Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

My main research interests lie in the social and cultural history of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Highlands, with an especial focus on religion, education, land use, and the family. I am currently investigating how Evangelicalism affected family life, community culture and masculinity. In addition, I am developing a research project on Scottish emigrant families to Canada from 1782-1850. I especially enjoy work that involves fieldtrips and collaborating with local schools, organisations and heritage groups.

Recent Publications

‘The township, the pregnant girl and the church: community dynamics, gender and social control in early nineteenth-century Scotland’, Northern Scotland 10.1 (2019), pp. 41-67.

‘Yes after No: The Indyref Landscape, 2014-16’, Journal of British Identities 2 (Jan. 2019), pp. 1-30. [photo essay]

‘Pregnant emigrants: gender, childbirth and migrant families in rural British North America, 1818-1850’, in Alice Glaze et al, Gender and Mobility in Scotland (Guelph, 2018), pp.83-100.

‘Feeding in the forest: how Scottish settlers learned to raise livestock in the old growth forests of Upper Canada, 1814-1850’ The Agricultural History Review 65 (Spring 2017), pp. 74-93.

‘Cows, sheep and Scots: livestock and immigrant strategies in rural Upper Canada, 1814-1851’ Ontario History 109.1 (Spring 2017), pp. 1-26.

‘The people, the priests and the Protestants: Catholic responses to Evangelical missionaries in the early nineteenth-century Scottish Highlands’, Church History 85.2 (June 2016), pp. 275-301.

‘”Alive to the advantages of education”. Problems in using the New Statistical Account to research education: a case study of the Isle of Skye’, Northern Scotland (May 2016), pp. 85-92.

‘Looking for Catholics: using Protestant missionary society records to investigate nineteenth-century Highland Catholicism’, Innes Review (Spring 2014), pp. 52-75.

‘”A palmful of water for your years” babies, religion and gender identity among crofting families, 1800-1850’, in Jodi A. Campbell, Elizabeth Ewan and Heather Parker (eds), The Shaping of Scottish Identities: Family, Nation and the Worlds Beyond (Guelph, 2011), pp. 59-75.

Magazine Articles

• ‘”Most Anxious to have a Teacher”: Gaelic Schools in the Northern Highlands’ History Scotland (Jan-Feb 2016).
• ‘From Mull to Canoe Cove: The Indirect Route, Part I’, History Scotland (Jan-Feb 2014).
• ‘From Mull to Canoe Cove: The Indirect Route, Part II’, History Scotland (Mar-Apr 2014).

Opinion Pieces

‘Wild Land: Alternative insights into Scotland’s unpeopled places’, Community Land Scotland http://www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/find-out-more/renewal_repopulation/

Online Writing

Historylinksdornoch blog (2012-present) – I edit and write for a local history blog, encouraging research and writing from academics and locals about the history of Ross-shire and Sutherland.

Guest blogger

• Women’s History Scotland ‘The “Dreadful Hard Work” of Nancy Smibert in Upper Canada’, March 2014
• EDINA Statistical Accounts of Scotland ‘The Working Lives of Ordinary Scots’ February 2015
• British Identities Hub ‘“The Re-forming of a scattered Scottishness” Part 1: The Claymore Boys’ Magazine’ June 2015
• EDINA Statistical Accounts of Scotland ‘Of Pibrochs and Preachers: Music and Folk Culture in the Old Statistical Accounts‘ September 2015

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Scotland

Expertise by Geography

Atlantic, British Isles, United Kingdom

Expertise by Chronology

18th century, 19th century

Expertise by Topic

Children & Youth, Environment, Family, Gender, Local & Regional, Migration & Immigration, Religion, Rural & Agrarian History, Women