One of the UK's leading criminal lawyers and cultural commentators, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, will deliver the inaugural Talking Scots 2003 lecture at the King's College Centre, University of Aberdeen, tomorrow (Thursday November 20).
As a regular commentator on educational opportunities and cultural relations, Baroness Kennedy will discuss Scotland's cultural and national identity in the context of the new Scottish Parliament and in relation to the rest of the world in her lecture: Scotland's Culture and Identity.
Baroness Kennedy's appearance at the University of Aberdeen is the first in a major new series of four lectures delivered by the nation's leading thinkers on issues facing Scots four years into devolution. Tomorrow evening's talk is open to the public with admission by free ticket available from the University of Aberdeen, tel: (01224) 272165.
Baroness Kennedy is currently Chair of the British Council - an organisation set up to develop closer cultural relations between the UK and other countries. Other high-profile public appointments held by the Baroness include, Chair of the Human Genetics Commission and Patron of Liberty. As one of the country's leading criminal lawyers Helena Kennedy has acted in high-profile criminal cases including the Brighton Bombing Trial and the Guildford Four Appeal.
The Talking Scots 2003 lecture series will continue during November and December with Sir Malcolm Rifkind discussing Scotland's place in Europe (November 26); journalist and broadcaster Joyce McMillan examining the media's role in delivering Scotland's messages (December 3); and the final lecture is on Medicine and Society (December 11), a fitting conclusion to a series presented by the University, which has over 500 years of medical teaching and research. All lectures will take place at the King's College Centre, University of Aberdeen.
Professor Gordon Graham, Regius Professor in Moral Philosophy who is directing the series said: "The first series of Talking Scots lectures took place in 2000 and proved enormously popular. It successfully brought together some of Scotland's most prominent figures to explore Scotland's cultural heritage at the point of devolution. This time we are looking outwards, and asking what the distinctive role of post-devolution Scotland might be in the wider world."