Celtic and Scottish Studies



Celtic and Scottish Studies – Celtic Section

MINUTES OF THE STAFF STUDENT LIAISON MEETING

held at 4.10pm on Wednesday 28th October 2015

in Room LG.08, David Hume Tower

| | |Action |

|1. |Attendance and Apologies | |

| |Academic Staff: Dr Anja Gunderloch (Chair), Abigail Burnyeat, Prof Rob Dunbar, Dr Will Lamb, Joan Macdonald and Prof| |

| |Wilson McLeod | |

| |Administrative Staff: Christine Lennie (Minutes) | |

| |Student Class Reps: Kayne Coy, Nathalie Bertaud, Ioanna Magoufakis, Kennedy Dold, Noah Brown and Roisin McKelvey | |

| |Apologies received: Eilidh Grant, Natalie Wood and Mika Cook | |

| |Anja welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. | |

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|2. |Minutes of Last Meeting – 25 February 2015 | |

| |The minutes of the previous semester’s meeting were received and accepted as an accurate record. | |

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|3. |Matters Arising from the Minutes | |

| |Prof Dunbar updated the meeting on the situation regarding the School of Scottish Studies Archives (SoSSA) and the | |

| |Celtic and Scottish Studies Libraries. He advised that the decant had now taken place - so that work could begin on | |

| |29 George Square (GS) - and the SoSSA was now in its temporary location in the basement of 16-20 GS (access via no. | |

| |19). It was anticipated that the refurbishment of 29 GS would be complete by June 2016 and that the recant would | |

| |take place between June and August, so that the SoSSA would be ready to open in its new permanent home at the start | |

| |of the next academic year. | |

| |Unfortunately it had not been possible to store everything at the temporary location but a significant amount of core| |

| |library holdings was housed there, in addition to the archive materials. It was hoped that library staffing issues | |

| |would be resolved shortly and that the library would be fully operational from mid-November. It was anticipated that| |

| |it would be possible to arrange library staffing for approximately 20 hours per week and that borrowing of books | |

| |would be facilitated. Staff and students would be informed once access was possible. | |

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| | |CL |

|4. |Communications - Staff | |

| |Joan Macdonald wished to alert students to the fact that the Còmhradh Coitcheann sessions, which were timetabled at | |

| |2.10 on Wednesdays, were very poorly attended (only one student the previous week) and were likely to be discontinued| |

| |if attendance did not increase. This class was for all students of any level and Prof McLeod advised that it had | |

| |been introduced in direct response to student demand; it was therefore frustrating to discover that this opportunity| |

| |was not being taken up. Kayne undertook to pass this message on. | |

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| |Dr Gunderloch advised that there was funding available to organise events in Innovative Learning Week. This took | |

| |place in February each year and offered a varied menu of staff- and student-led activities, which were intended to | |

| |appeal to a broad range of students from all disciplines. Last year the department had been involved in the | |

| |organisation of a successful exhibition of ‘Edinburgh’s Linguistic Landscape’ and this year Dr Gunderloch planned to | |

| |organise a guided tour of the Jacobite gallery at the National Portrait Gallery. Interested students should visit | |

| |the website for further information |KC |

| |and were welcome to run ideas past Dr Gunderloch if they wished. The deadline for funding applications was 4 | |

| |November 2015. | |

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|5. |Communications - Undergraduate Students | |

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| |Gaelic 1A / Gaelic 1A (VS1) / Elementary Gaelic: Kayne Coy | |

| |Kayne advised that he had send round an email and had also spoken to classmates but had nothing to report. Most | |

| |people felt, like him, that teaching had only just started and students were still finding their feet. | |

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| |Gaelic 1B: currently no Class Rep | |

| |Staff were disappointed that no-one had put themselves forward for this role and it was hoped that a Class Rep could | |

| |be identified for next semester. | |

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| |Gaelic 2A: Nathalie Bertaud | |

| |Natalie asked whether it would be possible for the class to have more details about the coursework. Joan advised | |

| |that she set practical work throughout the year. It was agreed that it would be helpful if the Course Organiser | |

| |could provide a list summarising the coursework requirements. | |

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| |Gaelic 2B: Eilidh Grant | |

| |Unfortunately the Class Rep was unable to be present. |RD |

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| |Introduction to Gaelic Language and Culture: Ioanna Magoufakis and Natalie Wood | |

| |Natalie was unable to be present. However, Ioanna was pleased to report that student views were generally positive | |

| |and they found the course interesting and exciting, especially the tutorials. She did report that some students | |

| |found the pace too fast and that there was a bit of confusion regarding the essay. She also mentioned that there | |

| |were some small mistakes in the book. | |

| |Prof McLeod asked that students let staff know about any mistakes they come across, so that these could be rectified.| |

| |With regard to the essay, he undertook to provide further guidance. | |

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| |Celtic Civilisation 1A: Kennedy Dold | |

| |Kennedy reported that everyone was really enjoying the course. The only negative comment related to the fact that |RD |

| |the lectures were in three different locations. Staff shared the student preference for a single location but this | |

| |had not proved possible this year, unfortunately, due to the number of teaching rooms which were currently out of | |

| |commission. | |

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| |Celtic Literature 2A: Mika Cook | |

| |Unfortunately the Class Rep was unable to be present but she had provided comments by email. She was happy that the | |

| |issue with the location of the Friday seminar class had been resolved. The other main concern regarded the cluster | |

| |of essay deadlines, particularly for students taking English/Scottish Literature. Staff were not unsympathetic to | |

| |the stress involved when deadlines were close together; however, it was not possible to avoid such situations, given| |

| |the number of subject combinations, and students were encouraged to view this as an opportunity to development their | |

| |time management skills. | |

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| |Honours: Noah Brown | |

| |Noah advised that 3rd year students were still adjusting to the rigours of Honours-level study but he had no major | |

| |issues to report. | |

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|6. |Confirmation of Celtic Rep for LLC Learning and Teaching Forum | |

| |Christine explained that a student Rep was sought for this School-level Staff Student Liaison body. Kayne and Noah | |

| |agreed to take on this role and Christine advised that she would pass on their names and contact details for this | |

| |purpose. | |

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| | |CL |

|7. |Communications - Postgraduate Students | |

| |PhD: Roisin McKelvey | |

| |Roisin mentioned that there were some concerns about the study room; there was to be a meeting about this the | |

| |following Friday and she undertook to report back to Christine on this. Abigail Burnyeat understood that there was | |

| |ongoing dissatisfaction with the use of the study space, and whether it should be quiet or not. | |

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|8. |Any Other Business | |

| |Noah asked whether there were any developments in the provision of a Gaelic Common Room. Prof Dunbar replied that | |

| |unfortunately it had not been possible thus far to identify a suitable space in the GS area; he hoped that the | |

| |Gaelic Language Plan working group would take this forward. | |

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| |Roisin was keen that the department organise more social events and Prof Dunbar advised that staff shared this | |

| |enthusiasm: it was hoped that a get-together for the Postgraduate community could be organised before the end of the| |

| |semester, as well as an end-of-teaching event for everyone. | |

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|9. |Date of Next Meeting | |

| |It was agreed that the timing of this meeting suited everyone and the next meeting would therefore be scheduled on | |

| |the same day and time in week 6 of Semester 2. | |

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CL / 1.12.15

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