SEDA Conference 2026
Common Ground
Draft - Subject to change
Speakers
Day 1
Niamh MacKenzie is a PhD candidate with the University of the Highlands and Islands, in collaboration with Historic Environment Scotland and funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. Her research focuses on drystane dyking (dry stone walling) as a traditional craft and an evolving example of intangible cultural heritage. Her fieldwork has taken her to communities across the country to meet and work alongside craftspeople. Her interest in Scotland's living heritage spans across performance and music, as well as traditional practices and craft.
Dr Ryan Dziadowiec is a researcher and educator based in Inverness. His research centres around the confluence of people, place and language. In 2024 he completed a thesis investigating the Gaelic concept dùthchas, after which he worked on a community landownership archiving project with Community Land Scotland.
Day 2
Tim Ingold is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. He has carried out fieldwork among Saami and Finnish people in Lapland, and has written on environment, technology and social organisation in the circumpolar North, on animals in human society, and on human ecology and evolutionary theory. His more recent work explores environmental perception and skilled practice. Ingold’s current interests lie on the interface between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Ingold is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2022 he was made a CBE for services to Anthropology.
Caroline Walker
Day 3
Gabrielle Clarke
Workshop leads
Day 1
Becky Little is an artist/builder and teacher working with natural materials, communities and place. With over 30 years of experience across construction, conservation and art, she specialises in building with earth, working directly with soils and fibre.
Through making, she explores how ecological relationships, material agency and heritage become visible and tactile, forming narratives within the work itself. She moves between building, sculpture and public engagement, bringing practical skills together with shared enquiry and learning.
Her current work develops more reciprocal approaches to construction, shifting away from extractive models towards ways of building that respond to land, materials and more-than-human worlds. Through workshops and collaborative projects, she invites others to work directly with earth as a living material, and to understand building as a relationship with the ground beneath us.
Elliot Payne & UK Hempcrete
Neil Crocker
Max Johnson
Day 2
Freya Wise
Photo credit Elaine Livingstone
Allison Galbraith is a folklorist and professional storyteller with over thirty years of experience creating community projects in Scotland. She has written traditional oral folktale collections, including Funny Folktales for Children (2023), Lanarkshire Folktales (2021), and Dancing With Trees: Eco-Tales from the British Isles (co-author, 2017), all published by The History Press. She is a member of the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the Folklore Society, regularly contributing as a storyteller and workshop facilitator to festivals and conferences.
Kirsty Gilchrist helps people and organisations be brave.
Through facilitation, strategy and mentoring, Kirsty works with individuals and teams to reconnect with their drive, find their voice ,and move forward with clarity and confidence to be the brave they want to be.
She has also founded The Brave Collective, a growing network of experienced professionals who are challenging the status quo, finding their purpose and their voice to change the trajectory of their life.
Kirsty believes that sustainable change comes from challenging the status quo strategically through being completely authentic - genuine enough to stay energised, wise enough to build alliances, brave enough to take action.
Artistic Contributions
Day 1
TBA
Day 2
Chisom Okoronkwo is a Nigerian-Scottish writer and spoken word artist. She holds a First Class degree in English Language and Literature and is the recipient of the 2024 African Excellence Award from the University of Glasgow, where she earned an MLitt in Creative Writing (Distinction). Her work has appeared in Brittle Paper, Isele Magazine, Ake Review, Blue Marble Review, and Lunar Journal, among others. She is the winner of the 2023 Shuzia Journey of the Soul Poetry Contest, and has been shortlisted for the Isele Short Story Prize and the Glasgow Women’s Library Bold Types Competition, as well as longlisted for the Bournemouth Writing Prize and The Writers’ Prize.
She has performed at the Acid Cabaret Show (2025), Edinburgh International Poetry Festival (2026), University of Glasgow Creative Writing Festival (2026), and Creative of Colours Festival (2026). She is a current member of Glasgow City of Poets.
Website: https://linktr.ee/ChisomOkoronkwo