JGU Scotland HUB Fellow: Margaret Bennett
Presentation of JGU Scotland HUB Fellowship to Dr Margaret Bennett: A Laudatio written by Professor Kirsteen McCue, University of Glasgow
This is a double honour for me today. Firstly, it’s wonderful to be back at the Scot-t Fest here in Mainz. I have had a fantastic time as the inaugural Scotland HUB Fellow here across the last year or so. I’ve been across several times since the spring of 2024 engaging with colleagues and students here, helping build bridges in my area of Scottish Studies with JGU and my home institution the University of Glasgow. I had the pleasure of delivering the annual lecture at the Scot-t Fest last year, accompanied by our wonderful Glasgow University Chapel Choir and of doing a concert with them here too. I have come back to talk and sing for your St Andrews’ Day celebrations and other public events, and I think I’ll be back for the Burns celebrations next year. It’s been a joy, and I would like to thank JGU for this wonderful opportunity and my colleagues in the Scotland HUB here for making me so welcome and helping build things together. Here’s to more!
But my other honour today is passing on this Fellowship to someone who I admire so much. Dr Margaret Bennett is one of the leading authorities on Scottish folklore with affiliations to many of Scotland’s top institutions, most especially the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is also one of our finest traditional singers and story tellers and a wonderful teacher. You can find out about all of her achievements and how much she has contributed to Scottish culture at home and abroad on her wonderful website, and I don’t want to just list things this afternoon, but to pick out some notable highlights.
Margaret is the most beautiful singer – and you’ll have the great pleasure of listening to her this weekend here in Mainz. She has passed on her songs and her wonderful communication skills to many generations in her role as teacher at the RCS and in many other places, and via her recordings, documentaries and films, most notably with her hugely talented son Martyn. Indeed, she is now the leader behind a trust called Grace Notes Scotland, which exists to celebrate the handing on of tradition – something Margaret has done the whole of her life and which she continues to do. She has been awarded and recognised for this contribution on numerous occasions including her place in our Scottish ‘Traditional Music Hall of Fame’ and as an honorary professor of the Royal Scottish Academy. She has won several awards across the water in the US and Canada too. But perhaps my favourite of all of these (and there are more) is her ‘Outstanding Women Award’ – from the Saltire Society. Too often the role of women in Scotland’s cultural life is overlooked, but a great deal happens because of wonderful and inspirational women like Margaret and it’s just great when this is acknowledged.
As I noted Margaret has strong connections with our only Conservatoire or Hoch Schule für Musik in Scotland, but she also has active links with the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, so she is well plugged in to our educational institutions – and now you’ll have the joy of her being formally connected here too.
I could say much, much more, but my role today is to pass on the baton. So, I want to conclude by quoting Margaret’s old friend Hamish Henderson – the man behind Scotland’s unique oral archive of songs and stories now held at Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies. As Hamish wrote – and this is the best way of summing up Margaret:
"There can be few scholars on either side of the Atlantic who succeed in combining such a wide range of skills. A folksinger of great sensitivity and versatility, she is undoubtedly one of the major figures of the modern Scottish revival … Margaret embodies all that is best of the spirit of Scotland."
It is with great pleasure that I pass on the JGU Scotland HUB Fellowship to Dr Margaret Bennett.
