercial visitors. 516 of these bedrooms can be converted to twin rooms, with the remaining ten places accommodating customers in single rooms. All bedrooms have en-suite facilities. The new development is being built to a high quality standard and will become available in 3 separate phases: 170 bedrooms become available in September 2002; a further 202 bedrooms in Easter 2003 with the remainder coming on line in September 2003.
In anticipation of attracting visitors to our new facility, we are considering an extension of our not-for-profits activity. Already actively involved with Elderhostel, we are engaged in discussions with VisitScotland (the Scottish Tourist Board), the National Trust, Historic Scotland and the National Museums of Scotland to develop a range of new, stimulating cultural programmes. The outcome of these discussions will be a co-ordinated Scottish effort to develop this niche market and to attract visitors from the United States.
If there are any alumni who are planning to bring a group to Scotland and would like to find out more of what Edinburgh First has to offer, please contact: Rob.Chell@ed.ac.uk
Paul Crabtree BMus'82 was awarded First Prize in the Bella Voce Choral Composition Competition 2001 for his work When Are We Leaving? - a tragic meditation on the transience of life, interlacing poetic images of mortality with the other-worldly ramblings of Dame Iris Murdoch, who died of Alzheimer's disease in 1999.
Another of Paul's compositions, The Lark in the Clear Air, will have several performances by the San Francisco State University Chamber Singers in early April. His Five Romantic Miniatures will be performed in April in Palo Alto and Berkeley. For details see http://www.paulcrabtree.net
THE LOW ROAD - A SCOTTISH FAMILY MEMOIR
"This is the story I have been writing for my whole life. With my life." In The Low Road, Valerie Miner seeks the locations and dislocations of her large, poverty stricken Scottish family, and, with poignant honesty, uncovers their carefully concealed secrets and interweaves these with her discovery of self. She charts family moves from Airdrie to Edinburgh, from Leith to Long Island (well, New Jersey), across America to settle in the San Francisco Bay area where she grows up, attends UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and becomes a famous writer. She burrows into the stories of her ancestors, resolving anomalies, ferreting out their reality, and candidly reveals her inner being. This is a cleverly constructed book - autobiographical, bright, funny, truthful, painful. I couldn't put it down.
The Low Road - A Scottish Family Memoir published University of Michigan Press 2001 $26.95
Valerie Miner JYA'68, Research Associate 1997, is Professor of English, Michigan State University. For information on Valerie, her other 10 novels, numerous publications and awards see http://english.cla.umn.edu/faculty/MINER/miner.htm
Ken McGoogan is a man with a passion, a passion to right the wrong done to Edinburgh alumnus John Rae who discovered the Northwest Passage and the fate of arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. Because Rae revealed that Franklin's group had resorted to cannibalism Franklin's widow conducted a venomous campaign to discredit him - a campaign which succeeded, causing Rae to be denied a knighthood and allowing her husband to be credited with discovering the Northwest Passage.
In a personal communication Ken says "In Fatal Passage, I write that in 1833 'the nineteen-year-old Rae had graduated from medical school in Edinburgh. For four winters, he had attended Edinburgh University … Having discovered that by transferring to the Royal College of Surgeons he could receive his diploma without waiting until he was twenty, Rae promptly made the switch. In April, 1833, after passing an extensive oral examination, he qualified as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons.' Much later in the book, I note that in April 1866, while living in Orkney, Rae 'traveled south to the University of Edinburgh to receive an honorary doctor of laws, recognition that gave him immense pleasure. That occasion, with its bustle and conviviality, reminded him of what he had been missing and prompted his final move to London.'"
Ken donated a plaque at Point de la Guiche on Rae Straight where Rae discovered the final link in the Northwest Passage, near the spot he believes Rae built a cairn in 1854. He says "I am hopeful that readers in Scotland, especially, will take this book to heart. I have attempted to set the record straight, to expose the conspiracy orchestrated by Lady Jane Franklin and Charles Dickens and to secure for John Rae his rightful place in history as the greatest Arctic explorer of all."
Fatal Passage: the Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer who Discovered the Fate of Franklin (Ken's sixth book) published by HarperCollins Canada in 2001. It won the Drainie-Taylor Biography prize and had a 14 week run on the bestseller list and in April comes out in hardcover in the US. (Carroll & Graf)
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/fatal_passage.html
< A HREF="http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/mcgoogan_interv.html">http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/mcgoogan_interv.html
by Carolyn Wei
When I arrived at the doorstep of Muir Hall, 35 Drumsheugh Gardens, in the West End, I knew the next six months at the University of Edinburgh would be special. The student residence was in a chic neighborhood of Georgian houses. Inside, the building had a wonderful old, genteel charm, with dark wooden paneling, soaring high ceilings, a wide staircase, and enormous common rooms. The room that I shared with another American girl also had the stately high ceiling and tall windows. Having spent most of my life in a suburb of Seattle, I was impressed by the beauty and age of the architecture. Where I grew up, most of the houses looked like the one from The Brady Bunch, the epitome of seventies culture.
Juxtaposed against the elegant bones of Muir Hall were the signs of student group life. In the entranceway was an old wooden in/out board; students could slide the small slat next to their name to expose the “in” or the “out” depending on whether they were in the house. The board saved time hunting down people within the five-story building who received calls on the phone on the ground floor. Also in the entranceway was a bank of wooden cubbyholes, where mail was delivered twice a day.
Muir Hall has since been sold and converted into a boutique hotel, confirming my initial suspicion that the house was unusually fancy for students. The opportunity to live in the West End is only one of the lucky memories that I have of Edinburgh. Although I still wish that I could have spent an entire year or longer there, in a way, I am glad that I had only six months to visit and study. I felt some urgency to explore and soak up the atmosphere because the trip felt once-in-a-lifetime and too brief to delay sightseeing for “some other time”. This was the first time that I had crossed the Atlantic and lived in a major capital with cultural and historical treasures. I secretly thrilled that, every day on my walks to school, I passed by ancient buildings with historical placards indicating that things that are written about in history books happen "here". I was living in Edinburgh, internationally renowned for its performing arts, museums, and historical monuments. World-class exhibitions and performances were available to me at student discounts. I even had reading privileges in the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge because of my affiliation with the University.
Besides pleasurable discoveries, there were surprises such as the one or two people I met who thought I was studying English as a second language. I was born in Seattle, so I speak perfectly standard American English, but it must have sounded strange to the unfamiliar ear, especially when coming from somebody of Chinese descent. Admittedly, I was surprised by those encounters because Edinburgh is a cosmopolitan city with many international students. Before I arrived, I had assumed that the University population would be predominantly Scottish with small pockets of international students like me, but really, there was a good mix of people from all over the world. I was not as unusual as I had thought I would be.
It has been over six years since I studied at the University of Edinburgh, but it is more than an entry on my résumé. The classes and instructors at the University were, of course, worthy, but the entire adventure of living in Edinburgh was what made my study abroad memorable. As far away as Seattle, I still meet people with Edinburgh and Scotland connections; it is a marvelous conversation-starter. My husband and I were recently married in a Highland castle, in part because of the glowing memories of my first trip to Scotland. I spent only six months in Edinburgh, but I still feel grateful to have had such an extraordinary opportunity.
(Carolyn (JYA'95) graduated Bryn Mawr College BA'96 history, is studying for a MSc in technical communication).
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