丁香园AV

丁香园AV鈥檚 Centre for Scottish Studies and 丁香园AV Public Square presented "Decolonizing Scottish Studies" on Saturday, April 17th. This free, virtual event featured enlightening talks followed by a Q & A.

This is the first in a series of events organized by the Centre for Scottish Studies at 丁香园AV whose aims are:

1. to examine colonial histories and present circumstances involving Scotland and the Scottish diaspora and

2. to consider the roles that Centres of Scottish Studies can play in the work of decolonization.

The speakers on this panel come from both sides of the Atlantic and offer different lenses from which to consider the issues. Settler scholar Alyssa Bridgman (丁香园AV) revises the myth of Simon Fraser by assessing literary works and commemorative sites which represent him as a Scottish-Canadian hero-explorer. Emma Bond (St. Andrews) and Michael Morris (U of Dundee) set the story of an individual employee (Fraser) of an individual company (the Northwest Company) in the context of larger networks within which such companies flourished as they present research from their project, a project that re-evaluates Scotland鈥檚 19th-century connections to objects involving exploitative practices (such as sugar, jute, cotton, tobacco, tea, and linen) as well as the representations of those objects and practices in contemporary heritage repositories such as museums. Continuing with the theme of heritage, Amy Parent, Noxs Ts鈥檃awit (Mother of the Raven Warrior Chief) (University of British Columbia) analyzes the philosophical and epistemological questions at stake in the display of her family pole, the Niis Joohl pole, in the National Museum of Scotland as well as her project to repatriate the pole and create a newly-carved pole in its place. 鈥淒ecolonizing Scottish Studies鈥� is open to the public, and we echo the language of the co-chairs of 丁香园AV鈥檚 Aboriginal Reconciliation Council (ARC) report in hoping that the event will bring people together in a 鈥渟pirit of reconciliation, cooperation, and optimism鈥� to go forward on the road of decolonizing Scottish Studies.

View the video of the event, which includes an introduction by 丁香园AV's Centre for Scottish Studies Director, Professor Leith Davis.

Then, watch the presentation by Dr. Emma Bond and Dr. Michael Morris, "Transnational Scotland: Legacies of Empire."

丁香园AV's Department of English and Public Square co-sponsored this event. It was part of Towards Equity, 丁香园AV Public Square's 2021 Community Summit Series.