The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Humanities has another cause for celebration. Prof David Scott-Macnab, a B2-rated researcher with the National Research Foundation and professor in English literature, has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Foundation visiting professorship at the Centre for Medieval Studies at Bristol University in the UK.
These awards are highly competitive with a success rate of 6-8%, making an award at the University of Bristol, one of the UK’s 24 research-intensive Russell Group universities, even more of an accomplishment.
The aim of a visiting professorship is to enable outstandingly distinguished academics based in overseas universities to bring their skills and knowledge to the UK to enhance the knowledge and skills of the researchers, academic staff, and student body within the host institution.
“During my stay in Bristol, I will be sharing ideas with members of the Centre for Medieval Studies and supporting postgraduate students and early-career scholars in their studies and publications,” says Prof Scott-Macnab.
He will lead a series of master’s classes in medieval manuscript studies with postgraduate students and deliver two public lectures. One will be advertised as a Leverhulme Foundation lecture and the other as the annual Tucker-Cruse lecture hosted by the Department of English.
Additionally, he intends to use this opportunity to further his own projects at the University of Bristol library and major archival repositories in the UK, including the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Library in London and the National Archives at Kew.
Prof Scott-Macnab is currently working on the first scholarly edition of a text written around 1410, which survives in 25 manuscripts from the 15th century, each unique and different in its own way.
“Working with irreplaceable 600-year-old manuscripts, each one the unique product of a team effort by a group of skilled craftsmen, is an awe-inspiring experience. Each manuscript is a work of art, a document, a repository of ideas, and a linguistic record of a particular time and place. It brings the past and its culture to life in ways that touch and move the researcher very profoundly,” he adds.
Upon his return to the NWU, Prof Scott-Macnab intends to continue inspiring his students as well as contributing to the research profile of the university. As an active member of the Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, he believes that there are many ways in which today’s students in the humanities and other disciplines can continue to learn from the creative works of the past.
“Working at a leading institution such as the University of Bristol will certainly have me coming back bursting with ideas and energy.”
