The Scottish Writing in the Nineteenth Century project was founded in 2008. Since then we have held numerous research, public, and network-building events, within the University of Edinburgh, the City of Edinburgh, and elsewhere in Scotland, in collaboration with other Universities. Our chief aims remain the same: to build connections between researchers working in the field of 19th century Scottish studies and to foster public awareness of the richness and diversity of Scottish culture in the period.

We run a regular Reading Group for staff and students of the University, and we are keen to welcome visiting scholars and researchers to join us.

Contact SWINC by email: S.W.I.N.C@ed.ac.uk

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Project aims

SWINC aims to bring together diverse currents in historical, literary, and cultural studies in order to provide the following services for the academic community in Scotland and worldwide.

  • To facilitate contacts and build connections between researchers working in the field of 19th century Scottish studies within Scottish Universities and worldwide, in order to facilitate sharing of expertise and best-practice between existing research projects and to catalyse new collaborative research projects.
  • To develop our own collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects which will contribute to the establishment of a more nuanced and complete understanding of 19th century Scottish cultural history.
  • To foster public awareness of the richness and diversity of Scottish culture in the period, in order to provide a solid basis of historical understanding for contemporary political and cultural discussion.

SWINC personnel

Professor Penny Fielding: Co-Director

pfielding
Penny.Fielding@ed.ac.uk

Penny Fielding is Grierson Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her books include Scotland and the Fictions of Geography: North Britain 1760-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), (as editor) The Edinburgh Companion to Robert Louis Stevenson (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) and Writing and Orality: Nationality, Culture and Nineteenth Century Scottish Fiction (Oxford University Press, 1998). She is a general editor of the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. She is currently working on sedition, spying and radicalism in nineteenth-century Scotland and England.


Dr Alex Thomson: Co-Director

athomson
Alex.Thomson@ed.ac.uk

Alex Thomson is a senior lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Edinburgh, with research interests in 19th and 20th century literature, the history of ideas and political theory. He has worked extensively on contemporary critical theory, leading to the publication of Deconstruction and Democracy (Continuum 2005) and Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum 2006). He is currently completing an edition of Memories and Portraits for the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, and working on literature and politics in twentieth century Scotland.