Associate Professor in Early Modern Scot
History A64 Pathfoot Division of History and Politics University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA
I grew up on the edges of the Atlantic, in Derry City, but decided to look out over a different body of water while continuing with my education. I made my way, via two years in Dublin, to Aberdeen where I graduated with a BA (Hons) in History in 1996 and a PhD in History in 2001. After working for three years at the University of St Andrews I felt the average rainfall level in the east was not substantial enough so I moved back west to join the University of Strathclyde in 2005. In 2019 I was fortunate enough to be appointed to the University of Stirling where I can contemplate both water and hills.
My interests increasingly lie in those communities that live at the intersect of land and sea, communities and areas often regarded as 'peripheral' to mainstream political, social and economic development. Having recently completed a monograph on processes of plantation by land and sea around the North Channel region, my attention is now focused on island communities within the archipelago and the interplay between local, regional, national and supra-national while also exploring customary legal practices on land and sea.
North Channel
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Was interviewed by Helen Mark for an episode of BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country on the North Channel, first aired on 26 August 2021.
Learning and Teaching Officer for History, Heritage and Politics
Learning and Teaching Officer for History, Heritage and Politics
‘‘They offered to give what they do not even hope to gain’: Ireland, Orkney and Shetland, and kingship in the reign of James V’.
- 25 November 2021: invited to present research paper to Institute of Northern Studies seminar series on ‘‘They offered to give what they do not even hope to gain’: Ireland, Orkney and Shetland, and kingship in the reign of James V’.
Seminar presentation
23 February 2021: invited to speak at University of Aberdeen joint RIIS and EMSC seminar.
‘James VI and the creation of a ‘British’ maritime policy: the view from the west’
- 11 November 2021: invited to present online lecture to the Society for Highland and Island Historical Research on ‘James VI and the creation of a ‘British’ maritime policy: the view from the west’.
conference paper
University of St Andrews
invited to present research at the 'Flodden Gap' conference held at University of St Andrews on 1 September 2021.
Seminar presentation
27 February 2020: invited to speak at to Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
Seminar presentation
26 November 2020: invited to speak at University of St Andrews Scottish History seminar series
Seminar presentation
9 July 2018: presented a lecture on ‘The Statutes of Iona’ at St Giles Cathedral as part of their Exploring Gaelic lecture series.
Seminar presentation
13 October 2018: invited to present at ‘Re-thinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland: A Conference in Honour of Roger A. Mason’, Parliament Hall, University of St Andrews.
Seminar presentation
20 November 2018: invited to speak to Bute Museum and Natural History Society, Rothesay, Bute.
Conference organisation and presentation
14&15 June 2018: co-organised and hosted the conference ‘Scotland and the Wider World’ celebrating the career and historical contribution of Professor Allan I. Macinnes. At this conference I also presented my own research ‘Island empire? James VI & I and the Isle of Man in an archipelagic context’. These conference contributions will be published as an edited volume in 2021-22.
Event
31 October 2017: chair and interviewer for the early modern History panel as part of the Historical Conversation series, organised and hosted by University of Glasgow’; the early modern panel (and my interviewees) were Professor Keith M. Brown, University of Manchester, and Roger A. Mason, University of St Andrews.
Seminar presentation
11 October 2017: ‘Living on the edge? Early modern maritime communities of the Atlantic archipelago’, a paper presented to the School of Humanities research seminar autumn series, University of Strathclyde.
Conference presentation
20-21 October 2017: ‘Living on the edge: a Highland Scot community in Ireland’, presented an invited plenary paper presented at a two-day symposium on ‘The Communities and Margins of Early Modern Scotland’; a conference organised by postgraduate students from a number of Scottish universities.
Symposium participant
26&27 September 2017: a participant speaking on ‘the state’ at ‘Tyrannous Constructs or the Tools of the Trade?: the use and abuse of concepts in Medieval History’, Cohen Quad, Exeter College, Oxford, a follow-up to the symposium held in Dublin in 2016.
Seminar presentation
28 February 2017: presented a version of ‘James VI and I and the ‘dark corners’ of his realm’ to Celtic and Scottish Studies seminar series, University of Glasgow.
Symposium participant
30&31 May 2016: a participant at ‘Tyrannous Constructs’, a symposium held at Trinity College Dublin hosted by Drs Peter Crooks (TCD) and Jackson Armstrong (University of Aberdeen).
Conference paper
14&15 April 2016: presented a plenary lecture at the first International Postgraduate Port and Maritime History Conference, at the University of Strathclyde.
Conference organisation
3-5 September 2015: co-hosted with Professor Michael Brown (University of St Andrews) a three-day conference ‘Lords and Lordship hip in the British Isles c.1300 – c.1600’. This brought together academics from across UK and Ireland.
Seminar presentation
24 May 2014: presented my research at an interdisciplinary workshop, hosted by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh on ‘Identity, Independence and Interdependence’.
Seminar presentation
20 March 2014: presented my research to the Scottish History seminar series, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.
Conference paper
4 June 2014: presented my research at the Donegal Diaspora conference held at Letterkenny hosted by Donegal County Council.
Examiner
External and internal examiner for a number of MRes and PhD thesis at various institutions including Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Stirling.
External Examiner
External Examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate taught level in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy (for History), University of Aberdeen (1 October 2017 to 30 September 2021)
External Examiner
External Examiner for medieval and early modern History, History and Politics division, University of Stirling (while employed at University of Strathclyde)
External Examiner
External Examiner for Medieval and Early Modern Scotland, c.1100-1707 (Distance Learning/OU History), University of Dundee
External Examiner
External Examiner for BA (Hons) Scottish History, North Highland College, Dornoch, University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute
External examiner for University of Glasgow Short Courses
University of Glasgow
External examiner for History and Politics Short Courses
Membership of Editorial Board for Journal of the North Atlantic
Membership of Editorial Board for Journal of the North Atlantic
Member of the Committee for British Academy's Records of Social and Economic History series
Member of the Committee for British Academy's Records of Social and Economic History series
Member of Advisory Board for Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World
Member of Advisory Board for Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World
Economic and Social History Pathway Rep for Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences
Economic and Social History Pathway Rep for Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (and was ECSH Pathway Rep for a number of years during my previous employment at University of Strathclyde).
Fellowship
Short-term fellowship (one month), Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Fellowship
National Maritime Museum Caird Short-term Research Fellowship (two months)
Fellowship
Ernestine Richter Avery Fellow (short-term: one month), Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Scottish History Society council member
Trustee of Scottish Medievalists
Trustee of Society for Highland and Island Historical Research
Fellow, Royal Historical Society
Fellow, Royal Historical Society
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
My research has focused primarily on connections between Scotland and Ireland within a wider archipelagic context during the early modern period. I am currently finalising a monograph that explores plantation by land and sea, c.1550-c.1625, and engages with the social, political, economic, environmental, maritime and confessional factors at play. The focus is on the communities that exist at the interface of land and sea, their interaction and integration within a geographic region defined by a body of water. My interests in local communities and in maritime and environmental factors have developed and will come to the fore in my forthcoming research project that focuses on insular communities of the archipelago. In addition, I have collaborated with colleagues in fisheries and marine science to explore the sustainability of fishing in historic and contemporary contexts. This has (much to my own initial horror) stimulated a desire for greater mathematical knowledge in order to utilise regression modelling more fully within my own research.
Book Chapter
Island Empire: James VI and I and the Isle of Man in an archipelagic context
Cathcart A (2022) Island Empire: James VI and I and the Isle of Man in an archipelagic context. In: Cathcart A & McIntyre N (eds.) Scotland and the Wider World: essays in honour of Allan I. Macinnes. Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783276837/scotland-and-the-wider-world/
Edited Book
Scotland and the Wider World: Essays in honour of Allan I. Macinnes
McIntyre N & Cathcart A (eds.) (2022) Scotland and the Wider World: Essays in honour of Allan I. Macinnes. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783276837/scotland-and-the-wider-world/
Monograph
Plantations by Land and Sea: North Channel communities of the Atlantic archipelago c.1550-1625
Cathcart A (2021) Plantations by Land and Sea: North Channel communities of the Atlantic archipelago c.1550-1625. Archipelagic Studies, 1. Oxford: Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1114378
Article
The Maritime Dimension to Plantation in Ulster, ca. 1550-ca. 1600
Cathcart A (2019) The Maritime Dimension to Plantation in Ulster, ca. 1550-ca. 1600. Journal of the North Atlantic, 12 (SP1), pp. 95-111. https://doi.org/10.3721/037.012.sp1204
Article
Jones P, Cathcart A & Speirs DC (2016) Early evidence of the impact of preindustrial fishing on fish stocks from the mid-west and southeast coastal fisheries of Scotland in the 19th century. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, 73 (5), pp. 1404-1414. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv189
Book Chapter
A Spent Force? The Clan Donald in the aftermath of 1493
Cathcart A (2014) A Spent Force? The Clan Donald in the aftermath of 1493. In: Oram RD (ed.) The Lordship of the Isles. The Northern World, 68. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 254-270. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004280359_013
Article
The Forgotten ’45: Donald Dubh's Rebellion in an Archipelagic Context
Cathcart A (2012) The Forgotten ’45: Donald Dubh's Rebellion in an Archipelagic Context. Scottish Historical Review, 91 (2), pp. 239-264. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2012.0101
Book Chapter
The view from Scotland: the Scottish context to the Flight of the Earls
Cathcart A (2010) The view from Scotland: the Scottish context to the Flight of the Earls. In: The flight of the Earls, 1607 - 2007: a quarto-centenary perspective. Derry: Guildhall, pp. 132-139.
Article
The Statutes of Iona: the archipelagic context
Cathcart A (2010) The Statutes of Iona: the archipelagic context. Journal of British Studies, 49 (1), pp. 4-27. https://doi.org/10.1086/644533
Book Chapter
Scots and Ulster: the late medieval context
Cathcart A (2009) Scots and Ulster: the late medieval context. In: Scotland and the Ulster plantations Explorations in the British settlements of Stuart Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 62-83. https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archives/scotland-and-the-ulster-plantations/
Book Chapter
Cathcart A (2008) 'Inressyng of kyndnes, and renewing off thair blud': the family, kinship and clan policy in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Gaeldom. In: Ewan E & Nugent J (eds.) Finding the Family in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Abingdon: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 127-138. https://www.routledge.com/Finding-the-Family-in-Medieval-and-Early-Modern-Scotland-1st-Edition/Ewan-Nugent/p/book/9780754660491
Book Chapter
Cathcart A (2007) The Western Gaidhealtachd. In: Scotland: The Making and Unmaking of the Nation, c.1100-1707. The making and Unmaking of the Nation, volume 2. Dundee: Dundee University Press & Open University, pp. 90-106.
Book Chapter
James V, King of Scotland - and Ireland?
Cathcart A (2007) James V, King of Scotland - and Ireland?. In: The world of the galloglass. Kings, warlords and warriors in Ireland and Scotland, 1200-1600. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 124-43. https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/search-results/SearchForm?Search=The+world+of+the+galloglass
Book Chapter
Cathcart A (2002) Crisis of Identity: Clan Chattan’s response to government policy in the Scottish Highlands, c. 1580-1609’. In: Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience, 1550-1990. History of Warfare, HW 15. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 163-84. www.brill.nl.
I currently offer the a semester 5 module: Scotland's 'Highland Problem' in the sixteenth century a semester 6 module: Islands in the Sea: the maritime world of the Atlantic archipelago and a special subject: Plantations in Ulster, c.1550-1620. In addition I contribute to teaching on the semester 1 Scottish History module; and the semester 3 module Reputations. I am willing to supervise undergraduate and PGT dissertations and currently supervise a number of PhD students.
