On Monday 18 September, members of the Society’s Council visited colleagues at the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands. The Visit is the latest in this autumn’s series of meetings with historians at universities across the UK.
The day brought together historians and professional support staff from the Centre for History, at Dornoch, with members of the Society’s Council. An RHS panel focused on the Society’s role in supporting distinctive departments like the Highlands and Islands; on distance learning, in which the Centre specialises; employability for graduate historians; and the state of History in Scottish Higher Education. Presentations from Centre staff described their specialist work on public and community history across the northern Highlands, and its links to tourism and economic development.
Public history was also the focus for a concluding public lecture–by our guest speaker Professor Lucy Noakes (Essex)–on ‘Histories, communities and feelings in the centenary of the First World War’. Lucy’s lecture, delivered to audiences in Dornoch and online, discussed the form and content of commemorative projects, 2014-18, and their relationship to regional communities, including those in the Highlands and Islands.
Many thanks to Lucy, and all those who attended her lecture; to our co-organisers of the Visit at the Centre for History; and to the historians at University of the Highlands and Islands for attending and hosting this event.
Forthcoming Visits and sponsored lectures
Visits are an opportunity for the Society’s Council members and staff to meet with historians. Visits also include an RHS sponsored lecture by a guest lecturer.
Our next Visit (Monday 16 October) is to historians at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, and includes a public lecture, ‘Naming and Shaming? Telling Bad Bridget Stories’, with guest lecturers Elaine Farrell (Queen’s University Belfast) and Leanne McCormick (Ulster). Booking for this event is now open.
Further Visits, to the universities of York St John, York and Brunel, take place in early 2024.