Monday evening saw the official launch of The Institute for Northern Studies and the beginning of the 4th International St Magnus Conference at the Town Hall in Kirkwall. The event was very well attended and the evening starting with an introduction by Dr Alexandra Sanmark to Professor Donna Heddle, who then in turn Introduced Professor Neil Simco who is the UHI’s VC Principle for Research.

By Kenny Armet

The St Magnus Conference has been running this week over three days from 16th-18th April titled “Alternative Facts and Actual Fiction: Constructing the Social Narrative” with a full programme of events including field trips to the Standing Stones of Stenness, Ring of Brodgar, Birsay, Skara Brae, Skaill House, many lectures ranging from “Nationalism and Scholarship”, ” Identities in the Past and the Present”, to “The End of the World 1: the humanities and natural science” and “The End of the World 2: writing the narrative”.here is a video of Professor Heddle’s speech.

The Launch of  The Institute for Northern Studies found Professor Donna Heddle proudly taking centre stage,

The Institute for Northern Studies literature tells us that they are a  University of the Highlands and Islands Research Centre in partnership with Shetland and led by Orkney, they are mainly an interdisciplinary research and educational establishment with a number of PHD students and they can currently offer five postgraduate degrees.

The courses offer unique content and lectures from local experts. They use blended learning, utilising video-conferencing and a virtual learning environment, which benefit from small class sizes, they are also able to deliver lectures direct to your home using UHI software. The courses available are MLitt Highlands and Islands Literature, MLitt Orkney and Shetland Studies, MLitt Island Studies,MLitt Viking Studies and MLitt Highlands and Islands Culture. All courses are available for a September or January start date.

As well as the postgraduate degrees they also run summer schools in both Orkney and Shetland.

For any further information regarding these courses please contact Dr Andrew Jennings at andrew.jennings@uhi.ac.uk or +44(0)1595 771406