YouTube video by UHI Institute for Northern Studies

Dr Bobby Macaulay was born and raised in Unst in Shetland, but has lived more than half of his life away from his birthplace, spending much of that time in Glasgow. Despite (or perhaps, due to) this, he has conducted much of his research in island settings, including in Shetland, Uist, Eigg and, most recently, Cabo Verde. He is the Co-Lead of the Scottish Islands Research Network and sits on the Executive Committee of the International Small Islands Studies Association. But is he an islander? And does it matter? Does ‘islandness’ have an expiry date? If the essence of island studies is to research islands on their own terms, must such research be conducted by islanders? And in this sense, can an islander transfer this identity to other island settings? Such questions relate to researcher positionality and subjectivities, problematising the ‘insider/outsider’ dichotomy and considering the extent to which ‘islandness’ is important in islands scholars, and whether it is an identity which can be retained beyond bounds of time and geography. In this seminar, Dr Macaulay will consider and interrogate some of these questions through reflecting on his previous island-based research. This is the third seminar in the Islands Matters series.

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