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Symposium Programme

Landscapes and Lifescapes: Material Spaces and Stories of Connection between the Caribbean and the Scottish Highlands, 1700 to the present

19 & 20 June 2015

Highland Archive Centre & Surroundings Near Inverness

 

AT A GLANCE:

Friday 19 June 2015

10:00am-16:00pm Field Workshop

17:30pm-19.30pm Dinner

Participants are asked to make their own arrangements for dinner.

19:30pm Keynote Address

Dr Nicholas Draper (University College London)

 

Saturday 20 June 2015

9:00am-15:00pm Symposium talks

Lunch and refreshments provided

 

IN DETAIL:

Friday 19 June 2015

10:00-17:00 Field workshop

Caribbean Connections and the Shaping of Highland Landscapes

Morning: The morning part of the field workshop will include a walking tour of Inverness to discover the role that plantation slavery played in the shaping of a modern urban environment. You will be taken to a variety of locations in Inverness that provide evidence of the influence of colonial connections on the development of the city.

Afternoon: The afternoon will include a visit to parts of the rural landscape near Inverness to help us to develop a better understanding of the impact that plantation slavery had on the rural Highland landscape.

*We will meet at the Highland Archive Centre at 9.30.

*A Brownbag Lunch will be provided to participants in the field workshop.

*For the afternoon part of the field workshop, we will be travelling by bus and participants are asked to respect the land and animals they encounter. While we love dogs, none will be permitted.

*Participants are advised to wear a good pair of walking shoes and to bring rain gear in case of showers.

5:30-7.30 Dinner

Participants are asked to make their own arrangements for dinner.

7:30 Keynote Address

Dr Nicholas Draper (University College London): “Scotland, the Scottish Highlands and the Legacies of British Slave-ownership”

Location: Highland Archive Centre (Refreshments will be available from 7:00)

 

Saturday 20 June 2015

9:00-9:30 Coffee and Welcome

9:30-11:00 Session 1: Landscapes and Lifescapes: Project Overview

Dr S. Karly Kehoe (Glasgow Caledonian University) and Dr Chris Dalglish (University of Glasgow): “A historian and an archaeologist walk into a bar: The importance of academic-community cooperation in relation to the historic Scottish Highlands”

Dr Karen Salt (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Susan Mains (University of Dundee): “Transnationalism along the colour line: Race, place and belonging in the Caribbean and Scotland”

Alison Mason (Highland Archive Service): Tour of Highland-Caribbean materials from the collections of the Highland Archives

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:45 Session 2: The Highlands and Slavery

Dr David Alston (Independent Researcher): “’You have seen only the fortunate few’: Using behavioural economics to understand why Highland Scots accepted the risks of migration to the Caribbean”

Dr. Annie Tindley (University of Dundee): “The Sutherlands and Slavery: public relations and reputational legacies of slavery in the Highlands, c. 1850-60”

Dr Stephen Mullen (University of Glasgow): “John Lamont of Benmore and Trinidad: A Highland Planter who died ‘in harness’”

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Session 3: Impacts of Empire

Michael Hopcroft (Glasgow Caledonian University): “Mapping Highland Plantation Ownership, 1780-1834”

Ben Thomas (University of Aberdeen): “Imperial Impacts: The Highlands and Empire in the Late Nineteenth Century”

Gains Murdoch (University of Aberdeen): “The Old Statistical Account and the issue of Slavery”