January 25th is a special date, it is the day we raise a toast to the immortal words of Burns. Many will enjoy an evening filled with a classic combination of haggis, neeps, tatties, some reciting of poetry, and maybe even a wee dram to celebrate the poet. Professor Çiğdem Balim is no stranger to the celebration, in fact, she is co-organising a very special Burns Night in Turkey.

Welcome to this special episode of SAHA Global Conversations, a podcast by the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance. SAHA for short. Join us on a global journey about poetry, Burns and of course Burns Night.

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It's that time of the year Many people have carved their pumpkins, got their costumes out, made plans to see the fireworks or go trick or treat. And here at SAHA, we're ready to join the Halloween festivities in our own special way. Join us on a short journey to Ireland together with the Irish Humanities Alliance and talk about the history of Halloween. Welcome to this special episode of SAHA Global Conversations, a podcast by the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance. SAHA for short.

Joining us from the Irish Humanities Alliance:

Professor Sonja Tiernan, co-ordinator of the Irish Humanities Alliance based at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. Before this, Sonja was the Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies and co-director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand before returning home to Ireland in April this year. She is a historian of modern Ireland.

Dr Nessa Cronin, Vice-Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance, and Assistant Professor in Irish Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, School of Archaeology, Geography and Irish Studies, University of Galway, Ireland. A graduate of Philosophy and Literature, her current research lies in the intersection between Irish Literature, Language and Landscape, with a particular focus on the role of the Environmental Humanities, and Public Humanities more broadly, in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises of this century.

For more information on the Irish Humanities Alliance, visit their website Irishhumanities.com.

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Happy Halloween!

Climate change is rapidly becoming the dominant event of our lives. The rapidly destabilising ecological context requires concentrated efforts across disciplines yet the discussion continues to be dominated by science at international level. Join this international webinar to explore this provocative question and reflect on how arts and humanities guide reflection, dialogue and action for climate change mitigation.

What role do lessons of the past have in helping us find better ways of addressing the crisis? What roles do narratives widely circulating in the present have in facilitating global action? What imaginative solutions can be found through creative expressions to lead to a better future for the next generations? Perspectives from Scotland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand will be brought together to reflect on the contribution of these human-centred disciplines to addressing the environmental challenges we face, to interrogate our relationship with the planet and its resources and to seek new solutions for a better future.

This podcast is a recording of the international webinar organized by the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, DASSH the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance, SAHA and the Irish Humanities Alliance, IHA, on the 17th of October 2022.

For our second episode of the Global Conversations series we move our attention to Canada and we welcome two enthusiastic arts and humanities advocates from the Royal Society of Canada: Professor Julia Wright and Professor Karly Kehoe. This is a wide-ranging conversation on the complex role of arts and humanities as people-centred disciplines. Julia and Karly highlight their important role in advancing work on EDI and addressing the problems of the past such as colonisation. They also address the importance of advocating for arts and humanities and reflect on the value of international cooperation.

Professor Julia M. Wright, FRSC, is George Munro Chair of Literature and Rhetoric at Dalhousie University and the President of the Academy of the Arts and Humanities in the Royal Society of Canada (2019-2022). She works primarily on British and Irish Romanticism, but has also extended her work on the Gothic into television studies. She is the author of four monographs, including Representing the National Landscape in Irish Romanticism, and the editor or co-editor of a further eleven volumes, including Irish Literature, 1750-1900: An Anthology and three novels for Broadview Press. She also co-edited the Ashgate Series in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Studies and is currently a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s Task Force on COVID-19.

Dr. S. Karly Kehoe is a Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Communities. Her current research considers settler colonialism and how religious minority migrants acquired and exercised colonial privilege in the north Atlantic world between c. 1750 and c. 1850. Underpinning this research is the pioneering work she has been doing for more than a decade on the complex links between Catholic colonialism in the Caribbean and what would become Atlantic Canada. Her most recent book, Empire and Emancipation: Scottish and Irish Catholics at the Atlantic Fringe, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2022. She is an advocate of science diplomacy and is the president of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a member of the Internationa Science Council’s Freedom and Responsibility in Science committee, and a member InterAcademy Partnership’s (IAP) Policy Advice Development Committee. She also sits on the steering committee of Science in Exile (a partnership of UNESCO-TWAS, the International Science Council, and the IAP). Dr. Kehoe has worked extensively to support academic researchers around the world whose work has been disrupted or threatened by war, conflict, and threats of violence. In response to threats against research, she co-founded the At-Risk and Academic Refugee Membership programme (Young Academy of Scotland); the At-Risk Scholar Initiative (Global Young Academy); and the At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists program (Royal Society of Canada).

Show notes:

Royal Society of Canada

The RSC Task-force on Covid-19

The Importance of Languages in Global Context: An International Call to Action

At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists

For our first SAHA Global Conversation we welcome the immediate past President of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH), Professor Catharine Coleborne. Professor Coleborne is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a historian of mental health and institutions. From 2015 to 2022, she led and managed a large and highly diverse group of academics in humanities and social science and spearheaded the implementation of the new School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle. Her higher education leadership experiences include curriculum renewal and design; management of higher degree research students and administration; as Chair of the university-wide Educator Network (University of Newcastle), and sector-wide representation (Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand) and Excellence in Research Australia (Australian Research Council). As President of DASSH she has forged an increasingly positive public engagement for arts, humanities and social sciences since 2020.

Show notes:

DASSH

Network of Associate and Deputy Deans

Special Address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine at Australia National University

Grayson Cook

Students flock to humanities degrees despite huge fee increases