LTA Connect: The A-B Tree Project: Using the Gaelic tree alphabet to structure learning and creativity at UHI

Resources

Session Slides | Session Recording (UHI login required)

Session Outline

Over the year of my project, students at the Scottish School of Forestry (SSF) have been writing poetry, immersing in Gaelic tree tradition and perhaps even trying out the odd magic spell. Meanwhile, UHI literature and creative writing students have been getting to grips with the distinguishing features of blackthorn and hawthorn, the spread of Chalara dieback and other issues in forest ecology. This has all been happening under the aegis of the ‘A-B-Tree’ project, which celebrates the ancient connection between trees and writing represented by the Gaelic tree alphabet (18 native woodland species each linked to a letter of the alphabet) by introducing and researching interdisciplinary learning between literature and forestry. The activity this year has been carried out thanks to a Learning and Teaching Academy scholarship, in which I have been exploring what students learn by writing creatively about trees.

 The A-B-Tree project has demonstrated that the Gaelic tree alphabet is a good structure for learning and creativity. Gaelic matters in forestry, especially in the Highlands, and adding a cultural layer into forestry education leads to a sense of pride in the link to heritage and generates pleasure in creativity. Likewise, exposing arts students to trees gives them great pleasure and stimulates them with content they can use in their work. I also have good evidence that trees make us feel happy. The webinar will aim to leave all participants feeling happy too!

Presenter Bio

Mandy Haggith is a lecturer in literature and creative writing at Inverness College UHI. She lives on a wooded coastal croft in Assynt. Since 2011 she has run a project about tree poetry called A-B-Tree, inspired by the Gaelic tree alphabet. This is her second shot at academia – the first time around involved a PhD in artificial intelligence, after which she spent twenty years as a freelance environmental activist and writer. She is interested in blurring boundaries, such as those between the arts and sciences, those between research, creative practice and teaching and those between work and play. Her first novel won the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing in 2009 and she has been poet in residence at the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens and Inverewe Gardens. Her books include four poetry collections (letting light in, Castings, A-B-Tree, Why the Sky is Far Away), a poetry anthology (Into the Forest), a non-fiction book (Paper Trails) and five novels: The Last Bear, Bear Witness and a novel trilogy set in the Iron Age, The Walrus Mutterer, The Amber Seeker and The Lyre Dancers.

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