Tutors

Renato Ammannati

Renato studied architecture, urban planning and theology in Rome.  A member of the Vatican Commission for the Preservation of Monuments and Works of Art, he worked in Italy and the Vatican State for a number of years. In 2001 he published his first book: Apocalisse. Le cose che stanno per accadere. Linearita e reversibilita del tempo nell’ Apocalisse di Giovanni, and in 2010, Rivelazione e Storia; both anthropological analyses of the Book of Revelations. Since 2012 Renato has given continuing education classes on Italian culture, history and art at the University of Dundee.

Josephine Jules Andrews

Josephine Jules Andrews is a memoirist and poet, and has taught Life Writing/creative non-fiction at the University of Dundee since 2013.  Born in Dundee, she trained in Anthropology, Geography and Ecology at University College London, Washington University in St Louis, and worked in conservation in Europe, India and Madagascar.  Her students have published widely, and their writing has featured in exhibitions and events including the Dundee Literary Festival in 2014, 2015 and 2016.  In 2017 she won the Dundee University Student-Led Teaching Award for ‘Most Inspirational Teaching’.  She has co-edited and co-designed Dundee Writes magazine since Issue 1.

Antony Black

Antony Black is Emeritus Professor of the History of Political Thought at the University of Dundee. His published works include a world history of ancient political thought, from prehistory to c.300 CE, a complete history of Islamic political thought, and a comparative study of political thought in the West and in the Muslim-ruled world from the origins to the present, a history and theory of community and recently explored climate change in the context of world history and the challenge it presents today. He is currently working on a global history of political thought up to the present.

Rebecca Brown

Rebecca Brown has worked as a tutor for the universities of Dundee and St Andrews in their courses for adults for the last 12 years or so. Before moving to Scotland, she was a member of the Education Department of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon, devising and teaching courses for students from British and overseas universities, often in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Mark Cabrelli

After graduating from the University of Dundee in Geography & History and from Strathclyde in Marketing, Mark worked in Virginia, USA for 25 years. An avid historian, his special interest in the American Civil War took him to all of the major sites associated with the War throughout the US. From the killing fields Gettysburg and Antietam to the prison at Andersonville and the Vicksburg siege to the Appomattox courthouse and Ford’s Theater in DC.

 

Jessica Fahy

Jessica Fahy is a freelance art historian based in Dublin, Ireland. She has been teaching and researching various areas of European art for over 10 years and is passionate about sharing her love for the subject in an engaging and interactive way. She currently teaches courses for UCD Adult education, the Hugh Lane and the National Gallery of Ireland and is a popular contributor to lectures with the Lifelong Learning Dundee programme The World About Us.

Dawn Geddes

Dawn Geddes is a creative writer, public relations practitioner and freelance journalist specialising in literature. Her work has appeared in a number of publications including Scots Magazine, Living Magazine, Daily Record, The Courier, No 1 and Scottish Field. Using her extensive experience in public relations and journalism, she works with authors teaching them how to promote themselves and their work online and in the media.

Susan Haigh

Susan Haigh is an award-winning short story writer, a graduate of M.Litt course in Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee. Her work has appeared in Mslexia, New Writing Dundee, Northwords Now, Gutter, New Short Stories (Willesden Herald), The Scottish Arts Trust Anthology (forthcoming) and a number of other journals and anthologies. She also reviews fiction and poetry for The Short Review, The New Short Review and Dundee University Review of the Arts.

Donald Innes

Donald is a retired Principal Teacher of History whose enthusiasm for his subject and teaching continues.  Focusing this short course on Hitler’s Germany, a topic he taught with both Higher and Advanced Higher students, he’ll provide appropriate artefacts from the period to illustrate the discussions and suggest further reading.

Sandra Ireland

Sandra Ireland is an award-winning poet and novelist from Carnoustie, Angus. In 2017, she won the Scottish Association of Writers’ Dorothy Dunbar Trophy for Poetry, and has been published in Seagate III, Furies and other anthologies. Her debut novel Beneath the Skin was published by Polygon. Sandra is Writer-in-Residence at Barry Mill, Angus.

Matthew Jarron

Matthew is Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee, looking after a collection of over 30,000 objects, artworks and specimens and running the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, the Tayside Medical History Museum and the exhibition programme in the Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries. He also has a lifelong passion for cinema and has taught film history evening classes at the University since 2001.

Brian Kelly

Brian was formerly City Astronomer for Dundee at the Mills Observatory.

A graduate of Edinburgh University, he joined the public education team at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh in 1985 before moving to the Mills Observatory in Dundee in 1990.  At the Mills, Brian introduced thousands of visitors to the night sky through public observing sessions and planetary shows, and provided regular astronomy features for the Courier and Radio Tay.

Brian is currently Development Officer for Dundee Heritage Trust however astronomy remains his first love and he gives regular talks and lectures on various aspects of astronomy and space science and likes to spend clear nights with a telescope, binoculars or just the eye alone, exploring the universe for himself.

Marian Kelsey

Currently a visiting Biblical scholar at St Andrews University, Dr Kelsey has also taught at Nottingham University and freelance. Her courses explore the world of the Bible, the ancient cities, the people and the history behind these inspirational texts and considers how they work as literature. Marian also teaches both Greek and Hebrew.

 

J Campbell McKenzie

Jo is an art historian, artist and author.  She taught for many years at Edinburgh University.

 

 

Roddie McKenzie

Dr Roddie McKenzie was an assistant professor in immunology at the University of Toronto, a senior non-clinical lecturer in dermatology at the University of Edinburgh and spent 25 years in research, mainly on the molecular biology and immunology of skin diseases. He has taught science to further education students and to undergraduate and postgraduate students in virology, immunology, genetics and  genomics. His work has been published widely.

Roddie worked in the bio-technology industry and has an MBA. A registered practitioner with the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, he continues to work as a counsellor, which he has done for fifteen years. He holds a postgraduate diploma in counselling and qualified as an alcohol counsellor.

Roddie’s other interests include creative writing, hillwalking and painting.

 

Rachel Marsh

Rachel Marsh has been teaching literature and writing in England, Scotland and the US since the late 90s. She currently holds two academic posts: Associate Lecturer in the Humanities with the Open University, and Programme Lead with Oxford International Group, where she works with PhD students on their writing and academic skill sets. She is finishing her tenure as Writer-in-Residence for the Braemar Creative Arts Festival, where she facilitated the Braemarnia project – a novel written by an entire village. She is now completing her middle-grade novel The Adventures of Jack and Ling, which has been commissioned by a publisher in Hong Kong. She also has published as an academic and a journalist. Having completed her Doctorate in satire at the University of Surrey, Rachel now lives in Dundee, where she spends a lot of time wandering about the Tay and digging in the community garden.

Ken Nisbet

Ken Nisbet has been involved in family history research for over 40 years and is currently Secretary of the Scottish Genealogy Society and the Scottish Association of Family History Societies. He has been a member of the Scotland’s Family History Centre User Group since its inception. He is the resident expert on Scottish Ancestral Records Podcasts and does talks to many of Scotland’s Family History Societies. Through the Scottish Genealogy Society he has had published a Roll of Honour for Nairnshire 1914-1921, and a History of 2nd Battalion 78th Foot 1804-1816. 

Keith Skene

A former ARSA Rhodes Scholar, Dr Keith Skene is an ecologist whose work has taken him to the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. He has taught courses at many universities across Europe, written over 30 papers and four books, the latest of which is Sustainable Economics, Context, Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century.  Currently, he is director and founder of the Biosphere Research Institute, an independent, international and multidisciplinary centre for social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Eric Summers

A Falkirk Bairn, Eric Summers is a graduate of Edinburgh University. He worked in the education sector, principally with Angus Council, for more than forty years.  Now retired and resident in Kirriemuir,  he is a founder member of the Kirriemuir Burns and Scottish Literature Society and the Strathmore Speakers Club. He is also secretary of the Aberdeen Dickens Club, the only branch of the Dickens Fellowship in Scotland. It hosted the international conference of the Fellowship in 2016. He organised the annual conference of the Eagle Society in Dundee in 2019, only the second time it has been held in Scotland. He’s a season ticket holder at Tannadice, but retains a soft spot for the Bairns.

Fiona Watson

Fiona Watson studied medieval history at St Andrews University before embarking on a Ph.D. on Edward I and his Scottish wars at Glasgow University. In 1995 she became a lecturer at Stirling University to develop both medieval and environmental history. In 1999 she successfully secured funding to set up a Centre for Environmental History, a joint venture between Stirling and St Andrews. She became a senior lecturer in 2000 and was the Centre’s Director until 2006 when she decided to leave academic life to pursue a freelance career. She has published a number of books, including Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland, Scotland: A History; Macbeth. A True Story and Scotland’s Historic Landscapes, as well as a historical novel – Dark Hunter – set in the wars between England and Scotland. She has also presented a number of series on Radio Scotland, including one on the Scottish Enlightenment, as well as a major BBC TV series, In Search of Scotland, in 2001