The University of Strathclyde is a hub for Gray Studies, hosting, funding and working with multiple external partners to help build Gray Studies across multiple events, commissions and classes.
Who are we?
Novelist and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Dr. Rodge Glass, is the Somerset Maugham Award-winning biographer of Alasdair Gray, who worked closely with the artist for many years. Glass works closely with Custodian of The Alasdair Gray Archive, Sorcha Dallas on a multiple projects relating to Gray Studies.
Dr. Eleanor Bell, Senior Lecturer in Scottish Literature, is a specialist in 20th & 21st Century Scottish print culture; she teaches Gray texts and supervises Gray PhDs.
Dr Maria Sledmere is a poet and Lecturer in English and Creative Writing. Maria was recently included in the Saltire Society's 40 under 40 list celebrating outstanding Scottish creatives.
Making Imagined Objects
Making Imagined Objects was a two-day, multi-venue conference hosted by the University of Strathclyde, in person and online, taking place in June 2022
Bringing together experts and aficianados from across Europe and beyond, it was the largest international gathering yet of people interested in Gray Studies. Themed Across Space & Form, the conference encouraged speakers from radically different disciplines and backgrounds to consider Gray’s visual and literary outputs, for the first time, in conversation with each other and on an equal footing.
Gray Studies Commissions Series
A partnership between Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde and the Alasdair Gray Archive, creative practitioners are commissioned to respond to some element of Gray's work, practice or approach to produce a new piece of work.
Throughout his working life, Gray sought to celebrate and declare his influences, seeing them as an integral part of all making. Similarly, we encourage and support artists to creatively respond to Gray’s oeuvre, taking inspiration from Gray’s work, but making new work of their own, that can stand alone.
PhDs in Gray Studies
The University's English & Creative Writing department also encourages enquiries about PhDs in the literary work of Alasdair Gray.