Guelph Centre for Scottish Studies

New issue of the IRSS now available online!

Issue 51.1, June 2026: euppublishing.com/toc/irss/51/1

Featured article is FREE to access:
Scottish Food Patriotism and the Literary Antecedents of Robert Burns’s ‘To a Haggis’ by Gerard Carruthers and Paul Malgrati.

Want to access the full issue?

30 Days FREE access is available:
euppublishing.com/accesstokens (use CODE: 30IRSS).

Join the Cambridge Scottish Festival on Saturday 18 July for the 50th Anniversary Celebration! 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Tickets available on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cambridge-scottish-festival-tickets-1980602384047

The heart of the Cambridge Scottish Festival — our clans! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️ Meet the amazing people behind Clan MacEwen and dozens of other Scottish clans who come together every year to share their heritage, history, and pride. Come discover YOUR clan on Saturday, July 18th — you might be more Scottish than you think! 😄
🎟️ Tickets at cambridgescottishfestival.ca

Speaking aboard the M/V Greg Mortimer, Professor Kevin James joined travellers, including University of Guelph Alumni for the "Wild Scotland Expedition" organised by Worldwide Quest. During this 12-day voyage, travellers are discovering the ‘wild isles’ of Scotland with stunning landscapes, impressive sites and local culture. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🌊

University of Guelph, College of Arts

Songs and Speech of Gaelic Scotland

An Exploration of Traditional Songs, Introduced Through the Gaelic Language

Join David Livingston-Lowe this fall for an exciting new in-person course offered at the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto.

Dates: September 16th to October 21st, 2026.

This course will provide an introduction to speaking and singing in Gaelic, the Celtic language of Scotland. Students will learn pronunciation, basic vocabulary and useful phrases. Music is an effective tool for learning language. Each class will explore a different type of traditional song from Scotland’s rich Gaelic heritage. Students will encounter a range of songs and styles and understand the cultural context behind them. Musical styles will include mouth music, waulking and other work songs, children’s and ceilidh songs, songs of love and loss, and traditional Gaelic psalm-singing.

Information and Registration:

SMCE4010 F26 Songs & Speech of Gaelic Scotland - University of St. Michael's College An Exploration of Traditional Songs, Introduced Through the Gaelic Language Delivery: In person on campus at the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto Duration: 6 weeks Day of the week: Wednesdays Dates: September 16th to October 21st, 2026 Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Location: T...

Scottish Historical Review's annual Early Career Researcher Prize.

The Prize is intended to promote the careers of ECRs, and especially those from social groups who remain under-represented in the SHR’s author profile, by providing an opportunity to publish in a leading peer-reviewed journal. The winning entry/entries will be published in the journal and receive a £500 award.

The deadline is Tuesday, 8 September at 5pm (UK).

Full details can be found on the SHR Trust's website:

Prizes — Scottish Historical Review Trust | Promoting Research & Publication in the Field of Scottish History | Monograph Series | Edinburgh - Scotland - UK The Prize is intended to promote the careers of ECRs, and especially those from social groups who remain under-represented in the SHR’s author profile, by providing an opportunity to publish in a leading peer-reviewed journal. The winning entry/entries will be published in the journal and receive ...

🌟Student Research Spotlight!

University of Guelph MA History student Gavin visited Scotland in April, sharing the following about his research experience:

"I had the amazing and humbling opportunity to visit Scotland to consult chapbooks in support of my master's research throughout this past month. I was able to consult and log resources at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Stirling. I also had the chance to meet with several gracious and helpful scholars in my field during my time there — providing direction and answering many of my questions. Being able to record non-digitized sources as well as experience, for the first time, the country that I have written so much about was an unforgettable experience. Not only being able to walk the streets in which chapbooks would have been peddled and sung (replaced now with buskers selling, playing, and singing), but noticing many elements of my research in modern Scotland (army recruitment advertisements in great supply) are experiences I never would have had researching from home. For these experiences and the vital contributions to my thesis research I wish to greatly thank the generous donors and award committees of the travel grants that I received, the scholars that gave their time to talk with me in Scotland, and my thesis advisor Professor Kevin James.” ~ Gavin

Gavin is researching national identity and militarism in Scottish chapbook songs of the Napoleonic Wars, investigating how songs widely available to the Scottish working class negotiate Scotland's position within the British union. Gavin is a recipient of the Stanley Saunders Scholarship for Music, the Frank Watson Travel Scholarship, the Alexander H. Brodie Graduate Travel Scholarship, the Duncan Campbell Memorial Travel Grant, and the COA Graduate Travel, Research, and Creation Fund.

University of Guelph, College of Arts
History Department, University of Guelph
University of Guelph Alumni

Earlier this month, Scottish history MA student Suzanne presented at the British Commission for Maritime History New Researchers Conference at the University of Southampton, UK. She introduced the audience to her primary source research for her Masters thesis about the widows of the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster, which took place on October 14, 1881.

The conference was a special opportunity for Suzanne to present along with so many wonderful researchers who all have an interest in maritime history, but from very different perspectives and areas of interest.

History Department, University of Guelph
University of Guelph, College of Arts

This past weekend, Scot of the Year celebrations honoured Philip Lindsay McLeod to recognize his creative legacy, community leadership, and meaningful role in advancing Scottish heritage in Canada. 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Congratulations to all involved in the celebrations and for shining a light on Scottish culture, education, heritage, and community leadership across Canada.

In-person event hosted by Canadian-Scottish Studies Chair, McGill University.

Join us on 28 April for a fascinating talk by prize winning author and poet Marilyn Bowering on her book, More Richly in Earth: A Poet’s Search for Mary MacLeod. The event is open to all!

RSVP at [email protected]

Join us online next week for The Frank Watson Book Prize Lecture presented by Dr. Catriona Macdonald from the University of Glasgow.

Patrons and Politics in the Making of Scottish History: Past, Present and Future

🗓 Thursday 23 April, 2026

🕰 1pm (EDT) / 6pm (UK)

💻 Zoom

In this lecture Catriona Macdonald will consider the historic role of elite clubs and colourful patrons in the history of Scottish historical scholarship, then sketch the role of the state and of politicians in the writing of Scottish history in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century. She will conclude by offering a conjectural history of trends in more recent times which suggest that the future of the Scottish past is not as secure as we may think.

In 2025, Catriona Macdonald was awarded The Frank Watson Book Prize in Scottish History for her publication, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024.

All are welcome to attend!

More details and FREE registration are available on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/patrons-and-politics-in-the-making-of-scottish-history-tickets-1986443664474?aff=oddtdtcreator

Birlinn Books
History Department, University of Guelph
University of Guelph, College of Arts