Scotland and Islandness – new edited collection

Scotland and Islandness: Explorations in Community, Economy and Culture (2021) Edited By Kathryn A. Burnett, Ray Burnett and Michael Danson

Peter Lang – Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2021. XIV, 262 pp., 2 fig. b/w.

Studies in the History and Culture of Scotland

Scotland’s islands are diverse, resourceful and singularly iconic in national and global imaginations of places ‘apart’ yet readily reached. This collection of essays offers a fascinating commentary on Scotland’s island communities that celebrates their histories, cultures and economies in general terms. Recognising a complex geography of distinct regions and island spaces, the collection speaks to broader themes of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, narratives of place and people, the ideas and policies of island and regional distinctiveness, as well as particular examinations of literature, language, migration, land reform, and industry. With a view to placing ideas and expressions of islandness within a lived reality of island life and scholarship, the collection provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the value of continued and expanding research commentaries on Scotland’s islands for both a Scottish and an international readership. 

This book should instantly appeal to scholars of Island Studies, Scottish Studies, and Regional Studies of northern and peripheral Europe. Readers with particular interests in the sociology and history of Scottish rural and northern Atlantic communities, the cultural histories and economies of remote and island places, and the pressing socioeconomic agenda of small island sustainability, community building and resilience should also find the collection offers current commentaries on these broad themes illustrated with local island examples and contingencies.

Available in Hardback, PDF and Ebook.

https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781789974133/html/ch05.xhtml

Islandness: Identity and Independence Panel MECCSA 2019

MECCSA 2019 (Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association) Annual Conference, University of Stirling

Islandness: Identity and Independence Panel proposer: Dr Kathryn A Burnett, University of the West of Scotland;  Contributors Mr Tony Grace,  Mr Ray Burnett and Dr Kathryn A. Burnett; Chair: Dr Sarah Neely, University of Stirling.

This Scottish Centre for Island Studies panel contribution is offered in close reflection of the 40^th anniversary of MacDiarmid’s death in 1978, and the 90^th anniversary of the formation of the National Party of Scotland, which involved both MacDiarmid and Mackenzie. 2019 itself is the 50^th anniversary of the release of the iconic island film ‘Whisky Galore’ based on Compton Mackenzie’s celebrated novel. This film continues to offer a set of island tropes that signify both Scottishness and Britishness as well as the ‘national antisyzgies’ of cultural authenticities, the islandness complicities of place and people and the mediated complexities of remoteness, connectedness and independences. A further thematic of ‘island and national liberty’ draws on archival records and new film practice celebrating the ‘father of biography’ James Boswell, and his celebrated accounts of ‘tours’ including the Hebrides (1773) with Johnson, as well as his earlier account of Corsica and most particularly its independence movement.

We are delighted to be working in partnership with The Boswell Trust and hope to revisit aspects of this themed panel later in the year as part of the Boswell Trust’s event and celebrations diary 2019.

SCIS Research Meeting July 5th 2018

Invitation    –    All welcome.

SCIS Research Meeting

Thursday 5^th July 2018    Time: 10:30 – 12:30

UWS Paisley Campus –    NB – note venue change

Room J251 Elles Building West.

There will be a meeting of the Scottish Centre for Island Studies on Thursday 5^th July 2018 at UWS  Paisley Campus (Room J251). The meeting will include updates on current SCIS related projects. It will also provide an opportunity for discussion around new links and for proposed new activity.

*Apologies – we have moved the venue to Paisley UWS campus as CCA room is currently unavailable.

Please email: kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk if you would like to attend or for more information.

Mapping Small Island Communicative Ecologies Seminar SCIS@UWS

Invitation to Research Seminar Creativity and Culture HUB,

School of Media, Culture and Society  

Wednesday 17^th January 2018

14:00- 15:00 UWS Ayr Campus  GT 45

A/Prof. Evangelia Papoutsaki, UNITEC, New Zealand

Mapping Small Island Communicative Ecologies

Islands have a unique micro-communicative ecology makeup and distinctiv geographical and socio-cultural identities. This research seminar introduces the concept of island communicative ecology illustrated with examples from research conducted in several islands in the Pacific region.

The communicative ecology approach refers to the various forms, resources, activities, channels and flows of communication and information used by an island or group of islands or communities within islands. Mapping as a methodology enables a broader comprehension of the complexity of specific island communities and allows for the exploration of the various types of communication activity island people are engaged in (locally, trans-locally, intra-island, inter-island, trans-peripheral, national etc.), the resources available and the understanding of how these can be used in sustaining island communities.

In this seminar, several borrowed concepts, theories, terms and approaches from communication studies will be explored within an island context: communicative ecology, and communicative ecology layers (social, technological, discursive), communication infrastructure theory, communication action, storytelling network and storytelling agents, rhizomas and community media.

The presenter explores how the communicative environment forms part of existing island communities’ structures; identifies key communicative practices that contribute to sustaining islands sociocultural cohesion; explores the role of media, in particular community radio, in localized information flows unique to the islands; and identifies future areas of research of value to the field of Islands Studies especially through the application of the communicative ecology mapping approach.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Evangelia Papoutsaki to Ayr campus for this research seminar. This seminar is open to all UWS staff and students and all are very welcome. Please email Lesley-Anne (lesley-anne.niven@uws.ac.uk) or myself (kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk) for any further information you may require.  Evangelia will be delighted to speak with colleagues on any aspect of her global work on media and communication in a range of key sectors and international settings (including diaspora and migrant identities, HIV/Aids, Climate Change, and participatory methods for community engagement). There is time set aside after the seminar for colleagues to meet with Evangelia further.

For further information on Evangelia’s extensive global experience and expertise in media, communication and community research and policy please refer here:

http://www.unitec.ac.nz/about-us/contact-us/staff-directory/dr-evangelia-papoutsaki

https://www.epapoutsaki.com/

Communicative Ecologies Research Seminar Jan 2018

PLOUGHING UP THE LANDED COMMONS

Current Scottish land reform and reclaiming the Commons: building Community Resilience

INDIGO international symposium,
January 20th 2016
KU Leuven, Leuven, Campus Arenberg

Mike Danson Heriot-Watt University and Kathryn A Burnett University of the West of Scotland

Abstract

Land and community ownership and management of assets are fundamental to economies and societies throughout northern Europe, and especially to those on the periphery and margins of the continent (Danson and de Souza, 2012). In a move to reduce the contrasts with the Nordic countries, recent changes in land ownership in Scotland have created spaces within which local people can nurture and develop the collective capabilities which will help their communities to sustain and grow. Achieving such fundamental change locally necessarily has involved coming together and acting as a defined community, with governance structures recognised by the State under dedicated land reform legislation. As elsewhere, the specific type and nature of economic and social development depends on the particularities of each community buy-out but all of the cases in Scotland are based on community ownership of the commons, confirming that the ‘commons’ are critical to understanding the processes and outcomes of people taking over their most basic of assets in these remote geographies – land and property. Further, all have demonstrated enterprise, innovation, initiative and planning to realise repopulation, improved housing, employment and business growth, and regeneration of the natural flora and fauna (Burnett and Danson, 2014).

 

This paper offers an historical and contemporary perspective of land ownership in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as both a reason for marginality and as a constraint on development. Theoretical perspectives underpinning the analysis are introduced and applied to recognise the origins of cooperative and community activities within these communities as being grounded approaches to meeting the ‘tragedy of the commons’ (Hardin, 1968) in harsh and difficult environments. It is argued that, alongside historical legacies and social norms, the long-established particular local institutional arrangements to address the peculiar physical, social and political contexts have created the foundations for subsequent community buy-outs of privately and state owned land and property. The forms and nature of these developments are assessed within the rules and property rights literature, as articulated in particular by Ostrom (2008) and Schlager and Ostrom (1992), to analyse the processes at work which have created opportunities for collective economic development within these communities. This is followed by an outline of the fundamental changes that have been taking place in land ownership, and the developments contingent on this, in remote and difficult to access areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Current moves to introduce more widespread land reform legislation and community empowerment are considered, with a particular focus on where the transfer of public assets and responsibilities is involved.

The discussion addresses the challenges faced by isolated communities and community volunteers in meeting expectations of different stakeholders and local members of the community, in delivering ambitious aspirations and plans, and in sustaining energies and consensus. The paper complements the other contributions on “Ploughing up the Landed Commons”: by considering the lived experiences of small fragile communities on the periphery which are differentiated by their geography, histories and assets (broadly defined to include natural and human heritage), before concluding with suggestions for policy recommendations and ideas for further research.

References

Burnett, K. and Danson, M. (2014) ‘Entrepreneurship and enterprise on islands’, in Exploring Rural Enterprise: New Perspectives on Research, Policy & Practice (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Volume 4) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.151 – 174, eds C Henry and G McElwee.

Danson, M. and de Souza, P. (eds.) (2012) Regional Development in Northern Europe: Peripherality, Marginality and Border Issues, Abingdon: Routledge.

Danson, M., Callaghan, G. and Whittam, G. ‘Economic and enterprise development in community buy-outs’, in Peripherality, Marginality and Border Issues in Northern Europe, eds M Danson and P de Souza, Abingdon: Routledge.

Hardin, G. (1968) ‘The tragedy of the Commons’, Science, 162(3859): 1243–8.

Ostrom, E. (2008) Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schlager, E. and Ostrom, E. (1992) ‘Property-rights regimes and natural resources: a conceptual analysis’, Land Economics 68(3): 249–62.

Update:”Remote Entrepreneurs: Where nowhere is somewhere” wins ISBE ‘Best Paper: Rural Enterprise’, 2014

 

(Selected research outputs updated Spring 2017)

Our paper on remote rural entrepreneurship wins ‘best paper’ in the ISBE rural enterprise stream,  in Manchester, 2014. This work continues from last year’s success in Cardiff, 2013 which also won ‘best paper’  in the rural enterprise stream (Thank you ISBE!) and has fed into several publications and wider research agenda. Thanks to Rebecca Stirzaker, Heriot Watt University for image of us collecting our prize: Twitter @RebeStirz

Key conclusions from this paper include our focus on:

• the complex nature of enterprise and entrepreneurship in island contexts – layered and crucially –  iportant to continue to engage with enterprise as ‘historical’;
• an agenda for deepening the research on conflicts, trust and cooperation, strong and weak ties and networks;
• to avoid a simple/uncritical  ‘urban-centric’ transfer of sectoral and national strategies and policies to such peripheral and marginal regions as small, remote islands;
• research demands further exploration of behaviours and attitudes to small rural island enterprise and entrepreneurship both from within and without the local environment;
• and  considers how concepts of the ‘other’ defines and informs wider debates and discourse;
• Scale of impact for – and by – remote rural  context is a key factor to critique.

For further reading and research outputs relating to this work see:

Kathryn A. Burnett and Mike Danson (2017) ‘Enterprise and Entrepreneurship on Islands and Remote Rural Environments’ Special Issues on Rural Enterprise, International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Vol. 18(1), pp. 25–35 DOI: 10.1177/1465750316686237

Kathryn A. Burnett and Mike Danson. (2016) ‘Sustainability and Small Enterprises in Scotland’s Remote Rural ‘Margins’, Special Issues on Rural Enterprise, Local Economy Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 539-553. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094216655518

Mike Danson , , Kathryn Burnett , (2014), Enterprise and Entrepreneurship on Islands, in Colette Henry , Gerard Mcelwee (ed.) Exploring Rural Enterprise: New Perspectives on Research, Policy & Practice (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Volume 4) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.151 – 174 10.1108/S2040-724620140000004007

Kathryn A. Burnett, Mike Danson, (2004) “Adding or subtracting value?: Constructions of rurality and Scottish quality food promotion”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 10 Issue: 6, pp.384-403, doi: 10.1108/13552550410564716

The Remotest Community in the World

 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Resettlement of Tristan Da Cunha (1963-2013)

Image courtesy of British Pathe

Scottish Centre for Island Studies

Friday 1st November 2013

Wellington Suite, Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow

(Please note: This event is now FULL. No further places are available.)

This day event offers a programme of research talks, archive film screenings and individual commentaries each relating to the island community of Tristan da Cunha.

In 1961 the island’s volcano erupted and the entire community were forced to leave Tristan for safety with no prospect of certain return. The plight of the Tristan islanders was a global media event. Their story is one that intrigued and invited comment in terms of our ideas of island living, remoteness and sustainability in the changing times of the early 1960s. These ideas continue to inform how we think and represent island communities today here in Scotland, and beyond. The Tristanians were offered immediate refuge in Scotland, with Shetland playing a pivotal role, but they were actually ‘settled’ in England where they worked and lived for some two years. In 1963 the islanders eventually returned to Tristan to rebuild their lives on this most remote of islands. Today the community continues to thrive and our day invites comment on future cultural and creative responses to live on Tristan.

This UWS research and knowledge exchange event offers a series of talks and archive film and media screenings which each commemorate this remarkable story from the despair of 1961 evacuation to the elation of 1963 resettlement. It also provides an occasion to focus on the present, the successful rebuilding of a sustainable Tristan da Cunha and to invite reflections on 50 years of change on islands here in Scotland, in Tristan, and elsewhere. Our theme for the day is that of the images, the issues, and the reality of small island community life. Our examples are largely drawn from Tristan da Cunha but also from the island communities of Scotland, including the Hebrides and Shetland. A range of speakers including academics, educationalists, film-makers and island community enthusiasts will share experiences and information together with the audience. See running order and details of talks, and screenings here.

09:30 09:40          Welcome and Introductions Scottish Centre for Island Studies

09:40 10:00          Opening Comments: Mr Chris Bates, Tristan da Cunha Government UK Representative

10:15 11:00          Tristan da Cunha ‘The Volcano Years 1961-63’: Media Archive and Representation in  a Scottish Context Dr Kathryn A Burnett, SCIS UWS Chair: Professor Neil Blain, University of Stirling

11:00 11:15          Refreshment Break (15 mins)

11:15 12:00          Tristan da Cunha: Marginalisation, Community and Islandness – the Shetland and Canna dimensions Mr Ray Burnett, SCIS UWS; Chair: Professor Mike Danson, Heriot Watt University

12:00 13:00          Screening: The Forgotten Island (1998) (Dir: Uwe Kersken) 48 mins BBC ”Under the Sun”, followed by a short Q & A

13:00 14:00          Break (60 mins)

14:00 14:30          Illustrated Talk: “Rockhopper Choppers”  Mr Bob Carse, Advisor to Tristan da Cunha Heritage Committee Chair: Mr Chris Bates

14:30 15:15          Screening: The 1991 Jim Kerr videos: a Q & A session on Tristan community life

Mr Jim Kerr, Former Education Officer Tristan da Cunha Chair: Mr Ray Burnett

15:15 15:30          Refreshment Break (15 mins)

15:30 16:00          Illustrated Talk: Island Links – A Royal Society Expedition Link with Barra. 

Mr Alasdair MacEachen, Islands Book Trust Chair: Dr Kathryn A Burnett

16:00 16:30          Screening: ‘Impressions of Tristan by David Mackenzie’

Mr David Mackenzie (Director), Chair: Mr Tony Grace

17:00 17:30          Final Discussion, Close and Thanks

Please note: This event is now FULL. No further places are available.

If you would like to attend this UWS Scottish Centre for Island Studies event then please contact kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk to reserve your place, or call Dr Kathryn A Burnett on 01292 886482 with your details.  There is no charge for this event but please note places are limited. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided for full day attendees. Alternative lunch for purchase is available on site and nearby.   All welcome.

Please note: This event is now FULL. No further places are available.

For directions to the venue please link here: http://www.thegrandcentralhotel.co.uk/location/

Islands Cultural Work: A Canadian – Scottish Focus

Research is being developed on the theme of cultural work on islands in both Scotland and Canada. Dr Lynda Harling Stalker, St Francis Xavier University, Canada and Dr Kathryn A Burnett, UWS, Scotland are developing a series of research objectives on the theme of cultural work in island settings. A number of field sites have already been explored and ethnographic work undertaken.

“Britain: The Fractured Island” by Ray Burnett

“Britain: The Fractured Island” (pp 228-245) by Ray Burnett  is included in The Political Economy of Divided Islands (2013) edited by Godfrey Baldacchino and published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of the  International Political Economy series.

“Despite the sonorous magnificence of Shakespeare’s John of Gaunt monologue, England is not an island. Rather this ‘England, that was wont to conquer others’ just thinks, acts, governs, talks, plays and presents itself as if it is. For the island polity known as ‘Britain’, more formally as ‘Great Britain (GB)’, the ‘United Kingdom (UK)’ is an odd place. In spite of its self-promotion as the ostensible product of a long, stable and immutable partnership of equals, the ‘national’ institutions of this state-nation consistently present themselves as those of a singular ‘nation-state’ through the monofocal prism of the dominant ‘island race’ of England: the English historical narrative of ‘this sceptred isle’, and a smothering blanket of English cultural referents.”

DOI: 10.1057/9781137023131_13

Full details of the edited collection to purchase are here:

Godfrey Baldacchino (ed.) (2013) The Political Economy of Divided Islands:
Unified Geographies, Multiple Polities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 256
pp., £63 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-137-02312-4.

http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137023124#aboutAuthors

 A review of the book can be found here: Carabelli, G. (2015) [Review of the book The Political Economy of Divided Islands: Unified Geographies,
Multiple Polities], Urban Island Studies, 1, 187-189.

Tristan da Cunha island community and the connection to Shetland: SCIS research event

Illustrated Talk: Tristan da Cunha’s ‘volcano years’1961-1963 – the Shetland dimension

Ray Burnett and Kathryn Burnett, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland

Image courtesy of British Pathe

In 1961 a volcanic eruption forced the community of Tristan da Cunha, ‘the loneliest island in the world’, to abandon their island home for evacuation to the UK and an uncertain future. First to offer a new home to the Tristanians were the islanders of Shetland. While government deliberated what to do, the ‘refugee’ island representatives visited Shetland to assess the possibilities.  After considerable debate the government’s preferred resettlement location was to be the south of England where the islanders remained for just under two years before they were finally able to return to Tristan in 1963.

As Tristan da Cunha celebrates the 50^th anniversary of this return, Ray and Kathryn Burnett have been researching this remarkable story of small island survival. The media coverage and government files of these events reveal much about prevailing perceptions of islands and islanders within the ‘corridors of power’ and the popular press.  Their findings in the archives, from Stockholm to Shetland bring to light not just the significance of those who stepped forward as the champions of small island communities but also the importance of the Shetland dimension. This illustrated talk will present these findings with a view to rekindling and seeking out memories from within Shetland of these events of fifty years ago.

This research has been funded by the British Academy.

The talk is on at Shetland Museum Archives  on Thursday 7^th March 2013  at 7:30 pm (Doors open  7:00 pm). All welcome.

SCIS UWS at Cape Breton island cultures conference

 

Gaelic College Centre for Celtic Arts and Crafts, St Anns, Cape Breton

Kathryn A. Burnett, Ray Burnett, and Mike Danson all of SCIS@UWS each delivered papers to the Eighth International Small Islands Conference, 6-9 June 2012, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The conference theme was Traveling in Time: Islands of the Past, Islands of the Future, and organized by the Centre for Cape Breton Studies, along with the Department of History & Culture and the School of Art & Social Science at Cape Breton University, in collaboration with the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative (SICRI). http://sicri-network.org/. The conference was an excellent opportunity for SCIS colleagues to meet up with other island studies academics, creative artists and performers. Links were refreshed with colleagues from several island studies focused institutions including especially University of Prince Edward Island, St. Francis Xavier University, and Cape Breton University, Canada, and many new collaborative links were made with new friends from both Canada and beyond.

Key themes for the conference papers and the various field site visits and cultural activities on offer included: music legacies, art practice and performativity, indigenous culture and language of islands peoples,  island narratives and practice of political resistance and expression, examination of island assets and community resources, and island industry and cultural entrepreneurship in the context of island studies critiques and global futures. The conference programme can be found here http://sicri-network.org/callforpapers/.

Cape Breton, Sydney Harbour

Gaelic College Centre for Celtic Arts and Crafts, St Anns, Cape Breton

Islands and Creative Media Practice @ UWS

If you are interested in undertaking postgraduate study in Creative Media Practice including creative writing, film-making, photography or television, as well as art, performance or music related practice you can do this with particular focus and reference to  Scotland’s  island culture, history and economy here at the University of the West of Scotland. Academic staff at the Scottish Centre for Island Studies teach on both theory and practice aspects of the  MA in Creative Media Practice, and supervision is available in a number of research specialisms. If you are interested in applying to study at postgraduate level on any aspect of island studies relating to Scotland please contact either  Tony Grace, Programme Leader for MA Creative Media Practice at tony.grace@uws.ac.uk.

For postgraduate enquires for research degrees please contact either Dr Kathryn A Burnett, School of Creative and Cultural Industries (kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk) or Professor Mike Danson, School of Business (michael.danson@uws.ac.uk).

Ainmeil Thar Cheudan 2011 Final Programme posted.

The final programme for the  centenary celebration of Sorley MacLean’s life and work at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig June 15-18 2011 is now available at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s event website http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/clar-ama_en.html. The programme details a rich and distinguised list of poets, scholars, musicians, singers, and many friends and colleagues, coming together to celebrate Sorley’s life and work. The plenary speakers and academic paper abstracts are also detailed here in full.

On Wednesday the programme features a night of island music and poetry.  Thursday and Friday offer  two full days of  academic papers, panel discussions, readings, island film screening, and exhibitions. On Saturday 18th June, and in association with Urras Dualchas Ratharsair,  the island studies focus moves to Sorley’s  birthplace, the island of Raasay  for a full day of walks, talks, music and poetry. For specific details on how to book for this Raasay event please go to http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/raasay_en.html

Clàr-ama na Co-labhairt

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/index_gd.html

Ainmeil Thar Cheudan

Comharrachadh Ceud Bliadhna bho rugadh Somhairle MacGill-Eain Diciadain 15 –  Disathairne 18 Ògmhios 2011 Mar  chomharrachadh air ceud bliadhna bhon rugadh Somhairle MacGill-Eain (1911 –  1996), tha Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Ionad Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig agus an t-Ionad  Albannach airson Sgrùdaidhean Eilein aig Oilthigh Taobh Siar na h-Alba a’ toirt cuiridh dhuibh tighinn còmhla rinn aig comharrachadh de bheatha,  de  shaothair agus de  na dh’fhàg e mar dhìleab.Am measg nan urramach ionadail, nàiseanta is  eadar-nàiseanta a bhios a’ nochdadh ann, bidh Liz Lochhead, a chaidh a chur an  dreuchd o chionn ghoirid mar Bhàrd-molaidh na h-Alba agus Aonghas MacNeacail. Bidh cuideachd an t-Ollamh Douglas Gifford, Timothy  Neat, an t-Ollamh Máir Ní Annracháin agus Crìsdean MacIlleBhàin. Gheibhear fuireach aig a’ Cholaiste airson  £275 le trì oidhcheannan, biadh agus dìnneir na co-labhairt sa phrìs. Cosgaidh  e £35 a bhith an làthair gach latha as aonais cosgais àite-fuirich agus tha  prìsean sònraichte ann do dh’oileanaich. Ma tha sibh ag iarraidh àite a bhucadh aig  a’ cho-labhairt lìonaibh AM FOIRM AIR LOIDHNE seo a-steach no cuiribh fios gu  Sandra Byrne air 01471 888 000 no air post-d.

Remote Access to World Heritage Sites from St Kilda to Uluru 23-24 November 2011- Edinburgh

“I Know Where I’m Going” Remote Access to World Heritage Sites from St Kilda to Uluru 23-24 November 2011- Edinburgh (UK) Call for Papers

Greetings! This international conference will explore the potential and challenges created by new technologies to develop high-quality, remote-access, visitor experiences for UNESCO World Heritage Sites and other sites of cultural, historical and natural significance. The conference has three main objectives: a-    To showcase the new technologies available: including the 3D laser scanning of St Kilda WHS  as part of the Scottish Ten project to create exceptionally accurate digital models of Scotland’s five UNESCO World Heritage Sites and others worldwide, in order to better conserve and manage them (http://www.scottishten.org/).  Other forms of digital mapping will also be demonstrated. b-    To debate the benefits and challenges these new technologies present. This applies not only to issues of preservation, conservation, interpretation but also to the benefits and pitfalls of virtual access to sensitive sites and the economic benefits of tourism promoted thus. c-    To encourage site managers worldwide – particularly within the UNESCO World Heritage Sites network – to consider the benefits & impact these new technologies could have for their own sites, allowing them to investigate these further and clarify issues of acquisition, installation, costs etc. WE ARE NOW INVITING PAPERS which address the key following questions with regards to remote access: 1. What are the most relevant trends and recent developments in remote access technology? What are the special considerations for different categories of heritage experiences (from underwater sites to open air museums to historic houses/listed buildings)? What are the benefits and disadvantages of remote viewing, and for whom? 2. How can technological innovation both support remote access and contribute to conservation of all aspects of a heritage site, from the historic environment to artefacts? When is remote access less sustainable? Who controls the ability to view heritage sites and materials remote, and the content which is available to view? 3. How can a balance be achieved between tourism development and environmental protection at heritage sites? Can the owners/custodians of a site benefit financially from remote viewing? (e.g issues of data ownership, land rights and intellectual property). Will remote viewing encourage physical tourism or diminish it?  4. How can remote access and remote access technologies contribute to formal and informal Education about the sites? 5.       How can storytelling and other arts contribute to remote access heritage interpretation? (you can download the full call for papers document at http://inspace.mediascot.org/beholder/iknowwhereimgoing): Keynote speakers will include Dr Mechtild Rössler, Chief of section Policy and Statutory Implementation Unit, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. If you would like to present a paper addressing the themes of the Conference, please submit an abstract. Abstracts should be submitted in pdf format and be limited to 2 pages and 1,000 words (including title and author information, but excluding references). The evaluation will be based on the quality of the submission. Submissions and inquiries are through: rawhsc11@gmail.com . The deadline for submissions is 3rd April 2011. On submission of an abstract, authors should receive an email confirming receipt of their submission. To register your interest in attending the Conference please contact : Isabelle Uny Project Manager Email:  rawhsc11@gmail.com Website: http://inspace.mediascot.org/beholder/iknowwhereimgoing  IMPORTANT DATES: Submission of title and abstract:              3rd April, 2011 Notification of acceptance: 25th April, 2011 Deadline for early-bird registration:          30 June, 2011 Registration deadline:                              11 November, 2011 Register here: http://inspace.mediascot.org/beholder/iknowwhereimgoing Remote Access to World Heritage Sites Conference: 23 & 24 November, 2011 Sincerely,Isabelle Uny UNESCO Malcolm MacLean Proiseact nan Ealan

Book by 29th April for Sorley MacLean 2011

Booking & Costs are detailed at the event website.

For all event information  including booking and registration, keynotes, programme please access the event website hosted at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig at:

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/index_en.html

Delegates can choose to stay on campus for the duration of the conference at a rate of £275 which includes 3 nights accommodation, full board and conference dinner. A daily delegate rate of £35 not including accommodation is also available, as are special discounted rates for students.

To book your place at the conference fill in our ONLINE BOOKING FORM or contact Sandra Byrne on 01471 888 000 or by e-mail.
Closing Date for registrations 29 April 2011

Ainmeil Thar Cheudan: A Centenary Celebration of Sorley MacLean (1911-2011)

Ainmeal Thar Cheudan

A Centenary Celebration of Sorley MacLean (1911-2011) Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 June 2011 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Sorley MacLean (1911 – 1996) Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Faculty of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland invite you to join in a celebration of his life, work and legacy. It is anticipated that this event will offer a range of academic and creative responses to Sorley’s cultural and political legacy with particular attention to his deep roots and referencing of island culture, history and experience. Furthermore, this proposed event will explore, with both established and more recently introduced scholars and artists, the significance and importance of Sorley MacLean within the wider context of the national culture of Scotland, the cultural terrain of the Highlands and Islands, and the cultural engagement of the 20th century Scottish left. The academic focus will be a two day event structured around a selection of papers and discussion panels, as well as performance and creative practice activity detailing both Sorley’s own work and his inspiration to others. In keeping with the internationalist perspectives that permeate Sorley’s own work, the event will be framed as an opportunity to offer an appreciation of what experiences and understanding of island life and culture, and of an island sense of place and dwelling, specifically but not exclusively in reference to Scotland, informed Sorley in his creative work and commentary. Online Booking: Access  event website at http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/index_en.html

SCIS research teaching linkages: SCIS research projects presented to UWS MA Creative Media Practice students, 17th March 2011

Ethnographic Approaches to Creative Media Practice Research

As part of the MA Creative Media Practice core module Research: Critical Development ( Module Co-ordinator Dr Kathryn A Burnett) both Kathryn Burnett and Kirsten MacLeod delivered to the year 2 students on this postgraduate course as part of a thematic week exploring ethnographic approaches to community media research and practice. Kathryn presented some examples from SCIS historical and archive projects informed by an ethnographic approach  in the island communities of  both the Outer Hebrides and  Tristan da Cunha .

Kirsten’s presentation featuring her work on community media with particular reference to the Govan Banner’s film. Kirsten spoke to the students about her background in Visual Anthropology and offered some insights on taking an ‘ethnographic’ position in relation to community media practice in both urban and rural/island settings.

SCIS Research Seminar,CCA March 11th 2011

Research Seminar on Creative Media Practice

Friday 11th March 2011

CCA, UWS Space, Sauchiehall Street Glasgow

14:30 – 16:00.

SCIS doctoral research student Rachael Flynn will present her paper “Using the written letter as a fine-art source to inform and stimulate a creative practice-led enquiry.”

All welcome.

SCIS Research-Teaching linkages: SCIS research projects presented to UWS MA Creative Media Practice students, 3rd March 2011

Narrative Approaches to Creative Media Practice Research

As part of the MA Creative Media Practice core module Research: Critical Development ( Module Co-ordinator Dr Kathryn A Burnett) both film lecturer Tony Grace and SCIS doctoral student Rachael Flynn delivered to the year 2 students on this postgraduate course as part of a thematic week exploring narrative approaches to community media research and practice.

Ainmeal Thar Cheudan Sorley MacLean Centenary Research Event 2011

The Scottish Centre for Island Studies, at University of the West of Scotland will hold a centenary celebration research event in partnership with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI and the Sorley MacLean Trust.  http://www.uws.ac.uk/schoolsdepts/mlm/sorley-maclean/index.asp 

Ainmeal Thar Cheudan

A Centenary Celebration of Sorley MacLean (1911-2011) Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 June 2011 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Sorley MacLean (1911 – 1996) Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Faculty of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland invite you to join in a celebration of his life, work and legacy. It is anticipated that this event will offer a range of academic and creative responses to Sorley’s cultural and political legacy with particular attention to his deep roots and referencing of island culture, history and experience. Furthermore, this proposed event will explore, with both established and more recently introduced scholars and artists, the significance and importance of Sorley MacLean within the wider context of the national culture of Scotland, the cultural terrain of the Highlands and Islands, and the cultural engagement of the 20th century Scottish left. The academic focus will be a two day event structured around a selection of papers and discussion panels, as well as performance and creative practice activity detailing both Sorley’s own work and his inspiration to others. In keeping with the internationalist perspectives that permeate Sorley’s own work, the event will be framed as an opportunity to offer an appreciation of what experiences and understanding of island life and culture, and of an island sense of place and dwelling, specifically but not exclusively in reference to Scotland, informed Sorley in his creative work and commentary.

Please  contact either Kathryn A. Burnett ( kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk)  or Ray Burnett (ray.burnett@uws.ac.uk)  for information on SCIS’s partnership in this key event. For link  to download call for papers, event details and further booking information connect to: http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/index_en.html

SCIS PhD student Kirsten MacLeod presents at !Documentary Now! 2011

¡Documentary Now!

A Conference on the Contemporary Contexts and Possibilities of the Documentary, University of Westminster,  January 2011

AVPhd Panel presentation by SCIS PhD student Kirsten MacLeod, “I film therefore I am: Process, Practice and Participation in Community based Filmmaking”.

Kirsten MacLeod (University of the West of Scotland)

This paper will explore examples of community-based media in Scotland, focusing on participation in the production process and the construction of identity and knowledge. Using a visual practice based methodology, the research focuses on fieldwork examples of community based, collaborative video production, in urban and rural areas of Scotland.
The paper is concerned with exploring community media as a transformative social process, a catalyst for new relationships, experience and knowledge about the world. It presents community documentary projects as a lens through which to explore issues of participation, representation, identity and knowledge within communities.
Taking a fluid approach to community as meaningful and symbolically constructed (Cohen), and to community media as covering a spectrum of media which serves, reflects or involves communities, geographically bounded, or of interest (Atton, Jankowski), this paper presents participation as part of an ongoing process of production, which lives on beyond the end product of the actual media itself, in the situated social experiences of its participants.
By examining the process of production, the research deconstructs the filmmaking process, exploring how people engage in filmmaking as participants, but also as members of the audience community. How meaningful is community media to communities who produce it, as a process and in the longer term once the end product is “out there”?
Through examples from Glasgow and islands on the West coast of Scotland, as well as broader trends in Scottish community media, the paper describes how community media channels the situated-ness of knowledge and identity.
The paper advocates a practice led methodology, where the research engages directly with the process of filming and draws reflexively and practically on the researcher and participants’ experiences.

SCIS PhD student screens at Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, 2010

 As part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, a short film produced by SCIS PhD student Kirsten Macleod  is being shown at GMAC/Streetlevel Gallery at Tron 103 on Thursday 7th October between 7-10pm. It’s titled “Playtime” and is about  remembering and rediscovering the joys of childhood fun. The film is also part of the touring exhibition, Time Out: Arts Showcase and will also be screened at Cardonald Library on  14th October 1-7pm and Pollok Civil Realm: 21st,  1-7pm. There is also a photography exhibition, Mutter Shutter associated with the project. 

‘The Furthest Hebrides’: Critical reach from contested shores: Kathryn Burnett and Ray Burnett deliver to IGU 2010 Conference, island of Ven, Sweden

Finding Their Place: Islands in Social Theory

The Island of Ven, Sweden, 27–30 August, 2010

ABSTRACTS PARALLEL PAPER SESSION B1: Identity, culture, tradition and knowledge

 

 

 ‘The Furthest Hebrides’ : Critical reach from contested shores

Kathryn A Burnett & Ray Burnett

University of the West of Scotland, UK

 

Scotland’s islands are paradoxically peripheral yet conceptually central to an

understanding of the layered complexity of issues relating to land and identity in

contemporary 21 st  century Scotland. Through a specific focus on Scotland’s

western isles, this paper traces the authoring of the layered constructions and

reconstructions of space and place that has produced a dense and variegated

palimpsest; the process of the ‘making’ of the Hebrides. It examines visual and

documentary representations to draw out some of the issues of ‘belonging’ and

ownership, appropriation and dissemination, in the context of the nationalidentitarian

functions of culture, that are embedded in the complimentary and

contradictory ‘ways of seeing’ the contested terrain of island cultural landscape(s).

Through a grounded multi-disciplinary approach to the issues raised and the

exemplars elaborated on, the paper opens up several overlapping and inter-related

issues of concentric and conflicting identities, delineation of the field of cultural

discourse, the inscription of meaning and value and the production of cultural

landscapes, and the deeper processes of complicity, self colonialism and

subalternity.

The paper concludes by advocating that a detailed study of how these processes

of ‘making’ are mediated at local (island), national (Scottish) and supra-national

(UK) level opens up new channels for further research in the intricate waters of

the cultural dynamics of authorship, ownership, ‘belonging’ and power in the

politics of land and identity.

SCIS @ CCA research event on Rockets Galore! (1957) and recent Gaelic documentaries relating to the Uist ‘Rocket Range’

Scottish Centre for Island Studies

Screening and Research Event

Venue: CCA, Sauchiehall Street Glasgow

Thursday 9^th September 2010

The Scottish Centre for Island Studies in association with the Small Islands Film Trust is hosting a small research focussed event of film screenings and related discussions on the 9^th September 2010 in the UWS space at the CCA, Glasgow. For full programme see  details under ‘Our Events’.

Geopolitics: Political Spaces – Cultural Spaces

Screening(s):        Trusadh Series Deserting Uist (2010) MacTV  and  Na Rocaidean (2008)    MNE TV

Two different documentaries providing accounts of the history and communities affected by the establishment of the ‘Rocket range’ – RA Hebrides on ‘Uist’ in 1957. Extracts will be shown from both.

Iconography and Identity: Place and Non-place

Screening: Rockets Galore! (1957) Dir: Michael Relph

For information contact Kathryn A Burnett (kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk) or Ray Burnett (ray.burnett@uws.ac.uk).

Am Politician (1998): behind the ‘mystical romance’ of Whisky Galore!

Scottish Centre for Island Studies

Screening and Research Event

Venue: CCA, Sauchiehall Street Glasgow

Thursday 9^th September 2010

The Scottish Centre for Island Studies in association with the Small Islands Film Trust is hosting a small research focussed event of film screenings and related discussions on the 9^th September 2010 in the UWS space at the CCA, Glasgow. For full programme see  details under ‘Our Events’.

Creative and Critical Practice: History, Media and Representation

Screening: Am Politician (1991) – 2 parts MNE TV

This two part documentary chronicles the real story behind the mystical romance surrounding the sinking of the SS Politician on February the 5th 1941 off the island of Eriskay in the Western Isles of Scotland. Part 1 tells the story of the sinking and salvage of the ship and part 2 focuses on the Jamaican currency on board.

Ray Burnett (SCIS) Chairs Art, Culture, History and Heritage workshops at ISISA 2010

Ray Burnett, SCIS Hon. Research Fellow will chair the Art, Culture, History and Heritage sessions 11 and 14  at the 2010 ISISA conference, Bornholm.  The related sessions 17 and 20 will be chaired by Grant McCall. Papers will be delivered in this stream by a range of international scholars in the field of island studies specifically relating to art, history, heritage and culture.  The  11 and 14 session papers are listed here:

 

Touching the Intangible: Islands as Imaginative Topographies

Suzanne Thomas

 

Art on the ‘Rock’: Struggles and strategies of three young female artists living on the island of Newfoundland, Canada.

Consuelo Griggio

 

Island Cinema: The Constitution of a National Cinema in the Philippines

Joseph Palis

 

The Åland Islands: Strategies of (touristic) events and the construction of Ålandness

Doris Griessner

 

Identities and history writing on islands in the Baltic Sea

Janne Holmén and Samuel Edquist

 

“Just isolated enough to be real”: The island factor in creating culture

Laurie Brinklow

Graeme Robertson (SCIS) Chairs Sustainable Futures workshops at ISISA 2010

Graeme Robertson, SCIS Hon. Research Fellow will chair the Sustainable Futures panels at the 2010 ISISA conference, Bornholm. Papers will be delivered in this stream by a range of international scholars in the field of island studies and sustainability  including papers on  ecological ‘fingerprints’, renewable energy, and the political ecology of tea production. The sessions papers are listed here:

From ecological footprint to ecological fingerprint – sustainable development on Helgoland (Germany)

Beate M.W. Ratter

Investigating the peculiarities of sustainable energy policies in islands communities for smart grid development: insights from complexity science and agent based models

Christophe Rynikiewicz

Contributing to a Sustainable Island and Institutional Renewable Energy-Based Resource for Higher Education: A University of Hawai’i Maui College

Clyde Sakamoto

 Sustainable Futures: A case study- goals, challenges and initiative implementation for sustainability on Maui

Joie Taylor

The Environmental Political Ecology of Tea Production in Hillside Taiwan ~ A Case Study of Island Spatial Economy

Shew-Jiuan B. Su

Using stone weirs to preserve biodiversity in the Penghu archipelago of Taiwan

Shyi-Liang Yu, Huei-Min Tsai, Kuo-Yuan Kan and Chyuan-Yuan Shiau

Ray Burnett delivers on ‘Pelle the Conqueror: Reflections on History, the Arts and Small Islands’

Ray Burnett, SCIS Hon. Research Fellow,  will deliver a plenary session paper at the ISISA 2010 conference at the Bornholm Art Museum. The paper entitled “Commemorating Pelle the Conqueror: Reflections on History, the Arts and Small Islands” is part of the wider programme of delivery of this years conference. For details of all papers and sessions click here: http://www.conferencemanager.dk/ISISA/program.html

The abstract for Ray’s paper can be read here:

Commemorating Pelle the Conqueror: Reflections on History, the Arts and Small Islands

Ray Burnett

Isle of Benbecula, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland

ray@diis.ac.uk

The life and times of the writer Martin Andersen Nexø is most often presented and discussed either in the context of his literary career as a major Scandinavian novelist of the twentieth century or his political career as a prominent cultural figure in Europe’s anti-fascist struggles, a committed member of the Danish Communist Party and a resolute defender of the Soviet Union. In each of these overlapping contexts his significance for Danish, Scandinavian and European literature, culture and politics is enduringly associated with his classic novel, Pelle the Conqueror. Published over 1906-1910, it vividly drew on Martin Andersen Nexø’s deep memories of his childhood and formative years on Bornholm and the island town of Nexø which he later took as his adopted name. This paper commemorates the centenary of the publication of the final volume of Pelle the Conqueror by approaching Martin Andersen Nexø from a specifically island studies perspective to raise the question: in what way might his portrayal of island life be of relevance to issues of culture, history and the arts in small islands beyond Bornholm, the Baltic and Scandinavia?

It offers some tentative reflections on this question by identifying some of the themes in Nexo’s portrayal of Baltic island life and tracing their applicability to comparable themes and issues in the small island communities of Scotland through a specific focus on history and the arts, reality and representations, in the Hebrides. The paper seeks to confirm the importance of Martin Andersen Nexø as a writer and observer of small island life and to raise awareness of the wider comparative significance of other writers and artists from within Scotland’s small island communities. It concludes with the reflection that there are several aspects of comparative small island research in relation to history and the arts, both within a specific Scottish-Nordic-Baltic arc and beyond, that would benefit from further collaborative engagement.

Programme ISISA Conference 2010

The programme is available  here: http://www.conferencemanager.dk/ISISA/program.html for the 2010 ISISA Conference, island of Bornholm, Denmark.

Celebrating Island Connectivities ISISA Conference XI – Bornholm – 2010

ISISA Conference XI – Bornholm – 2010

Celebrating Island Connectivities

Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (CRT) and the International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA) welcome scholars, students, policy makers and practitioners to the 11th Islands of the World Conference, to be held from Monday 23 August to Thursday 26 August 2010 on the island of Bornholm, Denmark.

Download second and final call for papers in pdf format. Abstracts should be submitted by 14 May 2010.

Visit the official conference webpage at the CRT homepage for more information on the conference and the island of Bornholm e.g. accommodation and transport. Also, check the draft programme and book of abstracts to get to know more about the papers, which will be presented. 

Late registration is now possible. The conference fee is 3.000 DKK. The fee covers conference participation and material, local transport, opening event, lunch and coffee servings and galla dinner.

Please note that late registration closes on 5 August 2010 at midnight (Danish time).  

Sign up now.

http://www.conferencemanager.dk/ISISA/the-event.html

Rachael Flynn SCIS PhD student delivers at 2010 MECCSA Postgraduate conference

Rachael Flynn is one of  SCIS’s  full time research students. Rachael delivered  a poster paper based on her first year of study at the 2010 MECCSA Postgraduate conference held at the University of Glasgow. See all sessions and paper details here: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/postgraduate-network/upcoming-events/2010-meccsa-postgraduate-conference

From the Hebrides to Herm

SCIRI 2010 ART AND ISLANDS ISLOMANIA CONFERENCE

See images here of the trip to the island of Herm during the conference.  Compton MacKenzie lived on the island of  Herm from 1920-1923. See here for some additional images and details of his time on the island and neighbouring Jethou. http://www.ciss1950.org.uk/herm_postcards.html or  for some information on the tenants of Jethou, including MacKenzie, see this link http://www.faed.net/cfaed/jethou/jethou.htm

A co-authored paper (Ray Burnett and Kathryn A Burnett)  on  the legacy and influence Compton MacKenzie and other writers and film makers have had on the  iconography and representation of  Scotland’s Hebrides was delivered by Ray Burnett, Hon. Research Fellow, School of Creative and Cultural Industries,  to the SICRI 2010 ART AND ISLANDS ISLOMANIA CONFERENCE  conference in Guernsey.

SCIS Paper on Compton MacKenzie delivered to SICRI conference 2010

SCIRI 2010 ART AND ISLANDS ISLOMANIA CONFERENCE

A co-authored paper (Ray Burnett and Kathryn A Burnett) was delivered by Ray Burnett on behalf of SCIS to the SICRI 2010 ART AND ISLANDS ISLOMANIA CONFERENCE  conference in Guernsey. The paper –  “Portaying the Hebrides: the irresistible lure and the irredeemable legacy” – offers a critical examination of the life and work of Compton Mackenzie in relation to the wider representation of islands.  The abstract for the paper is available below.  A version of this paper was delivered to the June 18th 2010 SCIS Research Meeting and Seminar, UWS. Thanks to colleagues for their comments.

Abstract
From the 18th century to the present, the islands that lie off the western seaboard of Scotland, collectively known as the Hebrides, have been one of the foremost island groups in Europe to attract the attention of artists and to acquire a substantial volume of cultural representations of their landscape, environment, people and communities, in literature, music, song, the visual arts, photography and film. Restricting itself to artistic representations in literature and film this paper examines the formulation and the legacy of two recurring and influential tropes of cultural representation of these islands ─ the ‘Hebridean Other’ and ‘Solitude and Desertion’.

The literary prism for this close focus study is provided by the life and work of Compton Mackenzie, the islomanic inspiration for D. H. Lawrence’s short story, ‘The Man Who Loved Islands’. MacKenzie’s lifelong attraction to islands involved successive periodic residency on acquired island properties from Capri in Italy, to Herm and Jethou in the Channel Islands and the Shiants and Barra in the Hebrides. The screen adaptations of MacKenzie’s Hebridean novels and the acclaimed Hebridean classics of the Michael Powell / Emeric Pressberger partnership provide the filmic prism.

The paper discusses the twin tropes of the ‘Hebridean Other’ and ‘Solitude and Desertion’ with specific reference to key iconic cultural representations, the novel/film adaptation Whisky Galore! (1947/1949 and the films The Edge of the World (1937) and I Know Where I’m Going (1945). It reflects on the enduring consequences of this cultural legacy for the island locations and communities with which they are associated, Barra, Eriskay, St Kilda, Mull and its adjacent isles in relation to the cultural referential framework they created. And it concludes by tracing the far-reaching and continuing reverberations in relation to ongoing issues relating to the cultural and symbolic capital of the islands.

June 18th Research Event

Following  the successful  SCIS  research meeting on 18th June 2010 at Paisley Campus, University of the West of Scotland (details under events page) a number of plans, research activities and opportunities discussed on the day are being taken forward. Please keep in contact regaridng your own island related research and news.  The next SCIS UWS event is under development and details will be posted shortly.

Research Meeting and Seminar

June 18th 2010

University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, Room G116, Gardner Building 09:30 – 13:30.

In addition to a general update on the activity and plans for SCIS this event will be an opportunity to meet other colleagues from UWS and elsewhere with an interest in island studies and island related research. All welcome. Please contact kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk to express your interest in attending. The meeting will be followed by a short research paper relating to current research at the centre.

Portaying the Hebrides: the irresistible lure and the irredeemable legacy

Ray Burnett
Kathryn A. Burnett
Scottish Centre for Island Studies
Faculty of Business and Creative Industries

PRODIGIA Phase 1

Click  on the link to Prodigia – Project for the Digitisation of Island Archives – an initiative to encourage and facilitate community access to the archival cultural heritage of the Uists and Barra; to assist in the preservation of fragile records through the provision of digital surrogates; to build up a portfolio of captured archival images; and to provide case studies in their application to island settlement history.   This Heritage Lottery Funded project is complete; Phase 2 is currently under development.

IGU Islands Commission Conference, Ven

Aug 2010 –  IGU Islands Commission conference Ven

 Finding Their Place: Islands in Social Theory

Sweden, 27 – 30 August 2010.

Venue: Island of Ven, Sweden

 An International Conference organized by the Islands Commission of the International Geographical Union (IGU) in collaboration with the Department of Human Geography, Lund University, Sweden.

For details: http://www.keg.lu.se/iguislands/index.html

CEHA Conference, Maderia

July 2010 –  CEHA conference on Madeira.   

SICRI conference, Guernsey

June 2010 – SICRI conference on Guernsey. 

ARTS, ISLANDS AND ISLOMANIA – 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL SMALL ISLAND CULTURES

23 Jun 2010 – 26 Jun 2010

Details:  Contact: The Head of Arts Development, Guernsey Arts Commission +44 (0) 1481 749258, or  for submission of papers, Phil Hayward at SICRI on e-mail phayward@scu.edu.au Part of the Small Islands Cultural Research Institute based at Southern Cross University. Co hosted by the Guernsey Arts Commission in association with the Art and Islands Initiative and the Culture & Leisure Department

For a full list of all sessions and papers delivered  go to  www.sicri-network.org

Island Studies Conferences

April 2010 – Islands 2010 Croatia 

First International Conference on Island Sustainability
19 – 21 April 2010
Venue: Brač Island, Croatia

Details: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/10-conferences/islands-2010.html

ISISA Conference 2010, Bornolm

Aug 2010 –  ISISA conference Bornholm.

Islands of the World XI
August 23rd to 26th 2010
Venue: Island of Bornholm, Denmark

For details: http://www.geol.utas.edu.au/isisa/index.htm

Joint Nature Conservation Committee supports UWS research project on Tristan da Cunha

A research partnership between the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), coordinated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee,  and the community of Tristan da Cunha  has been established to pilot some research into the challenges of climate change through education, awareness raising and  the dissemination of information,  good ideas and good practice.   

 The project aims to examine how it can support and facilitate the young islanders, all pupils of St Mary’s school, Tristan da Cunha to explore and engage with sustainability issues in relation to their own environment, history and future through the making and sharing of visual media both within the community of Tristan da Cunha and beyond to islanders and audiences interested in island culture and environment everywhere. Mr Jim Kerr, Education Advisor, Tristan da Cunha is the lead partner representative for the island community and school and is working closely with the young people in both producing and developing creative responses to the island’s environment and social change.

It is anticipated that this work with the young people of Tristan da Cunhna will inform and be informed by some of the other UWS research activities into Tristan’s history and cultural heritage.  For further information on the activities  of St Mary’s school please go to http://www.tristandc.com/newsschool.php

Welcome to the Scottish Centre for Island Studies.

The Scottish Centre for Island Studies blogsite is in addition to the centre’s main webpage currently under construction at University of the West of Scotland: Scottish Centre for Island Studies.