STASIS (Postgraduate Students for the Advocacy of Scottish Interdisciplinary Study)
STASIS is a collection of postgraduate students from all over Scotland (MSc, MLitt, MA, PhD, and some Honours students) who are eager to try their hands at presenting papers from their areas of study in a comfortable, informal environment to help bolster their public speaking skills and also garner a better idea of what seminars and conferences might hold later in their academic careers. In addition, the varied nature of the members of STASIS ensures that a host of students from many nationalities and interests spanning all areas of Scottish Studies interacts in a symbiotic way that furthers the disciplines covered, and reinforces the individual's interest and ability to research and present their subjects of study, and other subjects in a similar realm.
STASIS was approved for a quarter-page advertisement in History Scotland magazine, and we've been asked to extend to our members a strong invitation to submit papers for publication within its pages. History Scotland is an excellent bridge between academic and popular readership, and is keenly allied with the interdisciplinary approach to Scottish Studies that STASIS advocates. There are a number of different submission guidelines that the magazine will accept, and we urge you to browse their website and see what they have to offer, and to contact them if you'd like to further seek publishing possibilities. Please find them on the web at: http://www.historyscotland.com
Archive of past meeting topics
21 FEBRUARY 2004
University of Edinburgh
Mr. Ralph Moffat (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"Knights and Lasers"
A brief introduction to the usage of new digital imaging technology and its application in the examination of medieval tomb effigies, preservation of medieval stonework, and assessing the accuracy and composition of such structures.
Ms. Paula Somerville (PhD candidate, University of Strathclyde)
"Scottish National Organizations in the 1950s"
An examination of various national groups that arose from the SNP's "lack of progress" during the years after its creation in 1934, and an analysis of what long-term effects these groups had on the SNP.
Mr. Darren S. Layne (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"Just Four Miles More to Glory"
A closer look at Lord George Murray's infamous night march and its effects on the Battle of Culloden. How connected was the exhausting six-mile sneak attack on Cumberland's encampment and the failure of the Jacobites to defeat the British army on Drummossie Moor the next afternoon?
Ms. Annie Tindley (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"'The King of Scourie' and the Clashmore Crofters"
Clashmore was the site of the most prolonged and violent land agitation in Sutherland in the late c19th; the crofters made frequent land raids, rioted on numerous occasions, and eventually razed an offending farm to the ground. A look at the causes of these measures and reactions of the estate management.
Ms. Amanda Beam (PhD candidate, University of Stirling)
"The Balliol Dynasty in Scotland, England, and France, c. 1210-1364"
A biographical and historiographical overview of the political ambitions and influences of the Balliols, concentrating on their involvement in the above countries, and an evaluation of the behaviours of John Balliol (1292-1296) and his son Edward (1332-1356).
27 MARCH 2004
University of Edinburgh
Mr. Alasdair Raffe (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"The Vocabulary of 'Persecution' in Scottish Religious Controversy"
The pamphlet controversy which followed the 1688-9 revolution and the reestablishment of Presbyterian church government in 1690 made much use of words such as 'persecution' and 'suffering'. This paper argues that a vocabulary of persecution was central to the conduct of religious controversy outside the political and clerical elites.
Mr. Peter Garratt (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"Minds, Brains, and Bodies: Alexander Bain's 'Psycho-Physics'"
The work of Alexander Bain (1818-1903) represents a crucial shift both in the development of Scottish philosophy and in the history of psychology. Bain's The Senses and the Intellect (1855), arguably the first proper work of psychology in the English language, and The Emotions and the Will (1859) mark the convergence of a 'Humean tradition' of associationism with nineteenth-century descriptive physiology.
Mr. Kieran German (MSc candidate, University of Aberdeen)
"Scottish National Identity and the Jacobite Movement"
An examination of the changing nature of Jacobitism in the wake of the Union of the English and Scottish parliaments, investigating the nature of nationalist disaffection and how such disaffection shaped the Jacobite movement.
Mr. Paul Eunson (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"Why was Montrose Executed?"
Why was the government so zealous in its charge of treason against Montrose when both sides were effectively working towards the same ends? Why was Montrose so reviled and labeled a 'bluidy murderer'? Most of all - why did the Scottish government deprive itself of such an able and illustrious general when the country was otherwise at the mercy of Cromwell's regime?
8 MAY 2004
University of Stirling
Ms. Kirsteen Mackenzie (PhD candidate, University Aberdeen)
"The British Problem and Scottish History: Theory & Practice"
A discussion of the recent debate in the historiography of the Seventeenth Century - the 'British Problem', including an exploration of this problem in relation to Scottish history and whether a British approach to history can benefit Scottish historians. This presentation will evaluate the more general theoretical advantages and disadvantages to such an approach.
Ms. Kate Husband (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
"Aedán mac Gebráin in Irish Literary Sources"
Although many related literary pieces are largely fictitious, they give modern contemporary scholars the ability to see how Aedán was viewed and/or used as a character in his cultural context and that of the composer. This presentation is not an attempt to establish the camp to which Aedán mac Gebráin belongs, be it Christian or pre-Christian, but to establish and analyse the cultural context for the literature that surrounds him, and to examine the role of these pieces in the culture they served.
Mr. Gilbert Stevenson (PhD candidate, University of Stirling)
"The Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) in Scotland: A Historical Species' Extinction & Reintroduction"
By 1785 it is believed that this celebrated bird was extinct as a breeding species in Scotland. In the 1830s the species was successfully reintroduced from Sweden and quickly spread throughout much of its former extent. The causes of this perceived extinction remain unknown and are examined in this presentation.
19 JUNE 2004
University of Aberdeen
Mr. Andrew Sneddon (PhD candidate, University of Stirling)
'Written in Blood: Neil M. Gunn and the Question of Race'
It is possible that we underestimate the extent to which the writers of the Scottish 'Renaissance' movement were motivated by, and writing towards, a readership that was exercised by the question of race. Who are the Scots? What is our cultural heritage? Where, historically and geographically, have we come from? This paper is drawn from a reading of Gunn's novel Sun Circle (1934) and suggests ways in which 1930s literature ought to be read as ideologically motivated and racially propagandising as Gunn engages with Celticism and the discourse of Nordic/Aryan supremacy.
Mr. Ralph Moffat (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'What is He On About?!: The Armour in the Will of Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, 1392'
Interpreting the vocabulary in troublesome textual sources will be one of the greatest challenges to anyone trying to understand more about armour in late medieval Scotland. This brief paper will take a closer look at one of the earliest wills still surviving in the country. Through comparison with similar English documents sense will be made of the various pieces of equipment Sir James bequeathed. The presentation will also highlight some of the problems of grappling with esoteric terminology in Latin, Old French and Middle Scots.
Mr. Andrew Robb (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'Climate Change in 19th-century Banffshire'
Between roughly 1350 and 1850, most of northern Europe experienced what is termed as a 'Little Ice Age' when the prevailing average temperatures were lower, and the rainfall higher, than today's values. The impact of these conditions was felt, in different ways, by all who then lived in Scotland. On several occasions, they determined whether these people lived or died. Yet in the early years of the 19th century, there was a long-term shift in weather patterns to the kind of conditions with which we are familiar today.
Mr. Darren S. Layne (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'Like Lambs Among the Heather: Impressment and Coercion in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-6' - Amid 250 years of sensationalist and nationalist myth lies some oft-neglected behaviour identified by the drastic recruiting tactics of Charles Edward Stuart's Scottish Jacobite army. From threats of sword and torch, rapine and kidnapping, this paper will present a clear overview of evidence that conjures a peculiar historical irony: the use of despotic recruitment tactics in a popularly-regarded struggle from foreign oppression.
21 AUGUST 2004
University of Edinburgh
Ms. Katharine Glover (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'All our motives of Family and Representation: Mid 18th-Century Mothers and Public Identity'
In the 18th century, Scottish women had more access to the agencies of public identity than ever before, and were able to form a sense of their place in an 'imagined community' extending out into the wider realm of the nation. Yet many of them lacked the means to express this in a form which has survived to be of use to the historian. This paper examines the ways in which women used their 'private' and socially sanctioned role as mothers to interact with the public world. It asks what can be learned from the agendas mothers articulated for their children, and investigates the ways in which, for women, family, locality, and nation were interlinked, examining the impact of this on women's own sense of identity in post-Union Scotland.
Mr. Alasdair Raffe (MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'Enthusiasm', melancholy and hypochondria: a vocabulary in Scottish religious controversy of the 1690s'
This paper analyses the use of a group of words by Scottish Episcopalians against their Presbyterian rivals in the 1690s. Terms such as 'enthusiasm' and 'fanaticism' were deployed in 17th-century religious polemic to attack irrational and ecstatic religiosity. They were often accompanied by a psychological theory explaining 'enthusiasm' in terms of melancholy, hypochondria and brain disorders. The paper concludes by discussing the Presbyterian response to this vocabulary, arguing that Presbyterians used terms relating to 'enthusiasm' when attempting to vindicate themselves.
Miss Helen Brown (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'The Cartularies of Kelso and Newbattle Abbeys'
Historians are indebted to the 19th-century publication clubs for printing Scotlandâ€TMs major monastic cartularies, but reliance on these editions has left significant features of the manuscripts under-appreciated. A preliminary exploration of the manuscript cartularies of Kelso and Newbattle shows their potential. The selection and organisation of their material, and the uses of these manuscripts in the period between their initial compilation and the Reformation, shed light upon monastic priorities, manuscript culture and record-keeping.
Ms. Sara Murphy (MLitt candidate, University of Edinburgh)
'Early Modern Networking During the Widowhood of Lady Anne Halkett'
This paper presents a case study that highlights the economic misfortunes experienced by early modern British noble widows when their jointures, or pensions, fell under dispute. 17th-century writer Lady Anne Halkett frequently ventured outside her natal and married kin to form a suprafamilial economic network in and beyond her home in Dunfermline, Scotland. This presentation will include a sampling of these connections needed to survive her three decades of heavily indebted widowhood, from appeals to the restored Stuarts to boarding noblechildren attending the local grammar school in her house for profit.
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