Through The Second Life Award, the Edwin Morgan Trust is supporting a Scottish Universities’ International Summer School (SUISS) Saltire Scholarship for scholars and early-career academics from the UK and abroad. Morgan was an academic for his entire professional life, a mentor to many students and notably internationalist in his outlook. A Saltire Scholarship is awarded to students who are able to demonstrate a committed interest in Scottish literature, but do not have Scottish literature courses offered at their home university. The scholarship covers the course and accommodation fee for the 2–week SUISS Scottish Literature course. Awards are made on the basis of genuine financial need and academic merit. Recipients are chosen by a panel of academics from our affiliated universities, who specialise in a relevant subject such as Scottish Literature.
This immersive two-week course has really fuelled my interest in Scottish Literature and culture, and has provided me with invaluable tools for setting up a course in Scottish Literature at my university in France in the future. The stimulation was such that it has left me wanting more, and I really hope that I can attend the school in person next summer, to make the most of its social and cultural dimensions. I am indeed very much looking forward to renewing the experience and deepening my knowledge of the texts even further.
Julie Gay, France
Scholars participate in a wide-ranging academic and social/cultural programme, which includes an emphasis on translation and features the concrete poetry of Edwin Morgan and Ian Hamilton Finlay, among others. They also present a paper at a mini-conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh and open to the public. At this event, they have the opportunity to network with UK-based academics and students, and many go on to collaborate on various projects.
The textual and contextual elements of the course have encouraged me to read and study about Scottish literature more and more. At the end of the summer school, I set a goal to translate James Robertson’s The Testament of Gideon Mack into Turkish. Additionally, I will be attending a conference next year on Theatre and Drama Studies, and plan to introduce some key plays like Black Watch and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.
Pelin Golchuk, Turkey
Edwin Morgan was a dear friend to the summer school, facilitating workshops, giving author readings, and offering our students new perspectives on Scottish Literature. Both our Saltire Scholarships and our Edwin Morgan Translation Fellowships (funded by Creative Scotland), were created in order to honour Morgan’s legacy of fostering collaboration between translators and academics with the aim of promoting Scottish Literature, in particular, to an international audience.
Recent projects stemming from the Saltire scholarships include the establishment of a Scottish Studies Centre at Yerevan State University in Armenia, and last year’s publication of Seven Strawberries: A Multilingual Anthology to mark the Edwin Morgan centenary (http://www.tapsalteerie.co.uk/product/seven-new-strawberries-a-multilingual-anthology/). More information about the summer school, and its core staff, can be found here: https://www.suiss.ed.ac.uk/suiss-team/staff/
Edwin Morgan Trust 