Collaborate and Celebrate

You are invited to this one-hour event with other PGs at Sandy's bar on Friday 12 August (updated) to collaborate on researching information about St Andrews' first female alumni from the 19th century and celebrate their achievements over a glass of wine.

The Postgraduate Society is collaborating with the IDEA network to host a pilot event to celebrate our University's history and share a glass of wine and snacks with your postgraduate colleagues.

The University of St Andrews is more than 600 years old, but women have only been allowed to study here for less than a quarter of the time – 145 years. Between 1877 and 1930, St Andrews pioneered offering women the Lady Literate in Arts qualification, a decade before women were officially allowed to physically enter the class with men.

We have sparse information about these pioneering women from the University's Special Collection archival records, however, they challenged the status quo and paved the way for other women to be allowed to study at our university and deserve to be more than just names and dates.

Therefore, this event will consist of:

• 15 minute training session on how to collaborate in groups to look up these alumni online
• 30 min hunt for any information (please bring your own device)
• 15 minutes to celebrate your findings
• Optional 30 min meeting new people and chatting about your experience.

We would encourage you to publish your findings on social media to celebrate your university's history under the hashtags #STAndrewsLLA and #STAndrewsHistory.

Please email [email protected] if you have any allergies or dietary requirements

This event aims to spark a discussion and encourage attendees to become ‘knowledge activists' by researching notable women as part of a network of others doing the same at the University. The session will showcase different opportunities to develop skills in using our Library paid resources, digital media, research, public engagement, and team collaboration while filling information gaps about underrepresented women.

The long-term goal is to build awareness and run Wikipedia training to celebrate these women through writing Wikipedia Biographical articles about those we identify as notable during the event, helping you develop some new skills and challenge bias at the same time. Please email [email protected] for more information.