Today, poet, author and scriptwriter AL Kennedy graced Ruskin with her wonderful literary presence and spoke with passion and beauty of how Ruskin students/graduates are, in her opinion, "the best of humanity".
Kennedy was not being misty-eyed, but actually quite matter-of-fact in recognising that Ruskin's women and men are people of conscience who come to Ruskin with a distinct social purpose and go on to make a profound change in their personal lives, that of their families, their communities and those who they go on to work amongst.
And, even though John Ruskin himself was on record as being against the establishment of Ruskin, I was transfixed when Kennedy relayed her perspective that Ruskin's students could bathe in John Ruskin's dictum of a correlation between truth and beauty. It reminded me of William Morris's similar notion that social progression was for all, and that culture excelled when practiced and engaged with by all classes.
Today was Ruskin's annual graduation event and I was so proud to see students of the BA and MA in international labour and trade union studies graduating today.
The pics below are:
Piotr Plonka (graduating today before the scheduled MA ILTUS graduation next year as he has plans which means he needs his certificate) with my dear colleague Fenella, without whom the ILTUS MA couldn't run.
BA ILTUS '08 cohort graduate Dermott Finn with Peter Dwyer. Dermott wrote an outstanding dissertation on the impact on family's lives of trade union blacklisting
Dermott, Sue Orwin and Carol Kinell of the BA ILTUS '08 cohort. These students have worked SO hard to get to where they are.
Lisa Birch (left) graduates with her close SPE friend Maureen. Lisa has started in Oct as an MA ILTUS student - she is already a great student!
For more pictures please see my Facebook page.
In Solidarity
Ian
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