September- October 2010

The British Scholar Society is happy to announce its Inaugural Lecture in the United Kingdom. This will be the first of many events to be held throughout Britain in the coming years. The Inaugural Lecture will occur at the University of Edinburgh on Tuesday, 9 November 2010. Information regarding the lecture may be found below. The event is free and open to the public but since seating is limited you should try to reserve your ticket as soon as possible to keep from being disappointed. You may reserve a seat at the lecture by using the University of Edinburgh’s online reservation system. In order to secure your place, please visit the webpage for the lecture.

Once you’re on the webpage, please click on the ‘Book Online’ link. This will take you to the Eventbrite system. From there simply click on ‘Register’ and you will have 15 minutes to enter your name and e-mail address and click ‘Complete Registration’.

The Inaugural Lecture of The British Scholar Society in Britain:

“Diasporic Imaginings: Twentieth-century Scottish Culture in an International Context”

Dr. Catriona MacDonald

Chair/Discussant: Professor Tom Devine, University of Edinburgh

The Inaugural Lecture of The British Scholar Society will be delivered by Dr. Catriona MacDonald of Glasgow Caledonian University and will be chaired by Professor T. M. Devine, Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography and Director of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Sponsored by The British Scholar Society, the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh and the UHI Centre for History, this event celebrates the launch of The British Scholar Society’s journal, Britain and the World, with Edinburgh University Press.

In her lecture, Macdonald will discuss the cultural dynamics associated with Scotland’s influence on the rest of the world in the twentieth century. Firstly, she will question the extent to which current measures of Scottish cultural influence are appropriate indices for the period since 1900. Although the spread of Burns Clubs, Caledonian Societies and Highland games have typically been used to measure Scottish influence abroad, they actually reflect only a small part of a far more complex interchange of ideas and risk caricaturing Scottish culture. Secondly, she will emphasise the limits of addressing Scotland’s role in global contexts by arguing that although the movement of Scots and the products of Scottish industry are relatively easy to measure the movement of ideas is not necessarily as straightforward. In spite of Scottish culture being formed at the interface of native and foreign influences in the twentieth century the concept of diaspora has been problematic because it has tended separate the two. Finally, MacDonald will seek to establish the necessity of constructing an alternative concept of diaspora; one that is more in keeping with the age and the complex nature of Scottish identity beyond the Border.

9 November 2010, 18:30
Teviot Lecture Theatre
Doorway 5, Old Medical School Quad
University of Edinburgh

The British Scholar Newsletter is an important mechanism for communicating with all members of The British Scholar Society online community. To date, the newsletter has been used primarily to convey information about the activities of the Society. This function will continue. However, The British Scholar Society has an obligation to provide information and updates on all aspects of the state of Britain’s interactions with the wider world since 1688. With this goal in mind, we are accepting applications for an Editor of the British Scholar Newsletter. The newsletter will include the following features:

a. Information on the Society

b. Archival Spotlight (this will keep readers up to date on important collections either just opened or about to open; it will provide information on access to archives and what is being done to make research more accessible to those with limited budgets for excessively expense photocopies and/or research trips in general; it will include research tips from experts who can offer advice on specific archives throughout the world; and it will focus on little-known archives with vast potential for unlocking the mysteries of Britain’s global history).

c. Short essays on ‘Britain and the world’ history. The idea behind this is to engage undergraduate and MA students by presenting them with an opportunity to present their research findings to members of The British Scholar Society community. Four of these essays will be published each year. One will be chosen as the Outstanding Undergraduate Essay and one as the Outstanding Master’s Student Essay, as voted on by Members of The British Scholar Society. This winner of each award will receive $100, a year’s membership in The British Scholar Society, and have the opportunity to turn their essay into a published article in Britain and the World: Historical Journal of The British Scholar Society.

d. Featured Monograph (this will provide an extended review of a new monograph in the field and allow the author the chance to respond. It will be a shorter version of the Round-Table review that appears in each issue of the journal).

e. Featured Scholar

The newsletter will be published quarterly in January, April, July, and October with the first issue to appear this coming January.

The competition to be the Editor of The British Scholar Newsletter will be open until 30 November. If you are interesting in applying, please send your CV along with a Covering Letter to editorbritishscholarorg  (editorbritishscholarorg)   by 30 November 2010. In the Covering Letter please explain your experience and contacts within the archives, as having a close connection is vital to the success of the Archival Spotlight feature. We are also open to appointing a team of Newsletter Editors, but your application must be submitted jointly. Our goal is to provide the most informative newsletter possible to The British Scholar Society community. A decision will be made by 10 December.

Edinburgh University Press will be in attendance at the 2011 British Scholar Annual Conference to launch Britain and the World: Historical Journal of The British Scholar Society. The very first issue of the journal with Edinburgh University Press will be published in March 2011. The conference takes place from 31 March-2 April 2011 at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Among the features in the March 2011 issue of the journal will be articles by T. M. Devine, Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography and Director of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh and by Frank M. Turner, John Hay Whitney Professor of History and Director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The Round-Table review will be of Zara Steiner’s eagerly-awaited monograph The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933-1939 (published by Oxford University Press).

For more information on Britain and the World: Historical Journal of The British Scholar Society please visit our webpage on the Edinburgh University Press website at www.eupjournals.com/BRW.