INVERNESS & BLACK ISLE U3A
STUDY DAY
Speakers' Biographies
Professor Richard Oram, Deputy Head of Arts and Humanities,
Professor of Environmental and Medieval History
Throughout my work I have pursued a strongly interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research . My 1st degree in Medieval History with Archaeology (MA (Hons) St Andrews, 1983) and my PhD (St Andrews 1988) has given much of my early research a strong landscape focus. On joining the permanent staff at Stirling in 2002, that landscape-based element within my research took a new direction into Environmental History. From 2006 to 2010 I became the Director of the Centre for Environmental History and Policy (CEHP). I remain a member of CEHP and continue to channel my research through it. As a consequence of my work on Scotland’s historic landscape and environment, I have served as a member of the Scottish Government’s advisory group the Historic Environment Advisory Council, and as a representative for the Historic Rural Settlement Research Group on the management board of the HLF-funded Scotland’s Rural Past project (as Management Board chair since summer 2010).
As current Head of the School of History and Politics my landscape based research in Environmental History provides a perfect excuse to undertake extensive fieldwork in the Scottish mountains and to climb as many as possible (of course) in search of medieval property boundaries, shieling sites and hunting grounds, all followed by detailed post-trip critical analysis in the nearest pub.
Jean Urquhart, Independent MSP for the Highlands & Islands Region
Owner of the Ceilidh Place, Ullapool
Jean Urquhart was born and brought up in West Lothian. Jean was a Councillor for Wester Ross, Lochalsh and Strathpeffer from 2003-2012 within the Highland Council, where she chaired the Audit and Scrutiny Committee and was a member of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee as well as being the SNP Group's Deputy Leader in the Council. She was elected in May 2011 to serve the people of the Highlands and Islands in the Scottish Parliament. Jean resigned from the SNP in October 2012 following the Party's decision at its Annual Conference to adopt a pro-NATO stance. Jean is now an Independent MSP for the Highlands & Islands Region. Jean has a lifelong interest in Scots culture, and has been involved with many cultural groups and organisations, not least through her ownership of the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool. She continues to take an interest in other areas of experience, such as tourism, community development, nuclear disarmament, education and rural affairs, and is always enthusiastic about advancing those interests and more through her work at Holyrood.
Fran Lockhart, John Muir Trust
Property Manager Nevis, Quinag and Sandwood
Deepest darkest Renfrewshire might seem an unlikely place for a passion for wildlife and wilderness to be kindled but I lived in a place called Killoch Glen, which now seems tiny when I revisit it but to a child growing up it was a wild place to live out adventures and discover nature.
As a family we always holidayed somewhere more so a move further north to Dingwall at the age of 10 was like a dream come true. Second to nature was a love of horses which was the chosen career of a not so rebellious teenager but twenty years in the saddle and ten years in Argyll saw the two passions drawing me to look for a change in profession. Tired of the relentless rain of the west and the addition of a daughter persuaded me to head south to sunnier climes and Suffolk became our home for the next 3 years while I studied for a degree in Environmental Management at Otley College. The mountains and wide open spaces of the Highlands never stopped calling for our return. In 2001 I took up the post of Highland FWAG adviser, a job which has given countless people a valuable grounding in the world of conservation. Five years later an opportunity arose with the John Muir Trust, too good to miss so eight years on I’m still here!
