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 The Restoration (1660-c.1688) is well known as an age of exuberant artistic expression in
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Centre for Scottish Culture Blog
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. Follow Alan on Twitter at @estaitis Sir Walter Dundas (1562-1636): Pioneer of ‘Improvement’? When I
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, glimpses into the lives of the people who lived centuries ago. Not only can they
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 ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been renewed emphasis on the importance of cleanliness. Thorough hand-washing, we
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 guest post, she discusses what family tradition around one 16th-century Perthshire marriage can tell us about matrimony,
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 same thing, as those who would later become known as ‘The Scottish Colourists’, namely 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 University Press, 2020) explores the interdisciplinary achievement of one of the key thinkers of the
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 might have been excused from attending. Follow Samantha on Twitter at @sam_hunter95 It
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 expand your Scottish History knowledge. The quizzes are completely free for public access via gotoquiz.com,
Recent Blog Posts
Scotland and the Low Countries 15 Mar, 2021
Leaving the Cold Country 09 Mar, 2021
Imagining Union before the Union 07 Dec, 2020
Dying to Invest: Scotland and the Tontine 23 Nov, 2020
Dundee Historian wins Local History Prize! 10 Nov, 2020
Publishing Success for our PhD Researcher! 04 Nov, 2020
Seven Deadly Tales: Halloween with Walter Scott 03 Nov, 2020
The Crook of Devon Witches 26 Oct, 2020
Tales from the Dundas Archives 2 28 Sep, 2020
Confronting the Legacy of Slavery in Scotland
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 activists developed a new campaign with a name that is poignant in its starkness: Black