Iain James McPherson Robertson

Over the last few years I have developed two, interconnected, principal areas of research. One set of interests lies in the field of heritage studies and with the very recent upsurge in critical thinking around the ways the past is put to use in the present. My focus here is on the development of the concept of ‘heritage from below’ and the contested meanings of heritage as made evident in acts of memorialisation.

Linked to this is my interest in the social and cultural history of local community and landscape change with a particular emphasis on historical and cultural processes shaping the landscape of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Highland Scotland. The focus of this research is on popular protest and the sense of place, personal and local identity made manifest in the oral tradition of particular places and events.

Out of this has arisen an interest in the nature/culture dualism. Here my efforts focus on the ways in which the croft and crofters may be said to have been shaped by a set of vernacular environmental ethics.

I am always interested in enquiries and research proposals from students interested in any aspect of the above general areas.

I am a historian by training but a historical geographer by inclination. Consequently, almost everything I do has landscape(s) either at or close to its heart; with a particular focus on the twentieth-century Highlands and Islands. I joined the Centre for History in September 2015, having previously been with the University of Gloucestershire for a considerable period of time. I completed my PhD at Bristol University, where I researched the historical geography of acts of social protest in the Highlands between the two World Wars.

I have strong links with Curtin University, Western Australia, and have held two Research fellowships there, in 2008 and 2014.

My most recent book, Landscapes of Protest in the Scottish Highlands after 1914, was shortlisted for the research book of the year in the Saltire Awards 2014.