As Scotland’s national adult education college, Newbattle Abbey has a unique and important place in the world of Scottish education and it is a position that the college has developed since its inception in 1937. We are now seeking to promote the college’s role in Scotland’s post referendum public discourse through the ‘Newbattle Conversations’ initiative, which is about:

• Linking Scotland’s political awakening with its past
• Providing an academically neutral arena for the sharing of different perspectives
• Involving distinguished journalists, politicians, academics and the general public in the delivery of the 5 year programme of annual lectures which will move us on from the 2014 Referendum
• Engaging young people across Scotland in political discussion that will affect their future

We will also take advantage of the part Newbattle Abbey played in the drafting of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, by hosting a major academic, but  publicly accessible, international conference for the 700^th anniversary of the Declaration.

The first conversation will be held at the college on Tuesday, 3 November 2015, 5.30pm for 6.00pm - 7.30pm.  Professor Neal Ascherson will deliver the first lecture, entitled ‘Scotland into Europe – high and low roads’.  We are eager that the lectures are open to all and that the programme is wide and inclusive.

Tickets for the first annual lecture are nowavailable, free of charge, from: Julie Thomson:  [email protected]

Kind regards,

Ann
Ann Southwood
Principal
+ Newbattle Abbey College