Mhairi’s PhD is a multidisciplinary approach to researching taighean-tughaidh (thatched houses) in Uist, Western Isles. You can find out more about Mhairi’s PhD here, bit.ly/4p9fh0E

By reflecting on a day of archaeological fieldwork, she considered the multidisciplinary approach of her project & what it means to complete emotionally engaged archaeology. The paper was part of the panel '(In)Tangible Pasts', exploring Gaelic & Hebridean heritage, culture & archaeology.

Her dissertation, 'Propaganda in the Cinemas: Short Films as a Method of Propaganda in Britain during the Second World War (1939-45)' examines how the Ministry of Information infused key propaganda messages with comedy & drama, reaching a large number of people through the cinema.

Her doctoral thesis explored the narrative strategies in Outlander and historical fiction as public history, and she is pictured above with her supervisors Dr Jim MacPherson and Dr Leslie Mickel at her viva in June 2025.

Congratulations again!

The team are hugely grateful to Alison Diamond (archivist at Inveraray castle & member of the project's advisory board, pictured here with Carl Griffin) & Rory Crutchfield, archivist in Lochgilphead for their help & interest in the research. Find out more, bit.ly/468RTJS

The project team is very excited by the diversity of resistance they have uncovered in less than 6 months into the project. In a few days in Argyll alone, this included petitioning, wood and bark stealing, ‘mobbing’, wrecking and the inevitable poaching and illicit distilling.

The talk will explore two interconnected strands of research ongoing as part of the Perth Charterhouse project; new insights arising from both research into the documentary evidence & results of the initial phase of Ground-Penetrating Radar scanning of the site in September 2024.

You can follow Dr Woodcock's research journey on our website. The first post details Dr Woodcock's visit to
@traquairhouse.bsky.social in Peebles, and the discoveries she made in its archives. To read the full post, visit our website ➡️ bit.ly/4omKflS

Feargus completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at @uhihistory.bsky.social, and currently works at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. He has worked at the High Life Highland museums service for almost a decade.

These themes are examined further in the @leverhulme.ac.uk funded project 'Resistance to 'improvement' in the Highlands and Islands', led by Iain Robertson (UHI Centre for History), Carl Griffin (University of Sussex) and Juliette Desportes (UHI Centre for History), bit.ly/468RTJS

Using archival research from her PhD and upcoming monograph, Juliette explored the ways rural workers utilised every opportunity to negotiate for longer leases, subvert estate authorities to pay less rent, or resisted removals in court.