Events

Come Help Us Celebrate National Tartan Day 2013!

As many of you know, National Tartan Day (April 6) is fast approaching.  Please join SFU's Scottish Studies Centre for 
Tartan Day, 2013: A Tribute to Our Scottish Roots.   

This event is taking place on Monday, April 8, 2013 from 7:30-9:30 pm. in Room 1410, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.   We will be featuring the launch of our long-awaited "Scots in BC" website (with information on how you can add your family history to the site), a short talk on the history of "Scots in BC," dancing with the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (Vancouver Branch) http://www.rscdsvancouver.org/ as well as music by the Vancouver Scottish Fiddle Orchestra http://www.vancouverfiddleorchestra.ca/.  

All are welcome! Please spread the word and come on down to Harbour Centre on April 8. 

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Past Events ...

2nd Annual Marathon Reading of Burns’s Poetry for Burns Day, 2013

The Burns Day 2013 marathon reading held on Jan. 25 was a tremendous success!  Not only did we beat our record from last year, but we exceeded our goal of 5 hours--we set a new world record of 5 hours and 41 minutes of reading and singing!! It was an amazing event, and a real testament to Burns's legacy and proof of the continuing power of face to face community connections in an era of social media.

For more information on the Robert Burns Marathon 2013, see SFU's Robert Burns Marathon.

Anna Hepburn, Mary Queen of Scots: The Last Letter (a dramatic production)

7:30-9:30 pm, Thursday, November 22, 2012.  Room 1900, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St, Vancouver

The Vancouver premiere of an Edinburgh Fringe show, this one-woman play starts with Mary Stuart, sitting, writing a letter to the brother of her first husband, Henry III of France. (The material quoted is actually from the original letter written at that time, six hours before her execution.) During the course of writing the letter, Mary breaks off to recall her life and the events which have shaped her destiny and her ultimate tragic end. While listening to her recounting the exciting and disastrous situations that she had to face during her lifetime, the audience is taken through a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Her major life events include her idyllic early years in France, the excitement of her early marriage to Francis the Dauphin, his ill-fated and catastrophic death and her move to Scotland. We follow her struggle with the power-hungry Scottish nobles and the preacher John Knox, her marriage to the notorious Lord Darnley, his murder, and her disastrous marriage to Bothwell, right through to her imprisonment by her own cousin, Elizabeth I.  Using only documented telling of events and conversations noted at that time, actress Anna Hepburn shows the brutality of the situations in which Mary found herself.

 
Jack Whyte, “Robert the Bruce: What Made Him Tick, and What Ticked Him Off?”

7:30-9:00 pm, Thursday, September 20, 2012.  Room 1900, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St, Vancouver.

This was an opportunity for Jack’s many fans to come and hear him take a page out of his soon to be released book Renegade.  For more information about Jack please go to:  www.jackwhyte.com.

The Centre for Scottish Studies Cultural Tent at this year's B.C. Highland Games! 

Thanks to everyone who joined us at this year's B.C. Highland Games, June 23, 2012,  Percy Perry Stadium (formerly known as Coquitlam Town Centre Stadium).  For more information, visit the B.C. Highland Games website at www.bchighlandgames.com/.

SFU Centre For Scottish Studies Cultural Tent Presentations:

12:30pm   "Robbie Burns: The First Centenary" Leith Davis, Professor of English and Director of the SFU Centre for Scottish Studies speaks about the 1859 Burns Centenary.

1:30pm     Highland Games History Fan favourite, Lew Ross will be sharing his vast knowledge (and wit) on everything you wanted to know about the Highland Games!

2:30pm     Scottish Writers In BC Local writers Ray Eagle and Jim McWilliams will be speaking about and sharing stories from their latest books.

3:30pm     Scottish Dance Rosemary Coup will be giving a presentation on the history of Scottish Dance. 

Congratulations to the SFU Pipe Band for their outstanding show in New York… from your friends at the Centre for Scottish Studies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XHazem0vXI

"Scottish Voices From the Diaspora," Dr. Marjory Harper

Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 7:30-9:00 pm, in Room 1600 at SFU's Harbour Centre campus (515 West Hastings St.).

Tartan Day, 2012

Our Tartan Day Extravaganza took place this year on April 4, 2012 from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm at Rm 1420 SFU Harbour Centre. This was a celebration of our community contributors with songs from the Gaelic Choir, dancing from the Vancouver Royal Scottish Country Dance demonstration team, and the launch of our "Scottish Voices From the West" Oral History Project.

The Oral History Project is currently available at:  http://content.lib.sfu.ca/cdm/search/collection/soh. The project is being continually updated, so check back often.  

A message from Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Scottish Government, regarding our Tartan Day 2012 Celebration: 

I am very sorry not to be able to be with you all this afternoon, for what I am sure is a wonderful gathering at the Centre for Scottish Studies in Vancouver.  I had very much hoped to be with you in person to enjoy the Tartan Day celebrations and am certainly sorry   to be missing Dr Sheridan's presentation on our newly renovated National Museum of Scotland and what I  know will be wonderful entertainment from the Gaelic Choir and Vancouver Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. 

I do however look forward to visiting Vancouver next week and meeting some of you as I continue the annual Scotland Week celebrations. Scotland and Canada are of course inextricably linked through our history.   Canada is a country of many people and  many parts, but we Scots are fiercely proud of the significant contributions we  have made  to Canadian  politics, education, religion, sport, technology and culture.

Today, more than 5 million Canadians claim Scottish ancestry, so many of them in British Columbia. Their stories are brought  to life in "Scottish Voices from the West"  a rich, online resource which shines a light on the profound and enduring influence of Scots in this region. I very much look forward to having the opportunity to look through the site and hear the many histories first hand.

My best wishes again for your event this afternoon and I look forward to being in Vancouver very soon to add my own Scottish voice from the West as we work together to build Scotland and Canada's relationship for the future.

Book Release: Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture

Published February 2012. Edited by Sharon Alker, Whitman College, USA, Leith Davis, Simon Fraser University, Canada, and Holly Faith Nelson, Trinity Western University, Canada. Series: Ashgate Series in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Studies. To purchase the book, click here.

This new book re-orients critical understanding of Robert Burns by examining his reception and representation in the Americas. While recent scholarship has usefully positioned Burns within the context of British Romanticism as a spokesperson of Scottish national identity, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture considers Burns's impact in the United States, Canada, and South America, where he has served variously as a site of cultural memory and of creative negotiation. Ambitious in its scope, the volume is divided into five sections that explore: transatlantic concerns in Burns's own work, Burns's early publication in North America, Burns's reception in the Americas, Burns's creation as a site of cultural memory, and extra-literary remediations of Burns, including contemporary digital representations. By tracing the transatlantic modulations of the poet and songwriter and his works, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture sheds new light on the circuits connecting Scotland and Britain with the evolving cultures of the Americas from the late eighteenth century to the present.

Marathon Reading of Burns’s Poetry for Burns Day, 2012

The Burns Day 2012 marathon reading held on Jan. 25 was a tremendous success! There were about 250 people who came by for it at different times, and the event was featured on a number of media: CBC TV, CTV, CityTV, News 1130,
650AM, etc.  We set the record for  the longest continuous recitation of Burns: 4 hours, 12 minutes and 27 seconds!

Click here to view photos from the event (photo gallery requires Adobe Flash Player)

For information regarding this year's Robert Burns Marathon 2013 go to SFU's Robert Burns Marathon.

St. Andrews and Caledonian Society Special 125th Anniversary Event

Dr. Gerard Carruthers (Director, Robert Burns Centre, U. of Glasgow): "The Unpseakable Scot: The Image of the Scot in the Media." 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 30, Room 1420, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings Street.  

Some recent  identifications of the Scottish 'character' in print and broadcast media are discussed. Among other aspects covered are the dour Scot, the Scot lacking in confidence and the Scot elbowing himself to the top of the British political tree. Are such traits and tendencies real, or are they mere caricatures? Has anything changed in the depiction of Scots since TWH Crosland published his 'The Unspeakable Scot' in 1902? 

As 2011 marks the 125th anniversary of the St. Andrews and Caledonian Society in Vancouver, we will also be celebrating the occasion in style with a reception to follow the talk. Everyone is welcome, and there is no charge for this event.

St. Andrew's Ball & 125th Year Celebration of the St. Andrew's and Caledonian Society

Saturday November 19th, 2011  - Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Hotel
For tickets, please contact Blair Dymond: bdymond@telus.net or (604)731-8799

*Proceeds from the Ball support the Simon Fraser University Center for Scottish Studies

 "The Truth About St. Kilda," To Dr. James Russell (Professor Emeritus, UBC)

 Wednesday, October 26 7:30 pm. SFU Harbour Centre rm 1530, 515 West Hastings

Reverend Donald Gillies was born on St. Kilda in 1901. He emigrated to Canada in 1927, then in 1946 moved to the Vancouver area where he died in 1994. In 2004, Rev. Gillies’ daughter, Peggy Askew, alerted James Russell and Harry McGrath of the Centre for Scottish Studies to the existence of her father’s memoirs. The book will be available for purchase at 
http://birlinn.co.uk/book/details/Truth-About-St-Kilda--The-9781906566074/

Check out our Podcasts for more information.

"The Quest for New Caledonia: Scots in the Pacific Northwest," Dr. Ted Cowan

Thursday, October 6 7:30 pm. SFU Harbour Centre rm 7000, 515 West Hastings

Ever since Sir William Alexander received the grant of Nova Scotia in 1620, Scots had striven to establish their 'New Caledonia' in the New World. Several unsuccessful ventures shared the name. When BC was created in 1858 it was originally to be named New Caledonia, an appellation first coined by Simon Fraser. This talk explores the remarkable Scottish contribution to the opening up of the Pacific Northwest, mainly, though not exclusively, through the fur trade. It touches on such themes as the rivalry between the fur trade companies, the exploration of the northwest, the establishment of the frontier with the US, the globalisation of trade and the creation of the multicultural province that is BC.

Check out our Podcasts for more information.