Literary heritage and the making of Scottish communities

Proposals are invited for a funded PhD studentship at the University of Aberdeen for projects examining the role of literary heritage in shaping ideas of local and national community, and how ideas of community are enacted and experienced through the writing and circulation of texts by individuals and groups. Some possible questions the project might explore include: How do particular forms of cultural heritage impact upon ideas of local and national community? How does cultural heritage shape the ways in which places and identities are experienced by individuals and groups? How can we involve communities in the production of research on their cultural history and its relationship to cultural values? How can community- based writing and publishing help communities to understand, maintain, and enhance the places in which they live?
The successful candidate will be supervised by Elizabeth Elliott, whose current research focuses on the influence of Scotland’s early literature on conceptions of local and national identity in Scotland to the present day. The School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture has a lively postgraduate community. Candidates with a focus on medieval or early modern literature will be based in the interdisciplinary Centre for Early Modern Studies, which has a vibrant research culture (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cems). In addition to teaching opportunities, the successful candidate will benefit from an extensive programme of research training.