Our History lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, explores the life and legacy of King Robert II’s notorious third son, Alexander Stewart, better known as ‘the Wolf of Badenoch’. This article first appeared as part of the ’10 Minutes On…’ column in…
Sylvia Valentine is a professional genealogist who is also completing a PhD at the University of Dundee. Her thesis explores opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination in 19th and early 20th– century Scotland. Follow Sylvia on Twitter at @historylady2013 The names…
Our History lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, looks at the notorious executions of two noblemen under suspicious circumstances during the minority of James II. This article first appeared as part of the ’10 Minutes On…’ column in History Scotland magazine, with…
In this guest post, Dr Craig Lamont (University of Glasgow) explores how we can go about rediscovering and reimagining Georgian Glasgow. When I embarked on the ‘Georgian Glasgow’ PhD project in 2012, I did not know all that much about…
Our History Lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, provides a brief summary of the long-standing resistance offered to the MacMalcolm kings of the 12th and 13th centuries by the rival Meic Uilleim family. This article first appeared as part of the ’10 Minutes…
Our History Lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, provides an overview of the Roman attempt to subjugate Scotland towards the end of the 1st century CE. This article first appeared as part of the ’10 Minutes On…’ column in History Scotland magazine, with whose kind…
Join us for the first ever celebration of the life and work of Cupar-born early Scottish Science Fiction writer, Robert Duncan Milne in his hometown. Milne made a larger contribution to early Science Fiction than Robert Louis Stevenson or Arthur…
Our History Lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, provides an overview of the short but vicious civil war that followed the deposition in 1567 of Mary, Queen of Scots. This article first appeared as part of the ’10 Minutes On…’ column in…
Our History lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, has teamed up with History Scotland magazine to host an exciting webinar series. Beginning in 2020 as a attempt to keep History fans engaged during lockdown, the webinar series proved so popular that History…
We are excited to announce that our Senior Lecturer in History, Dr Martine Van Ittersum, will be appearing in an upcoming radio series exploring the historical relationship between Scotland and the Low Countries. ‘Scotland the Low Countries’ is a two-part…
In an exclusive preview of his new book, Professor Graeme Morton explores the rise of meteorological science in the nineteenth century, and asks how it might have related to the Scottish experience of mass emigration. Even when the rain and…
The Union of 1707 did not come out of nowhere; Scots had been discussing the concept almost ceaselessly throughout the 17th century. Dr Allan Kennedy outlines the major models of Union they came up with, demonstrating that the form adopted…
A plot-point in numerous books, films, and TV shows, the tontine is among the most notorious financial products every devised. But, as Dr Andrew McDiarmid explains, this most infamous of investment schemes had a notable – and broadly positive –…
The Centre for Scottish Culture was delighted to learn that our History Lecturer, Dr Allan Kennedy, has been awarded the inaugural Birlinn Prize for Scottish Local History! The prize is awarded annually to the best paper published in the journal…
The Centre for Scottish Culture was delighted to learn that our PhD candidate, Sylvia Valentine, has recently succeeded in publishing some of her exciting research! Sylvia’s article, ‘Meet the vegetarian anti-vaxxers who led the smallpox inoculation backlash in Victorian Britain’,…
Although the great Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott is most famous as a historical novelist, his work is also notable for frequently exploring supernatural themes. With Halloween just behind us, Dr Daniel Cook delves into Scott’s prose and picks out seven…
With Hallowe’en nearly upon us, Dr Allan Kennedy gets into the spooky spirit by telling the story of the supposed witches’ coven discovered in Crook of Devon, Kinross-shire, in 1662. Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy Between 1563 and…
Dr Allan Kennedy tells the story of the little-known bandit Calum Og McGrigor, who terrorised the Stirlingshire area throughout the 1660s, and asks what his crimes can tell us about deviance and marginality in 17th-century Scotland. Follow Allan…
Continuing his exploration of the rich and fascinating papers of West Lothian laird Sir Walter Dundas (1562-1636), Dr Alan MacDonald grapples with an age-old problem: how many legs are there on a goose? Follow Alan on Twitter at @estaitis In 1616,…
Dr Allan Kennedy looks at the vogue for Scotland-based popular songs in Restoration England, asking what their subject-matter was, and what they can tell us about English attitudes towards Scotland in the later 17th century. Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy …
Dr Alan MacDonald delves into the rich and fascinating papers of Sir Walter Dundas (1562-1636), a West Lothian laird whose innovative land-management practices suggest that ‘Improvement’ may have begun in Scotland a good deal earlier than is often supposed.…
Samantha Hunter is a PhD student at the University of Dundee, researching governance and social control in seventeenth-century Scotland. Follow Samantha on Twitter at @sam_hunter95 The records of the early modern period provide wonderful, and often unexpected,…
Dr Allan Kennedy discusses the concept of uncleanliness in early modern Scotland, and explores the way this idea linked to issues of public order and criminal deviance. Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy Among the many consequences of the…
Lisa Baer-Tsarfati is a PhD candidate at the University of Guelph, whose research uses natural language processing and word embeddings (vector space modelling) to examine how language was used to exert control in early modern Scotland. In this special…
In this guest post, Maurice Millar explores the life and work of the often-overlooked Dundee Colourist painter John Maclauchlan Milne. John Maclauchlan Milne (1885-1957) – JMM – was in the same places, at the same times, doing the…
In this guest post, Murdo Macdonald, Professor Emeritus of the History of Scottish Art at the University of Dundee, tells us about his new book, Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). My book, Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins (Edinburgh…
Samantha Hunter is a first-year PhD researcher at the University of Dundee, exploring governance and control in seventeenth-century Scotland. In this guest post, she discusses early modern expectations of church attendance, and asks when, and for what reasons, certain people…
Our steering-committee member, Dr Allan Kennedy, has created a series of unique Scottish History quizzes. Intended initially to help keep people distracted and entertained during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, these quizzes have built up into a unique resource to test and…
Dr Michael Morris explores recent efforts to confront the legacy of Scotland’s involvement in Atlantic slavery, and suggests a possible road-map for public commemoration. Follow Michael on Twitter at @M_J_Morris81 Following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer in 2013, African-American…
Dr Allan Kennedy explores what life was like for the Scottish women who made their homes in London during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy Since 2018, I, in collaboration with Professor Keith…
In this guest post, Dr Nel Whiting takes a look at the role of gender in shaping the portraiture of David Allan (1744-96), specifically in his family portrait of the Erskines of Torrie. Follow Nel on Twitter at @nel_whiting…
In this guest post, Dr Erin Farley explores how the popular ‘spring poetry’ of 19th-century Dundee celebrated the freeing, invigorating effect of the city’s public parks. Follow Erin on Twitter at @aliasmacalias For many city residents, especially those…
Sylvia Valentine is a professional genealogist who is also completing a PhD at the University of Dundee. Her thesis explores opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination in 19th and early 20th– century Scotland. Follow Sylvia on Twitter at @historylady2013 …
Dr Allan Kennedy explores ideas and practice around the use of judicial torture in early modern Scotland. Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy When we discuss crime and punishment in the past, we often instinctively think about torture. Grisly…
The Centre for Scottish Culture has partnered with the University of Stirling for a major, three-year research project entitled ‘The Scottish Privy Council, 1692-1708: Government from Revolution to Union’. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Scottish Privy Council…
Great War Dundee and Abertay Historical Society are marking Conscientious Objectors Week with a series of collaborative events, which will take place on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th May. These are free and open to all. Click here to download the…
This guest post comes from Suzanne Black, second-year PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Edinburgh, who attended a recent event in our 21st-Century Book Historian series. The series is a collaboration between the Universities of Edinburgh, Stirling and…
Now in its second year, Writings from Scotland Before the Unionis a one-day conference, hosted by the Centre for Scottish Culture at the University of Dundee, which seeks to further understand how Scotland saw herself in literary terms before formal union…
The inaugural entry in The History Scotland Lectures was a debate between Professor Murray Pittock (University of Glasgow) and Professor Christopher Whatley (University of Dundee) on ‘Who were the Jacobites and what did they want for Scotland?’. Professors Whatley and…
Imagination: Scotland’s Festival of Ideas: Culture in Challenging Times Spring/Summer Talks Season Culture In Scotland – Who Is Missing? Come and join us in the first of a series of discussions undertaken by Imagination: Scotland’s Festival of Ideas looking at…
This festive post comes from Erin Farley, a local PhD student working on “Poetry, song and community in the industrial city: Victorian Dundee”, a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and Dundee Central Library’s Local History Centre. In mid-Victorian Scotland,…
On Saturday 1st July the Centre for Scottish Culture hosted CILIP’s Library and Information History Group conference at the University of Dundee. On the theme of The Information Landscape in Scotland 1600-1900, it brought together librarians, academics and researchers for…
Keynote Speaker: Professor John J. McGavin University of Dundee, April 21st 2018 Now in its second year, Writings from Scotland Before the Union 2018 is a one-day conference which will continue to explore all areas of literature prior to the Act…
With Scottish national identity playing a key role in the political landscape of the British Isles, notions of “Scottishness” are now under scrutiny like never before. The culture of Scotland before the Act of Union of 1707 and how Scotland…
The Centre for Scottish Culture is delighted to announce the appointment of its first AHRI Doctoral Fellow, Paul McFadyen. Paul is a current PhD candidate at the University of Dundee whose main research interests are in Medieval art and literature.…
Jill Dye is a second-year PhD Student on a SGSAH-funded Applied Research Collaboration with the Universities of Stirling and Dundee and the Library of Innerpeffray. Though her PhD research focuses on borrowers from the Library of Innerpeffray 1747-1854, Jill has…
31st March – 2nd April 2017, University of Dundee Plenary Speaker: Professor Alison Lumsden As we continue to celebrate the 200th anniversaries of the first publication of many of Walter Scott’s major works, including Waverley (2014), Rob Roy (1817) and…
Saturday, April 22nd, 2017 The Centre for Scottish Culture, University of Dundee Keynote Speaker: Dr Sarah Dunnigan (University of Edinburgh) With Scottish national identity playing a key role in the political landscape of the British Isles, notions of “Scottishness”…
by Jill Dye Next month, I’ll be attending the Annual Meeting of the Association of Independent Libraries to talk about my project at Innerpeffray (described in the post below), and the benefits of academic partnerships for Independent Libraries. The meeting…
Postgraduates and postdoctoral scholars working in any area of Scottish literature (1740-1830) are invited to apply for the jointly funded BARS-UCSL Scottish Romanticism Research Award. The executive committees of the British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) and the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature (UCSL)…
TEXTUAL EDITING: TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PRACTICE A series of workshops for doctoral students in literary studies UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN, WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2016 Meeting Room 3, Sir Duncan Rice Library …
The British Association for Romantic Studies Stephen Copley Research Awards Postgraduates and early career scholars working in the area of Romanticism are invited to apply for a Stephen Copley Research Award. The BARS Executive Committee has established the bursaries…
by Jill Dye My PhD project is jointly supervised by Dr Katie Halsey (University of Stirling) and Dr Daniel Cook (University of Dundee) with an external partner, Innerpeffray Library. Innerpeffray is the oldest free lending library in Scotland. Founded by David…
Saturday 30th April 2016 University of Dundee A rock outcrop, a hedge, a fallen tree, anything that turns us out of our way, is an excellent thing on a walk. It is quite possible to refuse all the coercion, violence,…
An exhibition by Level 3 Illustration students from DJCAD inspired by Dundee’s historic connections with polar exploration and whaling. We would like to invite you to visit a new exhibition in the Zoology Museum opening on Friday featuring artworks inspired…
As a teenager Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Shelley) lived with the Baxter family on South Baffin Street on the outskirts of industrial Dundee, a little while before penning one of the world’s most enduring works of Gothic fiction, Frankenstein (1818).…
The Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities and the Universities’ Committee for Scottish Literature would like to announce a series of four workshops to provide doctoral students of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature with the knowledge and skills required for…
I lived principally in the country as a girl, and passed a considerable time in Scotland. I made occasional visits to the more picturesque parts; but my habitual residence was on the blank and dreary northern shores of the Tay,…
Saturday 3rd October, 5pm to 6.30pm Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee Four leading Scottish experts will participate in the debate for or against the legalisation of drugs in Scotland. Speakers who will argue in favour of legalisation will be retired…
by Maxine Branagh, University of Stirling Our first “21st-Century Book Historian” workshop, held back in December at the University of Stirling, focused on methodologies in the History of Reading which made me reflect a great deal on my own choice…
by Katie Halsey On 21st March a small group of doctoral students (“fit audience, though few”, as Milton would have said) visited Innerpeffray Library for the third of “The 21st-Century Book Historian” doctoral training events. It was a beautiful Spring…
For further information about the contributions of our History of the Book students to The 21st-Century Book Historian workshop held in Dundee on 1 April 2015 please click on the links below: Dr Martine van Ittersum Mhairi Rutherford Kirstyn Dickson Nicole…
I come from Finland and am in my fourth year as an English Undergraduate at the University of Dundee. I am thinking of doing a Masters in English after graduation. I am especially interested in Old English literature. ‘The vvorkes…
I am a Luxembourgish student currently studying English Literature and Film. I thoroughly enjoy my studies at the University of Dundee, and I will graduate in June 2015. ‘Memorialls’ of William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) Br. Ms. 2/2/4 William Drummond…
I am an exchange student from northern British Columbia, Canada, and will be returning home to finish my degree in September. I hope to have an eventual career in either archive or museum studies, so this course was perfect for…
I am a fourth-year student studying Psychology and History as a Joint Honors. I hail from Glasgow. Since reading is my greatest hobby, I decided to take the History of the Book module. After graduation, I should like to pursue…
I am a final year history student with a fondness for Episcopalian endowed libraries. My dissertation focuses on the library and reader responses of Alexander Jolly, an Episcopalian Bishop. He collected over 3,000 books in his lifetime, many of which…
I am a Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Dundee, and I co-teach HU42001 (History of the Book, 1500-1800) together with Dr. Jodi-Anne George, my colleague in the English Department. I became interested in the archeology of…
by Jan Hillgaertner, University of St Andrews On 11 December, a group of around thirty doctoral students of book history met at the University of Stirling for the first History of Reading workshop, led by Katherine Halsey (Stirling) and Daniel…
The 21st-Century Book Historian (sponsored by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities and the universities of Stirling, Dundee, and Edinburgh). The next in our series of events is a field trip to the wonderful Innerpeffray Library ( )…
On January 29 the University of Dundee Fulbright Legacy programme, the Arts and Humanities Research Institute, the Centre for Scottish Culture, and Archives & Information were partners in a two-part evening featuring an illustrated lecture and a compelling performance exploring…
October 2014 saw the inauguration of our new annual series hosted by the Centre for Scottish Centre in relation with local and national partners: Scottish Culture Month. During the month we teamed up with staff and students from across the…
The University of Dundee has AHRC & ESRC funded PhD studentships which may be undertaken under the supervision of the Centre for Scottish Culture. Full details: AHRC Doctoral Programme Scotland ESRC Studentships
Italy and the Response to Ossian in Visual Art by Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, University of Dundee This paper was made possible by an invitation to conduct research in 2013 as part of the Cesarotti project…
Collaborative Training Event 11 December 2014, University of Stirling (with the universities of Dundee and Edinburgh) On Thursday 11 December, 12-6pm, the University of Stirling is running a Book History workshop on methodologies in the history of reading. The workshop…
Take a look at the programme for the Scottish Heroes & Villains: The First Symposium, register by Friday 10th October via our online store.
The US-UK Fulbright Commission is pleased to announce a call for applications for its 2015-16 Scottish Studies Award. In this award category up to three grants are offered to UK academics, artists or professionals to undertake lecturing/carry out research relating…
There once was rhododendron, among graves shadowed by cypress; and in that rubbish of breakable twig and bough with the green-black dust, cradles, where blackbird hearts jumped in their huddled eggs, speckles gathered at the fat ends, no batch the…
(advanced notice) This October The Centre for Scottish Culture at Dundee and its partners present “Scottish Heroes & Villains Month”. Through a series of academic and creative word-and-image events we will explore the role and impact of real-life and fictional…
A number of English words have Scots origins. Glamour, for example, comes from English grammar and Scottish gramarye (namely, occult learning or scholarship). It means magic, enchantment, spell.
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I: And I will…
In partnership with the Scottish Centre for Global History, the Centre for Scottish Culture will begin a new postgraduate programme in September 2014. The MLitt in Devolution and Global Governance follows on from Dundee’s successful 5 Million Questions project and…
Dr Daniel Cook, Lecturer in English at Dundee and Associate Director of the Centre for Scottish Culture, has been invited to chair and participate in a Plenary Panel on ‘Reading The Lay of the Last Minstrel‘, along with J.H.Alexander, Gillian…
The Scottish History Society is pleased to announce that its annual Postgraduate Prize is now open. This prize, of £350, is awarded for the best transcription with historical introduction by a postgraduate student, and the winning entry will be considered…
In order to launch The Centre for Scottish Culture, on 22 March 2014 we hosted Waverley at 200, a one-day symposium in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s debut novel. We brought together prominent…
red, adj. comparative mair reid; superlative maist reid As early as the 15th century, criminals in Scotland were being “apprehendit with the redhand”. It is not until the 19th century that Walter Scott used the form “red-handed” . The redness…
By Robert Louis Stevenson As from the house your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden,…
Tuesday 15th April 2014, 6-7pm The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, Meadowside, Dundee DD1 1DA Rethinking Arts and the Highlands With Prof Murdo MacDonald, University of Dundee www.dundeeartscafe.co.uk The Scottish Highlands have given rise to one of the great…
The Centre for Scottish Culture proudly presents a one-day symposium in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s debut novel, Waverley. We have brought together prominent speakers in a range of disciplines, such as Literature,…
Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (CSECS) & Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society (ECSSS) 15-18 October 2014 Hôtel Delta Montreal, 475 President-Kennedy Avenue Montreal, Quebec Social cohesion and harmony are based largely on sociability, a form of ‘soft’ police referring to the…
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; Ae fareweel, alas, for ever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee. Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, While the star of hope she leaves…
Teckle (Dundee) – very good, entertaining
When biting Boreas, fell and doure, Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r; When Phoebus gies a short-liv’d glow’r, Far south the lift, Dim-dark’ning thro’ the flaky show’r, Or whirling drift: Ae night the storm the steeples rocked, Poor Labour…