Marcin Dymet, of the University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre, Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Finland, will be visiting the University from the 22-28 November.
Mr Dymet is coming to find out about our teaching and research in order to gauge how SF can be used as a tool for understanding real world issues affecting the human relationship with the Arctic ecology and its wildlife. He has been particularly drawn by the city’s rich heritage of polar exploration and the use of the arctic framing narrative in Frankenstein, the ‘Ur-text’ of SF. This was based on Mary Shelley’s own experience of 19C Dundee as a whaling port and shipyard for icebreakers. Mr Dymet will also take part in discussions with colleagues in Humanities who are developing a potential new programme in Arctic Studies, with a view to future international collaboration. Being Human is currently celebrating the bicentenary of Shelley’s novel, with a programme of events and activities climaxing in this weekend’s Phantasmagoria