Partnership Development

Stephen Driscoll’s archaeological research established the Govan Stones collection (carved in the 9th–11th centuries), housed in Govan Old Church in Glasgow, as an internationally popular heritage site. Promotion of Govan Old as a visitor destination led to the establishment in 2013 of a free summer ferry service connecting Govan with the Riverside Museum across the River Clyde. Annual visitors to Govan Old doubled between 2013–2019 from c.6,000–14,000. Driscoll’s vision of Govan Old as visitor attraction and community cultural hub was central to efforts to raise GBP4million between 2015–2018 for the necessary capital improvements, with work commencing 2019. The high profile of Govan’s early medieval cultural heritage has also contributed to wider regeneration in the Clyde waterfront, including c.GBP15million for the construction of a bridge between Govan and the Riverside Museum.

Website: www.thegovanstones.org.uk

Academic: Prof Stephen Driscoll

Partners: Govan Workspace, Central Govan Action Plan, Govan Old, Glasgow City Council

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Ever wondered who lived in your house or street before the First World War? Or how the city was laid out before a multitude of urban regeneration projects and motorway-building schemes altered the face of the city, sweeping away streets and entire neighbourhoods in the process? TheGlasgowStory tells the story of Glasgow in words and pictures. It includes tales from some of Scotland’s best writers and is illustrated with thousands of images from the collections of the city’s world-famous libraries, museums and universities.  Partners in this ground-breaking initiative led by Information Studies included Glasgow Life, Scottish Screen Archive, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Strathclyde University and Glasgow Caledonian University.

Website: The Glasgow Story

Partners: Glasgow Life, Scottish Screen Archive, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Strathclyde University and Glasgow Caledonian University

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Launched in 2012, the History in Schools website has been developed by the History subject area in consultation with historical researchers from the College of Arts and College of Social Sciences, educational colleagues in the School of Education and teaching colleagues in the Scottish Association of Teachers of History, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland.
It aims to disseminate Glasgow’s history research to teachers and pupils in Scotland’s schools by providing open access papers, teaching resources, podcasts and website links. These can be used by teachers in planning lessons or by pupils in researching essays and dissertations. The website is organised by topic, with general education topics for S1-S3 and SQA certificate topics for S4-S6.
The website is linked to the SQA's ushare platform for teachers. The History in Schools team hosts an annual online conference for teachers sharing the latest research on SQA and BGE topics. Videos from the conferences are made available to teachers.  

Project Partners: Education Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Scottish Association of Teachers of History

Academic: Dr Karin Bowie

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

East Kilbride was designated Scotland's first new town in 1947. Situated on a hilly site in the lower Clyde valley just 8 miles south of the city of Glasgow, it was originally planned as a self-contained town with a population of around 45,000. By 1960 the target population was increased to 70,000. Today East Kilbride is home to 74,012 people.

Homes in East Kilbride were marketed by the Development Corporation as 'modern' and, in comparison with the older housing stock in Scottish towns and cities, these new dwellings were far better equipped. A 1952 article in the Hamilton Advertiser described the new flats as 'a housewives' dream' with built-in wardrobes, pram stores in the entrance hall, a heated towel rail and a kitchenette complete with a gas boiler and built-in cabinets.

It was the belief of the town planners that high quality 'modern' housing in a planned environment would promote a sense of health and wellbeing among residents, improving their quality of life.

As one of the current providers of social housing in the town, East Kilbride & District Housing Association (EKDHA) owns and manages 512 houses available for social rent. Says Mairi Brown Director of EKDHA:

“Like all housing associations, EKDHA is legally obliged to carry out consultations with tenants. It is also committed to providing maximum opportunity and support to tenants and seeks to shape future policy and practice. However, as a small housing association, EKDHA has limited resources for research, therefore engaging with a research intensive institution such as the University of Glasgow seemed the logical step.” 

Using a First Step Award to finance the project, EKDHA engaged directly with Prof Lynn Abrams (History, School of Humanities) to conduct research on their behalf.

“The project aimed to explore the degree to which East Kilbride has met people's expectations and aspirations in terms of housing, local environment and quality of life,” explained Prof Abrams (pictured above).

“In contrast to surveys which assess satisfaction at a particular moment, we aimed to investigate how people's relationships with their homes have altered over their life course. This could be in response to the shifting needs of the family structure, but also to income, age or reaction to the changing character and infrastructure of East Kilbride since 1947.”

The research, which was conducted via a series of oral history interviews with long-term residents, revealed high levels of satisfaction with new town housing and the new town way of life, with respondents commenting on the modern style of homes, the sense of community and the positive sense of wellbeing experienced in the town’s early years.

“The outputs from this project delivered far more than we would have been able to undertake independently of the College of Arts. The process of engaging with the College was easier than we anticipated and, now that the relationship with Lynn and her group has been established, we would not hesitate to call on their knowledge base again,”  said Ms Brown.

 

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Professor Simon Newman, assisted by post-doctoral fellow Dr Stephen Mullen and PhD candidate Nelson Mundell, has embarked on a research project which investigates the lives of runaway slaves in Scotland and England prior to the abolition of slavery in Britain. The objective of the Leverhulme Trust funded project is to analyse the runaway slave advertisements which were featured in newspapers, which can offer us an insight into the attitudes and racial demographics of eighteenth century British society. Another aim of the project is to compile a searchable online database of runaway slave advertisements as an educational resource for schools. Newman and his team have engaged with school teachers, and they have also acted as historical advisers for Glasgow Life and Glasgow Museums as part of a series of exhibitions and events which showcased Glasgow's history within the British Empire during the Commonwealth Games period.

To find out more you can visit the project website. 

Academic: Professor Simon Newman 

Project Partners: The Leverhulme Trust, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow Life 

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or by phone (0141 330 3885) 

Academics in the College of Arts have helped local initiatives in Scotland to access over £4.5 million worth of Heritage Lottery funding. Working with Discover Bute and the Living Lomonds Landscape Partnership (LLLP), academics from the Scottish place-name projects advised how place-name research could form part of their Heritage Landscape Parternship (HLP) bids. Academics provided a vision of how the communities could be involved in the projects and how the projects could develop.

With Discover Bute, their work resulted in data collection by local residents, which required training workshops from the academics on the phonetic alphabet and recording pronunciation and spatial data, as well as ethical concerns. These projects give people a sense of ownership of their own heritage which is empowering for local communities.

Project Partner: Discover Bute, Living Lomonds Landscape Partnership

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Academics in the Centre for Gender History, part of the College of Arts, have worked closely with Glasgow Women’s Library to deliver workshops and other public events. They worked together on the Women of Scotland project with Women’s History Scotland and Girl Guiding Scotland, using a Lottery Awards for All grant, and as a result they have helped to map memorials of over 300 women in Scotland.

Girl Guides participated in the ‘Big Name Hunt’ to find memorials in their local area and gain their ‘Heritage Badge’. Where memorials couldn’t be found, one Girl Guide troop campaigned for a memorial to be established. The project is now being rolled out nationwide through the Glasgow Women’s Library’s outreach programme.

Project Partner: Glasgow Women's Library, Girl Guiding Scotland

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Professor Willy Maley, through his work in Irish-Scottish studies ­ in theatre, journalism, and popular culture, as well as critical writing ­has longstanding links with the Irish community in Scotland as a public speaker and community activist. 

Through his contacts with the Irish Heritage Foundation Maley were invited to be part of the 1916 Rising Centenary Committee (Scotland), together with Kirsty Lusk, a PhD student whom he supervised, who was working on Parnell to Partition: Irish-Scottish Connections, 1880-1921. The committee organised a series of public events marking the centenary of the Easter Rising, raising awareness of the Scottish context and its implications for Ireland and the wider world through seminars and discussions.

Maley and Lusk also edited a special issue of the journal Irish Studies Review entitled Commemorating Connolly: Contexts, Comparisons and Celtic Connections, which brought together creative and critical responses to the Rising, with contributions by academic and activists. This placed James Connolly in his Scottish and Irish contexts, including his reception among Gaelic readers and writers, and examines the crucial role of women in the events of 1916, including Coatbridge-born Margaret Skinnider.

Project Partner: Irish Heritage Foundation, Irish Studies Review.

Academic:  Professor Willy Maley

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact  manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

A group of academics in the College of Arts are paving the way to develop resources to support the teaching of Scottish History in the classroom.
A key part of this has been the creation of a vast database of 12th and 13th century Scotland: People of Medieval Scotland (POMS). The database has been designed for school children and their teachers, as well as academics, to use.
The database offers a new experience of engaging with the past, allowing thousands of individuals, and hundreds of places, to take centre stage.
Professor Broun adds: “From Dingwall to Dumfries, schools can investigate history that can be contextualized. Scottish History should look different in different parts of Scotland.”

Project Partners: Education Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Scottish Association of Teachers of History

Academic: Prof Dauvit Broun

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Academic historians have been working to explore the place and significance of hand-knitted textiles to Scotland’s economy and culture: past, present, and future. This has been done in collaboration with external organisations such as the Shetland Museum and Archives, the Moray Firth Partnership (Gansey Project), and Jamieson & Smith, as well as individual designers, producers and artists.
With funding from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, academics ran three workshops (on wool, knitting and design) and a public study day at the Lighthouse in Glasgow, which drew together academics, practitioners, designers, makers, industry, creatives, heritage professionals and amateur knitters to talk about how Scottish hand knit traditions have been and are being adapted, produced and marketed in the modern age.

Project Partner: Shetland Museum and Archives

Academic: Prof Lynn Abrams

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).