Nobel Prize author did not pick literature A-level as it did not feel ‘useful'
Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah has said he did not pick literature as an A-level as it did not feel 'useful'.
The Tanzanian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2021, was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania, and moved to Britain as a refugee in 1968, fleeing a repressive regime that persecuted the Arab Muslim community to which he belonged.
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Glasgow Times
3 days ago
- Glasgow Times
13 nostalgic photos of Glasgow's lost 'high school of science'
Allan Glen's School was the bright idea of a man who valued education and wanted his legacy to be a place that would give young people a secure future. Allan is buried in the Southern Necropolis in the Gorbals. The cemetery's heritage guide reveals that Allan was born the son of George and Marion in 1772 and the family farmed the lands of East Cowglen and Maudlans near Pollokshaws. In 1810, after serving an apprenticeship to a carpenter, Allan set up a business as a builder. He was one of the first members of the Unitarian Church, which was established in 1808, the heritage guide explains. The school's new teaching laboratory in 1964 (Image: Newsquest) 'Unitarians attached great value to education and Allan Glen reflected this in the foundation of his school,' it says. 'When he died in 1850, at the age of 78, he left money for two charity schools, one for boys and one for girls. 'They were to be non-sectarian and industrial, meaning they should provide a general basic education as well as the skills on which future trades might be built.' Unfortunately, there was not enough money for the girls' school, but the boys' school was built on ground Allan owned at the corner of North Hanover Street and Cathedral Street in Townhead. The school opened in 1853 and became Glasgow's foremost science and engineering secondary, with boys having to sit an entrance examination to get in. It forged close ties with Anderson College, which became Strathclyde University, and developed as a centre of excellence for science and technical education, often referred to as the "High School of Science". It charged nominal fees for those who could afford it, but provided bursaries, including clothing for those unable to meet the cost, and free classes for those showed ability but could not afford to pay. During its centenary in 1953, this photo of 'Mr AA Smith' delivering an engineering lesson was taken. Science class in 1953 (Image: Newsquest) Twenty years later, in 1973, it merged with City Public School at its Montrose Street campus and in 1989, Allan Glen's closed for good. The original buildings on Cathedral Street were demolished in the 1960s - here, in 1964, our photographers captured men on an outside wall during the works. Workmen during demolition of Allan Glen's School (Image: Newsquest) The name lives on in Allan Glen's Rugby Football Club, which plays on pitches which opened in Bishopbriggs in 1923. BA Robertson in 1980 (Image: Newsquest) Former pupils include musician BA Robertson; Whisky Galore actor Duncan Macrae; artist and sculptor George Wyllie; Sir James McNeill, managing director of John Brown and Co and designer of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth; and Lord Alexander Todd, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, whose love of the subject was sparked in childhood. (Image: Newsquest) His work laid the foundations for research to establish DNA's general formula. (Image: Newsquest) This photos shows two young pupils, Julian Marks and Jas Munn, in the science class, in 1953. (Image: Newsquest) Clay models were the topic on the go in pottery class at Allan Glen's in January 1953. Reciting poetry in the English class (Image: Newsquest) A young pupil recites poetry in the English class. (Image: Newsquest) Schoolboys and former pupils of Allan Glen's School get some help carrying a boat they made in 1952. (Image: Newsquest) One of the school's most famous pupils was architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He attended Allan Glen's from 1880, when he was 12, until around 1883, when he left to begin his training as an architect at Anderson College. (Image: Newsquest) A few years ago, Allan Glen's Membership Secretary Mike McCreery came into possession of the oldest known school photograph, dated as having been taken in 1880, which had notes attached to it which suggest that a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh was present in the photograph. The University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) conducted a facial recognition comparison study to try and identify a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh within the school photo. While the results were not conclusive, many people believe this is a young Mackintosh. (Image: Newsquest) It wasn't just scientists and engineers that were produced by Allan Glen's School. Hollywood star Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Niven van den Bogaerde) who was famous for films such as The Blue Lamp and Doctor in the House, attended the school in the mid-1930s. At the time, the English-born actor was living with a well-to-do aunt and uncle in Bishopbriggs and he admits in his autobiography it was not the happiest time of his life.
Scotsman
02-08-2025
- Scotsman
Why the Sycamore Gap tree provoked such strong emotional reactions
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... In September 2023, so many people were shocked when the famous Sycamore Gap tree, thriving in a dip along Hadrian's Wall, was deliberately cut down overnight. For many, the tree symbolised British resilience, heritage and an enduring history. The public response was swift and intense, with widespread outrage and grief over the loss of this cultural landmark. The two men convicted of felling the Sycamore Gap tree have been sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Meanwhile, the tree lives on thanks to an AI-generated alternate world in the film 28 Years Later. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As a psychologist, I'm interested in what inspired such a strong reaction to the destruction of a single tree. One psychological explanation, known as 'terror management theory', suggests that the emotional response reflects deeper anxieties about death – and not just about this tree. The sycamore tree was one of the UK's most photographed and appeared in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images Belief systems Terror management theory, developed by psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, builds on the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Denial of Death (1973). This book's central idea is simple yet profound. In it, Becker proposes that our awareness of mortality creates the potential for considerable existential anxiety. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To manage this, we rely on cultural worldviews. These are our belief systems. These worldviews can be religious, secular, political or national. They all share a promise that life is meaningful and offer prescriptions for how we should live. When we live in accordance with our cultural values and standards – whether by being a good parent, a loyal citizen or following religious texts – we gain a sense of self-esteem and feel we are contributing to something enduring and significant. These worldviews also offer the promise of immortality. Some do so literally, as in religious faiths that promise life beyond death. Others offer symbolic immortality, through lasting achievements, family bloodlines, or the continuation of one's nation. By embedding ourselves in these worldviews, we gain a sense that some part of us will continue after we die. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cultural symbols such as flags, religious icons, or even a tree can embody our core values and collective identity and are therefore treated with deep reverence. Throughout history, people have waged wars and shown intense emotional reactions to the desecration of such symbols (burning the American flag or the Qur'an, for example). The famous Sycamore Gap tree before it was cut down in a wanton act of vandalism (Picture: English Heritage/Heritage Images) | Getty Images The Sycamore Gap tree carried similar significance. As a centuries-old landmark, it came to represent Britain's heritage, strength and continuity. From the perspective of terror management theory, its felling may have stirred strong reactions because it reminded people that even the symbols we rely on for a sense of permanence can be suddenly lost. This sense of cultural loss is also echoed by other recent events, such as Brexit and the immigration crisis. A collective fear over the erosion of British values and traditions place questions about the loss of British identity at the centre of public consciousness. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Rooted in mortality Decades of psychological research support this theory's claims. One common method (a technique called 'mortality salience') involves making participants subtly aware of their mortality (control participants are not reminded of death). In studies carried out in the 1990s, researchers found that when the solution to a task required desecrating a cultural symbol, such as using an American flag to separate ink from a jar of sand, participants reminded of death took longer to complete the task and experienced greater apprehension. Hundreds of studies also show how being reminded of death can increase anger and hostility towards people who threaten or violate one's cultural values. One line of research examining reactions to those who commit moral transgressions may be particularly appropriate to this case. For instance, in one study, participants reminded of their own death were more likely to support harsher punishments for those who committed moral transgressions such as someone who destroyed an irreplaceable artefact (much like the cutting down of a tree). Other research has shown similar effects: participants (including judges!) when reminded of death gave out harsher penalties or sentencing for those who have committed a crime. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad You might question whether these effects truly reflect death anxiety or if they could be explained without invoking a desire for immortality. Research may provide compelling evidence. One study found that reminders of death increased support for harsher punishments for moral transgressors (replicating the study mentioned earlier). The afterlife effect However, when participants were first presented with evidence of an afterlife, the effect of death increasing harsher punishments disappeared. In other words, the promise that death is not the end appeared to provide a buffer from the anxiety that death arouses. The fall of the Sycamore Gap tree was more than a loss of natural beauty. It was, for many, a symbolic attack on permanence, on meaning, and on shared identity. Yet while such losses can stir outrage and calls for punishment, research also shows that when people endorse prosocial values like empathy, reminders of death can actually foster forgiveness towards those who commit moral transgressions. According to terror management theory, these responses are not just about anger, but about what it means to be human in the face of inevitable death. In this light, the tree's felling uprooted something sacred: a collective continuity that gives meaning to our brief lives. As we grieve its loss, perhaps we're also mourning something more elusive – the comforting illusion that some things might last forever. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The National
31-07-2025
- The National
Uniqlo store's colonial ties uncovered by Scottish university research
Paul Max Morin, a French associate researcher at the University of Stirling and a lecturer at the Menton (Alpes-Maritimes) campus of Sciences Po Paris since 2018, recently discovered a safe in the Uniqlo store in Marseille which customers enter to use the fitting rooms. 'The building was actually a colonial bank that was created at the end of the 19th century, 1865, to finance basically the colonisation in Algeria,' Morin, 37, explained. READ MORE: Nobel-winning Scottish chemist predicts Alzheimer's drugs in 5 years 'It is a shock, to be between the past and the present in which in you have today, young French people that may be working or buying clothes, not knowing that the safe contained the wealth and resources that were that were created by the exploitation of Algeria and maybe their direct, great grandparents.' The opulent building still retains Art Nouveau features from the original bank alongside the safe, including ornamental railings and an engraved exterior gate. As part of the project titled "The Empire's Vault' alongside a team of his second-year political science students, Morin set out to get an information plaque installed by store management, and carried out research on the store's customers and their personal connection to Algeria. The team found that 42% of the store's customers had a family connection to Algeria and 66% had a negative view of colonization. "When Paul Max Morin contacted us, we were initially surprised," a spokesperson for Uniqlo France said. "Then we saw the opportunity to convey the right message about the building's colonial past, in a factual, humble, and respectful manner." Uniqlo added: "We supported the project before knowing these figures.' 'You never know what you're going to discover' Stirling University assisted in funding the project, with Morin adding: 'I think Stirling understood the originality of the projects and obviously Scotland has its own heritage with the empire and the colonization of countries as part of the UK. 'When I came to Scotland, I did the tour of Glasgow with some artists went through the cemetery and stuff and you had the statues of former slave owners and so on and in the space you have no signs, no way to actually understand the wealth of Glasgow. 'There was the wealth of all these slave owners, and they are presented as, you know, captains or industrial owner, and so on, but you can't actually guess where the wealth is coming from and how it was created, which is my main purpose here. READ MORE: St Andrews rector to make discrimination claim against university after Gaza row 'We could also, in my eyes, organise some colonial tools to explain where the wealth is coming from, and this tour I did in Glasgow made me think of that. Or we could also work on the colonial legacy like the physical presence of this history to tell. In a message to fellow academics in Scotland, Morin said: 'You never know what you're going to discover. Or is there something that you've learned through this that others should know? 'I would also say be a bit broader with the teaching experience, involve students in the making of the education. I think that's a great experience and trying to connect research with local stakeholders to have an impact on what we study - that's very dynamic in academia.'
