The 14th Beyond Borders International Festival is back at Traquair on the 24-25th August 2024! Come and join us for a weekend of books, topical debate, poetry, art, music, walks, and wonderful conversations.
The weekend will feature a multitude of amazing speakers and guests. This year’s guests include: Miriam Margolyes, Humza Yousaf, William Dalrymple, Jen Stout, General Lord Richards, Val McDermid, Jim Naughtie, Staffan de Mistura, Stephanie Williams, Magnus Linklater, Lin Anderson, Jonathan Powell, Nicola Sturgeon and many more!
In addition to an array of interesting speakers and talks we have events in the Walled Garden and the grounds of Traquair House. These include poetry and foraging walks, music, art, market stalls, book signings and much more.
In addition, to our festival programme, we have also created a youth programme that provides unique opportunities and workshops to young people at the festival. This includes journalism workshops, a storytellers competition, and discussion sessions with participants.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 9:45 am - 10:30 am
Venue: Walled Garden
Submerse yourself in the beautiful Scottish borders landscape and stroll around the scenic Traquair grounds led by Fi Martynoga, joined by members of the Lothian Funghi Group, to lead a joint fungi foraging walk.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 10:15 am - 11:00 am
Venue: Main Marquee
Listen as Catherine Maxwell-Stuart introduces Ben Cowell OBE, Director-General of the Historic Houses association and author of the British Country House Revival, as he talks to Geoffrey Baskerville on The Rise and Fall of the Stately Home, and as Wesley Clark reveals how she found a letter from the Traquair House archives uncovering the story of an enslaved boys life.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 11:10 am - 11:55 am
Venue: Main Marquee
Join Sarah Helm as she talks to former Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Andrew Gilmour CMG, about his new book The Burning Question on climate and conflict, and Dr. Houda Abadi, on why Islam’s approach to peacemaking can help mend a fractured world including in Palestine.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 12:05 pm - 12:50 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join BBC correspondent Kirsty Lang as she talks to Aminatta Forna OBE on being cosmopolitan as they explore the question of whether we choose or are made to become global souls in an era of mass migration, nationalism and as a response to growing populism across the world.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 12:55 pm - 1:25 pm
Venue: Chapel
Enjoy your lunch and listen to a musical performance by Ayane Kondo, a classical percussionist that blends influences of classical jazz, traditional music with improvisation and composed work.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 1:20 pm - 2:00 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Enjoy your lunch and listen to a musical performance by Ayane Kondo, a classical percussionist that blends influences of classical jazz, traditional music with improvisation and composed work.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 2:10 pm - 2:20 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Let Director of Global Performance at Georgetown University, Derek Goldman introduce you to some of the Beyond Borders 1325 Women in Conflict Fellows through his mesmerizing ‘In Your Shoes’ methodology.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 2:20 pm - 3:10 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join Oscar Guardiola-Rivera and Azad Ashim Sharma for an hour of poetry and discussion with sonic accompaniment from Mun Sing. Celebrating the launch of Sharma’s Boiled Owls and Guardiola-Rivera’s Under The World, themes of addiction, recovery, arrival in tradition, indigenous thinking, and writing in a time of crisis emerge against a backdrop of Mun Sing’s soundscapes that embrace dark anguish in search of groove, rhythm, and hope.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 3:20 pm - 4:05 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Humza Yousaf MSP talks to Allan Little about his fourteen months as Scotland’s First Minister and the impact of the ongoing conflict in Gaza has had on his family, him and his thinking, as well as his thoughts on the rise of the far-right in Europe.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 4:15 pm - 4:45 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Head to the walled garden to listen to the Rewilders from the heart of our local community and beyond, talk about their work to create a conscious discussion on the environment.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 4:45 pm - 4:55 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Let Director of Global Performance at Georgetown University, Derek Goldman introduce you to some of the Beyond Borders 1325 Women in Conflict Fellows through his mesmerizing ‘In Your Shoes’ methodology.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 4:55 pm - 5:40 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join Jonathan Powell and Steve Richards as they explore the impact of the recent general election on Britain and the forthcoming US Presidential elections.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 5:50 pm - 6:35 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join veteran BBC correspondent Jim Naughtie as he takes on the irrepressible Miriam Margolyes OBE, as she recounts more details about her extraordinary life and her new one woman show, Dickens’ Women.
Date: Saturday 24th August
Time: 6:35 pm - 7:35 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Finish the day with Gnawa Trance Fusion, a Moroccan fusion band blending the traditional Moroccan music Gnawa, with a variety of jazz, funk and folk influences.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 9:00 am - 9:45 am
Venue: Walled Garden
Start your festival Sunday with a morning meditation practice led by meditation and human rights expert, Rajesh Rai.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 9:45 am - 10:35 am
Venue: Walled Garden
Be a part of Traquair’s moth release and gain insight into the various types of moths inhabiting within the historic grounds.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 10:30 am - 11:40 am
Venue: Main Marquee
Watch eminent historian William Dalrymple CBE as he delivers a riveting lecture about his new book The Golden Road exploring how ancient India transformed the world.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 11:50 am - 12:35 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera talks to the head of the Colombian special jurisdiction for peace, Judge Roberto Carlos Vidal López, and with Nedžad Avdić on how he escaped from a death pit during the Srebrenica genocide to give crucial evidence before the International Criminal Court.
In partnership with Beyond Srebrenica
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 12:35 pm - 1:35 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Enjoy an hour of music with meaning, led by Nigel Osborne and musicians for a procession around Traquair’s tranquil grounds. Followed by a presentation entitled, Music and War, in the second half of the hour.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 1:35 pm - 2:00 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Listen to local activists and young people discuss their involvement and thoughts on protesting for Palestine locally and in America, to create an engaging discussion on the challenges young people face in fighting for peace.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 2:00 pm - 2:10 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Let Director of Global Performance at Georgetown University, Derek Goldman introduce you to some of the Beyond Borders 1325 Women in Conflict Fellows through his mesmerizing ‘In Your Shoes’ methodology.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 2:10 pm - 2:55 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join Magnus Linklater CBE as he talks to Scottish journalist, Jen Stout, about her vivid first hand account of life under fire detailed in her remarkable book, Night Train to Odessa.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 3:05 pm - 3:50 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Join Professor Sir Hew Strachan as he talks to General Sir David Richards, former Chief of the Defence staff, about his service in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, as they both reflect upon the war in Ukraine.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 3:50 pm - 4:40 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Join Sarona Abuaker, Karenjit Sandhu, and Jessica Widner for a poetry performance with sonic accompaniment from Mun Sing. Published on the87press, Abuaker, Sandhu, and Widner’s debut’s all delve into the power and politics of the erotic body, expect thematics ranging from Palestinian cultural resistance, South Asian speculative histories, and ghostly interventions into love-triangles. Mun Sing will provide tailored soundscapes to bring out the hidden energies of each reading.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 4:40 pm - 4:50 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Let Director of Global Performance at Georgetown University, Derek Goldman introduce you to some of the Beyond Borders 1325 Women in Conflict Fellows through his mesmerizing ‘In Your Shoes’ methodology.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 4:50 pm - 5:35 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Former UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, and Stephanie Williams talk to Nicola Sturgeon MSP, about their diplomatic experiences as they consider the future of the United Nations and its security council. Joined by questions from a Peebles High School student, as part of the Beyond Borders Youth Programme.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 5:45 pm - 6:30 pm
Venue: Main Marquee
Sit back and enjoy an afternoon with veteran crime writers, Val McDermid and Lin Anderson, as they talk about their most recent novels, Queen MacBeth and The Wild Coast and explain to Jim Naughtie why Scotland is so bloody.
Date: Sunday 25th August
Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Venue: Walled Garden
Enjoy your evening music with award winning poet Iona Lee as she leads Acolyte, a four piece instrumental band fusing spoken word with soundscapes of storytelling to create a truly unique performance and genre-defying sound.
Fi Martynoga is an environmental activist, journalist, museum researcher and a renowned figure in Scottish nature, sustainability, history and food circles.
Catherine Maxwell Stuart is the Director of Heritage at Beyond Borders Scotland. She is currently the 21st Lady of Traquair. She lives at Traquair House where she was born and brought up. Over the past 20 years she has been actively involved in tourism, the arts, heritage and business both locally and nationally. She has been a board member of the Scottish Enterprise Borders, the Broadcasting Council for Scotland and non-Exec director of Border TV. She also sat on the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Records and Archives and currently is Chair of the Scottish Borders Area Tourism Partnership.
Geoffrey Baskerville studied Modern History at Merton College, Oxford, before starting a career in arts administration, working largely with émigré Russians pursuing careers in the west. He subsequently turned to freelance writing and journalism and then joined the BBC, where he worked first as a diarist and subsequently as a producer of arts programmes for BBC Scotland, and as a presenter for Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service. He has now turned back to writing and editing, and is currently working on a biographical project about Peter Darrell, one of Britain’s most significant post-war choreographers and the founder of The Scottish Ballet.
Sarah Helm, grew up in North Yorkshire and studied English at Cambridge. She then worked as a journalist for The Sunday Times and The Independent, first focussing on criminal justice, human rights and the Northern Ireland conflict, before being posted abroad as a foreign correspondent, covering the Israel-Palestine conflict and the war in Bosnia. Her first book, A Life in Secrets, is a biography of Vera Atkins, the World War Two intelligence officer for SOE, who sent women agents behind Nazi lines, and hunted for the missing. Her next book, If This is a Woman, is about Ravensbrück the Nazi Concentration camp for Women, told largely through the words of the last survivors.
Her play, Loyalty, a drama about conflicting loyalties set against the backdrop of the Iraq War, was staged at the Hampstead Theatre. She now freelances for several publications and is working on a new book about Gaza. Sarah lives in London with her husband, Jonathan Powell, and their two children.
Lang studied at the University of Bristol, where she earned a degree in Drama and English. After completing her education, she embarked on a career in journalism. Lang’s career in broadcasting took off when she joined the BBC World Service as a producer and reporter, covering various international events and issues. She later became a presenter for the BBC World Service arts and culture program, showcasing her passion for the arts.
Kirsty Lang is best known for her work on BBC Radio 4, where she presented and co-presented several programs. One of her notable contributions was as a co-presenter of “Front Row,” a daily radio arts and culture magazine show that featured interviews with prominent figures from the creative world.
Throughout her career, Lang has interviewed numerous artists, authors, actors, and musicians, providing insights into their work and creative processes. Her in-depth knowledge of the arts and her engaging interviewing style have made her a respected figure in the broadcasting industry.
Aminatta Forna is the award-winning author ‘The Hired Man’, ‘The Memory of Love’, which was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for “Best Book” in 2011,’Ancestor Stones’, and a memoir ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’. In March, she was announced as the recipient of the 2014 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction). She also serves as Professor for Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and was a Harkness Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.
Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics. He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer. Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is a writer and professor of human rights and political philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. After leading the student movement that initiated a wave of constitutional reform throughout Latin America in the late 1990’s, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom where he obtained an LLM with Distinction at University College London, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the writer of the award-winning What If Latin America Ruled the World? which was listed as one the best non-fiction books of 2010 by The Financial Times. Dr Guardiola-Rivera is also the co-editor of the contemporary art and theory journal Naked Punch: An Engaged Review of Arts & Theory, and has engaged with an extensive range of publications and broadcasters, including Granta, El Espectador, the BBC World Service Nightwaves, and Al-Jazeera to name but a few. He is currently the Deputy Postgraduate Director of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London and is recognized as one of the most representative voices of contemporary Latin American philosophy and literature.
Allan Little is an award-winning Scottish journalist and presenter who has reported from more than 80 countries including a variety of war zones, revolutions and natural disasters. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Mr Little joined BBC Scotland as a news and current affairs researcher before moving to London to train as a radio reporter. He specialised in foreign reporting for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, including accounts from the revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe. He then worked as a reporter for BBC News, reporting from hostile environments such as the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Rwanda and Zaire. Mr Little also worked as the BBC Moscow correspondent and reported on the 1995 Afghanistan earthquakes before becoming the BBC’s Africa and later, Paris correspondent. He has won several awards, including three Gold Sony Radio Academy Awards for Reporter of the Year, the Bayeux War Correspondent of the Year, and in 2012 he won both the Thomas Reuters prize for Reporting Europe for his Radio 4 documentary, Europe’s Choice and the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism. Mr Little left the BBC in 2014 and today chairs the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics. He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer. Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.
Jonathan Powell is CEO of Inter Mediate, the charity he founded in 2011 to work on conflict resolution around the world. Inter Mediate is working on 10 conflicts at the moment. Mr Powell worked on the negotiations with ETA in the Basque Country, on the negotiations in Colombia with the FARC and on the peace negotiations in Mozambique. He was Chief of Staff to Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007 and from 1997 to 2007 was also Chief British Negotiator on Northern Ireland. Mr Powell is also the author of Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflict.
Jim Naughtie FRSE is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. He began his career as a journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal before moving to the London offices of The Scotsman. He became its Chief Political Correspondent before working for The Washington Post and The Guardian. Mr Naughtie later moved into radio presenting and has anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme since 1997, and worked on every US presidential election since 1988. He has been the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and his radio presenting has earned him two Sony Radio Awards: Radio Personality of the Year in 1991 and Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award in 2001. That same year, Mr Naughtie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sterling and was appointed as its chancellor in 2008. He retired from regular presenting duties in 2016 and is currently the BBC’s Special Correspondent responsible for charting UK constitutional reform, as well as the BBC news’ Book Editor.
Rajesh Rai was introduced into the many different faiths of India including Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Sufism and Buddhism from a very early age. These faiths have formed a large part of his upbringing. His formal meditation training started in 1997, when he was taught a systematic practice by the Himalayan Institute. In 2001 he was initiated into the tradition of the Himalayan Masters on the banks of the Ganges at the Maha Kumbh Mela and has been a student of the Tradition since this time. He has been practicing Meditation on almost a daily basis since 1997.
He has travelled extensively to deepen his practice and has worked with various traditions including Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism, Sufism and Sikhism. He is a Barrister by profession specialising in Human Rights Law from Chambers in London. He is also a humanitarian and environmentalist where he has worked with and founded organisations around the world whose objectives are the rejuvenation of land, communities and promoting human rights. He helped found the first Indian vegetarian restaurant in Worcestershire with his family (www.mendiveg.com) (of which he is particularly proud), runs Poulstone Court retreat centre (www.poulstone.com) and founded Malvern Bhavan (www.malvernbhavan.com), a centre for Meditation and Enlightened Living.
William Dalrynple is a Scottish-born bestselling author and historian. While studying at the University of Cambridge, he mirrored – on foot – the route of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Mongolia and wrote his first book, In Xanadu about the journey. This became a bestseller and in 1990 he won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award. He has written several books about his travels, particularly around India, and his historical works have earned him several notable awards. Among them are the Wolfson Prize, the Scottish Book of the Year prize and three honorary doctorates of letters from the Universities of St Andrews, Lucknow and Aberdeen. His most recent written work The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (2019) was shortlisted for numerous prizes. He is one of the co-founders and co-directors of the world’s largest writers festival, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is a writer and professor of human rights and political philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. After leading the student movement that initiated a wave of constitutional reform throughout Latin America in the late 1990’s, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom where he obtained an LLM with Distinction at University College London, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the writer of the award-winning What If Latin America Ruled the World? which was listed as one the best non-fiction books of 2010 by The Financial Times. Dr Guardiola-Rivera is also the co-editor of the contemporary art and theory journal Naked Punch: An Engaged Review of Arts & Theory, and has engaged with an extensive range of publications and broadcasters, including Granta, El Espectador, the BBC World Service Nightwaves, and Al-Jazeera to name but a few. He is currently the Deputy Postgraduate Director of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London and is recognized as one of the most representative voices of contemporary Latin American philosophy and literature.
Nigel Osborne is an accomplished composer, teacher and aid worker. Mr Osborne’s works have been performed around the world by major orchestras and opera houses, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia of London, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Scottish Opera. He has been awarded the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romande and Ville de Geneve, the Netherlands Gaudeamus Prize, the Radcliffe Award, the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress, and the Washington and the British Composer Award for Inspiration. Mr Osborne was the Master of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe from 1999 to 2000 and has pioneered methods using music and the creative arts to support children who are victims of conflict. This innovative approach was developed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-95), and has since been widely implemented across the Balkan region.
Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics. He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer. Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.
Magnus Linklater CBE is a Scottish journalist, writer and former newspaper owner. He was born in Orkney and studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Mr Linklater has worked as an Editor for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Scotsman and The Times. Linklater is also a former chairman of the Scottish Arts Council 1996-2001 and holds honorary degrees from Napier, Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities. He has presented Eye to Eye on BBC radio Scotland and written numerous books on Scottish history and current affairs from, ‘The Nazi Legacy’ to ‘The Secret Life of Jeremy Thorpe.’
Hew Strachan, FBA, FRSE, Hon. D. Univ (Paisley) has been Wardlaw Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews since 2015. He is a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he taught from 1975 to 1992, before becoming Professor of Modern History at Glasgow University from 1992 to 2001.He was Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College 2002-15 (where he is now an Emeritus Fellow), and Director of the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War 2003-2012. He was a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner 2006-18 and a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum 2010-18, and a member of the national committees for the centenary of the First World War of the United Kingdom, Scotland and France. In 2010 he chaired a task force on the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant for the Prime Minister and has been a member of the Covenant Reference Group since its inception. In 2011 he was the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies at the University of Cambridge and became a specialist adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the National Security Strategy. He is an Ensign in the Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland (Royal Company of Archers), in 2014 was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale. In 2016 he was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Lifetime Achievement for Military Writing. His recent publications include The Politics of the British Army (1997); The First World War: To Arms (2001); The First World War: a New Illustrated History (2003); and The Direction of War (2013).
Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics. He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer. Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.
Staffan de Mistura is a long-serving Italian-Swedish diplomat and former member of the Italian government. Having worked in various United Nations agencies for 40 years, we was appointed Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Italian cabinet. He is currently United Nations special envoy for the Syria crisis and the director of Villa San Michele on Capri. His previous posts in the UN have included Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq (2007-2009) and Afghanistan (2010-2011), Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon (2001-2004), and director of the UN Information Centre in Rome (2000-2001).
Nicola Sturgeon MSP, is the former First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (2014-2023). She is also the Member of Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Southside. Formerly a graduate of Law from the University of Glasgow, she originally worked as a solicitor. Having already become a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, she was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and served as the SNP’s shadow minister for education, health and justice. Since then, she has held multiple positions within the party serving as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, deputy leader of the party and Deputy First Minister of Scotland before becoming First Minister. She has won several awards including both the title of Scottish Politician of the Year and the Donald Dewar Debater of the Year Award.
Peebles High School, is a Secondary School located in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. Founded in 1858, Peebles High School serves nearly 1,500 students aged 12-18.
Jim Naughtie FRSE is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. He began his career as a journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal before moving to the London offices of The Scotsman. He became its Chief Political Correspondent before working for The Washington Post and The Guardian. Mr Naughtie later moved into radio presenting and has anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme since 1997, and worked on every US presidential election since 1988. He has been the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and his radio presenting has earned him two Sony Radio Awards: Radio Personality of the Year in 1991 and Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award in 2001. That same year, Mr Naughtie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sterling and was appointed as its chancellor in 2008. He retired from regular presenting duties in 2016 and is currently the BBC’s Special Correspondent responsible for charting UK constitutional reform, as well as the BBC news’ Book Editor.
Beyond Borders Productions Ltd. A Ltd company SC 371789
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