Fellowship

After school I worked in farming before a degree in Scottish Historical Studies at Edinburgh University, working part-time in conservation and exhibition preparation in the National Museum before full-time employment in 1974. This then extended to a 33 year museum career with specialisms in European ethnology, the applied and decorative arts and the musicology of piping. From the mid 1990s, I was involved in curriculum planning for the emerging University of the Highlands and Islands and was invited to create a Gaelic-medium postgraduate programme. I joined the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, to teach the new programme in 2007, putting my national museum experience to work in a university context. I am interested in blending social and economic history, ‘material culture’ and ‘reading the landscape’ for a fresh multidisciplinary discourse, and in building a research environment for new directions in academic arenas. My involvement in exhibitions, talks and publications is directed towards formulating information in accessible and assimilable forms for Scotland and beyond and contributing to endeavours for national wellbeing.