Stirling Magazines and Periodicals Research Group

Founded in 2022, the Stirling Magazines and Periodicals Research Group (SMPRG) connects Stirling researchers working on magazines, newspapers, periodicals and print, mainly from the nineteenth century onward.

Across disciplinary boundaries

Our research encompasses everything from radical newspapers to modernist little magazines to contemporary artist’s zines; from The People’s Friend to Radical Scotland to the corporate magazine of a US mining conglomerate.

We study these materials in a range of contexts (e.g. Victorian social history, modern media studies, modernist literature, Scottish or American cultural studies) but fully embrace the magpie nature of the periodical, following connections and possibilities across disciplinary boundaries.

Stirling’s student newspaper (Stirling University Archives)

Periodicals collected by Stirling University Archives

Building new collaborations

We try to learn from each other’s research questions and methods (encompassing archival, theoretical and creative practices), and to build new projects and collaborations. At present, our membership is drawn mainly from the Divisions of Literature and Languages, History, Heritage and Politics, and Communications and Media Studies.

For a few details of our periodicals research, see our list of members.

More information about SMPRG