This article is dedicated to the complex web of gender and colonial relationships in biographical writing. The author's main focus is on publications by two women of high society who traveled through the colonial North in the early 20th century, Danish Emilie Demant-Hatt (1873-1958) and Scottish Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889-1982). An analysis of these textual and visual works allows us to see how they made a contribution to the colonial project, while undermining it at the same time, and how colonial femininity combines obedience and disobedience.

This article examines the reception of Old Norse literature and culture in the literatures of the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland. It compares in particular the work of Shetland author James John Haldane Burgess (1862-1927) and the Orcadian author George Mackay Brown (1921-1996) and it evaluates the ways in which these two figures use their geographically peripheral positions as unique vantage points from which to reframe Nordic identity in their writing. By re-orientating the Scottish Islands from the periphery of Britain to the centre of important scenes in Nordic history, Haldane Burgess and Mackay Brown each construct a distinctive sense of geographical and cultural place. This approach allows the boundaries of the Nordic cultural sphere to be extended, and for a new and complex third space to emerge, in which the islands connect the Nordic and Anglo-Celtic realms and situate them within world literature.

This article focuses on the reception of Nordic literature in the literatures of the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland. It introduces the work of Shetland author James John Haldane Burgess (1862-1927) and the Orcadian author George Mackay Brown (1921-1996), evaluating in what ways both writers usse their geographically peripheral position as a unique vantage point from which to reframe Nordic literature. By re-orientating the Scottish Islands from the periphery of Britain to the centre of important scenes in Nordic history, the two authors construct a new sense of both geographical and cultural place. This approach allows the modern boundaries of the Nordic world to be extended, and for a new and complex third space to emerge, where the islands form a connection between the Nordic and Anglo-Celtic realms.

Current Research (2016-18)

Project title:  Women in the Arctic, 1818-2018

The project Women in the Arctic examines the intercultural aspects of how women are represented in circumpolar societies.  It will place representations of women in migratory literature within the existing 'Northern' cultural landscapes and histories, but also seek a new methodology that analyses their position within the context of global diversity.  Migration often leads to the emergence of ‘geographically diffuse socio-cultural fields’ (Olwig, 2003), which cross political and geographical borders.  Although these always impose some sort of structural constraint, this does not necessarily change the nature or continuity of the relationship, feelings of affinity or images of difference and/or transgression.  The project focuses on: 

1. understanding the diverse roles that women have played in the history of the Arctic, both as colonisers and colonised, and
2. demonstrating the contemporary issues affecting women in the Arctic. 

This volume presents a range of new perspectives on the Nordic region, as well as its myriad of influences on its surroundings. The fifteen chapters in this publication showcase some of the best research being conducted by emerging researchers in Britain on Nordic topics.

The article investigates transnational cultural encounters that cross the established research areas of Northern European, Nordic, and Scandinavian Studies. Using approaches from Scandinavian research on coastal communities and cultural spaces, the article examines cultural transfer between Norway and Scotland through trade and exchange during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interdisciplinary and transnational approach adopted throughout the paper suggests new perspectives in researching coastal communities in Britain, as part of a wider understanding of cultural encounters between the communities of the North.

This book chapter investigates transnational cultural encounters that cross the established research areas of Northern European, Nordic, and Scandinavian Studies. Using approaches from Scandinavian research on coastal communities and cultural spaces, the chapter examines cultural transfer between Norway and Scotland through trade and exchange during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interdisciplinary and transnational approach adopted throughout the paper suggests new perspectives in researching coastal communities in Britain, as part of a wider understanding of cultural encounters between the communities of the North.