Dr Martin Macgregor
- Senior Lecturer in Scottish History (History)
telephone:
01413305681
email:
Martin.MacGregor@glasgow.ac.uk
R307 Level 3, History, 9 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7594-9742Research interests
My interests lie in the history of the Scottish Highlands and Islands - to be more precise, Gaelic-speaking Scotland or 'Gaelic Scotland' - in all periods from around 1266 to the present, with special emphasis upon 1328 to 1625. I am interested in most human aspects, including:
- Politics: relations with the Scottish crown/government; relationships with Gaelic Ireland/Ireland; other external relationships; regional and local governance
- Society: structure and hierarchy; clans and kinship; chiefship; specific social groupings
- Culture: all types of cultural activity including relationships between 'high' and 'popular culture'; language, orality and literacy; the social roles of culture and cultural practitioners; education
- Religion: Catholicism and relationships with the papacy; the impact of Protestantism; religious personnel; devotion, commemoration and spirituality
- Economy: resources of land, sea and air; land use and economic organisation; trade and commerce
- Gender: the role, status and lives of women; masculinities and femininities
- Warfare: causation, prosecution and social significance
- Ethos and Identity: language, ethnicity, location in time (relationship to the past)and space (relationship to the environment)
I also have strong interests in theoretical and methodological issues:
- Paradigms governing approaches to Highland history: 'Highlands and Lowlands'; the 'Highland line' and 'Highland problem'; 'Greater Gaeldom' or the 'Gaelic world'; stasis, change, progression and agency; 'Internal Colonialism'; ideological stereotyping and 'Othering'; the ideological uses of the Highlands
- Gaelic and Gaelic-orientated sources within Highland history, especially poetry/song, and oral tradition: their value and significance relative to documentary sources
Grants
none (as at 1/4/14).
In preparation:
- project on Women in late medieval Gaelic Scotland and Ireland (with Dr Gillian Kenny, Trinity College Dublin)
- project on early modern Gaelic Scotland (with Dr Aonghas MacCoinnich, University of Glasgow)
Supervision
I would welcome the opportunity to supervise PGR students in any of the areas cited above under Research Interests.
I am also very happy to supervise students whose research relates to Gaelic Scotland from 1625 to 1945, particularly 1689-1886; reflecting my interest in continuity and change within Gaelic Scotland from medieval to modern.
Supervision and thesis submission can take place in either Gaelic or English. Dr Sheila Kidd (Celtic & Gaelic) and I are currently supervising two PhD students working on the history of Gaelic Scotland in the modern era through the medium of Gaelic, and one of these theses will be written in Gaelic.
To date I have supervised six successful doctoral students:
- Brian Doogan: A social and economic history of the Blackmount deer forest, Argyllshire, 1815-1900 (2004)
- Anne MacLeod: The idea of antiquity in visual images of the Highlands and Islands c.1700-1880 (2006)
- Iain MacDonald: The secular church and clergy in the Diocese of Argyll from circa 1189 to 1560 (2008)
- Sarah Thomas: From Rome to 'the ends of the habitable world': the provision of clergy and church buildings in the Hebrides, circa 1266 to circa 1472 (2008)
- Janet MacDonald: Iona's local associations in Argyll and the Isles, c1203-c1575 (2010)
- Nathan Gray: 'A publick benefite to the nation': the charitable and religious origins of the SSPCK, 1690-1715
Current supervisions are:
- Kevin Grant (Start date: 01/02/2010 Secondary Supervisor 25%): Gaelic landscape history and archaeology in the era of Improvement, with special reference to St Kilda and Loch Eyenort, South Uist
- David Cochran-Yu (Start date: 15/09/2011 Secondary Supervisor 50%): The history of the earldom of Ross before c. 1500
- Tomas MacAilpein (Start date: 04/10/2011 Principal Supervisor 50%): A Social and Cultural History of Islay, c. 1860-1960
- Calum Cameron-White (Start date: 01/10/2012 Principal Supervisor 50%): The Life of John Murdoch, Land Reformer
- Ross Crawford (Start date: 01/10/2012 Principal Supervisor 50%): Warfare and Society in late medieval Gaelic Scotland
- Miles Kerr-Peterson (Start date: 01/10/2012 Secondary Supervisor 25%): George Keith, 4th Earl Marischal, c. 1555-1623
- Niall Bartlett (Start date: 01/10/2013 Principal Supervisor 50%): Gaelic Scotland 1886-1945, with special reference to the Isle of Lewis, and the First World War
- Healey, Euan
Maritime Gaels: a Social History of Fishing Work in the Highland and Hebrides c. 1750-1914 - McCoy, Holley
Thàine 's gun tàine feamainn (Come and come is seaweed): The Archaeology, history and heritage of Scotland's Seaweed Industry, 17th - early 20th centuries - Smith, Gemma
Shieling landscapes of North West Sutherland: people, place and ecology - Wright, Grace
Positioning Women’s Agency in Land Agitation and Protest in the Scottish Highlands and Islands 1847-1897
Teaching
I teach across all levels from level 1 to PGR. Current teaching is:
- Level 1: Scotland's Millennium: Kingdom, Union and Nation, c.1000-1999
- Junior Year Abroad: Exploring Scottish Culture
- Honours Modules: The Highland Clearances, 1746-1886; Gaelic Scotland and the British State, 1603-1746; The First War of Scottish Independence, 1286-1329
- Senior Honours: Gaelic Scotland: The Scottish Highlands c.1400-1609 (Special Subject)
- MLitt in History (Scottish): Issues, Ideologies and Institutions of Modern Scotland (with Drs Karin Bowie and Catriona Macdonald); Culture, Politics and Society in the Highland Clearances (with Dr Sheila Kidd, Celtic & Gaelic)
Additional information
- General Editor, with Prof Thomas Clancy, of The History of Gaelic Scotland, 6 vols. (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming)
- Researcher/presenter of Bheir Dhomh Sgeul air Clann Ghriogair ('Tell me news of Clan Gregor'): four-part radio series broadcast on BBC's Gaelic radio channel Rèidio nan Gàidheal, January/February 2014;
