The Scottish Masonic Scholarship
The Scottish Masonic PhD Scholarship
In December 2024, the Centre for Robert Burns Studies (CRBS) appointed Patrick Jamieson, as PhD scholar to a groundbreaking research project examining Robert Burns’s connections with Freemasonry.
The celebrated Scottish poet was not only a prolific writer but also a dedicated Freemason throughout his adult life, serving as Senior Warden of Lodge St Andrew, Dumfries, until his death in 1796, with earlier powerful masonic connections also in Edinburgh and Ayrshire.
His Masonic affiliations even influenced his work, including one of his most famous poems, ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’, which was notably performed at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
This pioneering 'Robert Burns & Freemasonry' PhD research project, funded by The Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland, marks the first in-depth academic study of its kind, with unprecedented access to the Grand Lodge’s archives. The doctorate will be supervised within the Centre for Robert Burns, the world-leading research unit at the University of Glasgow.
The project is being supervised by Professor Pauline Mackay, Director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, and Professor Gerard Carruthers Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature, both leading experts in Burns studie
The three-year PhD will culminate in both scholarly outcomes and public engagement activities, including exhibition curation and public presentations on Burns and Masonry.