Current PhD students
Sudarshana Banerjee
I am a PhD candidate in Modern History under the supervision of Professor Aileen Fyfe and Professor Milinda Banerjee at the University of St Andrews. My PhD is a part of the St Leonard’s World Leading Doctoral Scholarship project St Andrews and India c.1780 – 1900. My doctoral thesis will attempt to explore the transnational flow of texts, ideas and knowledge between St Andrews and India between the late 18th and the early 20th century. I am particularly interested in exploring the educational connections between St Andrews and India, focusing on certain St Andrews alumni who held the positions of key colonial policymakers in the field of education in British India. I am interested in investigating how educational institutions and policies of pedagogy in both the metropole and the colony can be studied to better understand the processes of making and unmaking of imperial ideologies and identities.
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I have completed my Bachelors, Masters and M.Phil in History from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. My broad research interests lie at the intersection of social, intellectual and transnational or connected histories.
Email: [email protected]
Olivia Dunderdale
I am a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Amy Blakeway (University of St Andrews) and Dr Alan R. MacDonald (University of Dundee). My research investigates gender and popular politics in the northern Scottish burghs of Banff, Elgin and Inverness between c.1540 and 1603, using under-researched archival material to investigate governance and renegotiations of power. My thesis aims to position urban inhabitants as political protagonists in a gendered political culture, enhancing understanding of the exercise and experience of power in sixteenth-century Scotland, by asking first, how burgh governance took place in northern Highland burghs, and second, what methods, strategies and spaces urban inhabitants employed to renegotiate power. I am grateful to the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (AHRC) for fully funding this research.
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I have attended the University of St Andrews since 2018, completing an MA in Modern History in 2022 (First Class with Honours) and an MLitt in Early Modern and Reformation History in 2023 (Distinction). My MLitt study, funded by a Santander-St Leonard’s Masters Scholarship and an Andrew Craig and Mark Bunyan Scholarship in Early Modern History, explored the construction and negotiation of community in post-Reformation Dundee.
Email: [email protected]
Michael Fraser
I began my studies at the University of St Andrews in October 2022 and have been overjoyed to attend ISHR ever since. Returning from my foray south of the border for undergrad and MPhil, at the University of Cambridge, I was awarded a full scholarship from the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities, and have presented at Scottish, British, and international conferences. ISHR has been a real highlight of my time at St Andrews thus far, whether the fascinating research presentations – one of which I am proud to have given – or the annual Burn weekend by Edzell. I am supervised by ISHR’s own Dr Derek Patrick for Scottish affairs, and Professor Guy Rowlands for European. Outside of academia, I enjoy hiking, folk music, and that strange beast, Scottish football.
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The Scots and the “Protestant International”, 1689-1732:
On the 6th of August 1689 the revolutionary Scottish Privy Council declared war against King Louis XIV of France and his efforts to “Suppress and Extirpate the Protestant Religion”. In the years that followed, tens of thousands of Scots fought on the continent, the restored Presbyterian Kirk kept up a propaganda campaign, and Scottish politicians discussed, legislated, and engaged the cause of Protestant unity through the early part of the eighteenth century. In all these matters, Scots were part of a British world: but so too did many believe they were part of an embattled, European community in which Scotland had its own long-term independent ties.
If a considerable number of Scots did believe they belonged to a supranational community, how did this manifest itself? This thesis proposes to revise interpretations of the Scots Army and its veterans, to investigate Scots diplomats appointed to Protestant states, the pan-Protestant print world, the Kirk’s vital relationship with international Calvinism, and the influence of all these upon Scots politicians themselves. Where before, their support of these causes has been described only as venal efforts to procure salaries or royal favour, this thesis aims to investigate an ideology explored by others in England and in Europe. It aims to determine its influence upon the Scottish nation in one of its most transformative periods, and to reconsider the relationship between culture, ideology, and private interest.
Email: [email protected]
Kate McGregor
I am a PhD candidate in Scottish History at the University of St Andrews under the supervision of Dr Amy Blakeway and Professor Michael Brown. My thesis examines foreign policy and diplomacy during the adult rule of James V, King of Scots (1528-1542), for which I am fully funded by the Ewan and Christine Brown Postgraduate Scholarship. After completing my undergraduate degree at St Andrews in 2020, with First-Class honours, I undertook a MPhil in Early Modern History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
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Broadly my interests cover late medieval and early modern Scottish, British and European histories – with a particular focus on relations between Scotland, England and Europe in the 16th century. In 2022/3 I was a Research Assistant, supported by the Burnwynd Trust, on a project investigating evidence of notarial practice in the St Andrews Burgh Records from 1466-1560. I currently have an article based on this research out for peer-review with the journal Scottish Archives. I was also recently published in the journal The Scottish Historical Review in which I reviewed William Hepburn’s monograph The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland, 1488-1513 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2023), and I am contributing to an upcoming volume entitled England and Scotland at War and Peace: Conflict, Co-operation and Comparisons, edited by Andy King, Jenny McHugh and Gordon McKelvie (Brepols: Forthcoming).
Email: [email protected]
William Mulloy
I am a PhD candidate in Scottish History under the supervision of Professor Michael Brown. My thesis explores the war and truce-time experiences of the lordship of Annandale during the fourteenth-century, utilizing oft-misinterpreted geographic data and neglected Anglo-Scottish administrative records to outline the evolution of local political society during the Anglo-Scottish Wars.
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The Bruce Domain: Annandale and the Anglo-Scottish Wars, c.1296-1389
My research interests broadly cover late-medieval English and Scottish history, emphasizing local experiences with conflict, the relationship between warfare and natural landscapes, and digital humanities.
Email: [email protected]
Ruadhán Scrivener-Anderson
I am a PhD candidate in Modern History at the University of St Andrews under the supervision of Dr Derek Patrick and Professor Sir Hew Strachan. My research focuses on the commissioned officers of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), 1902-1918, examining the role of social class and Scottish national identity in their selection, socialisation and professional relationships during the Edwardian era and the First World War. Previously, I studied history at the University of Dundee, graduating with first-class honours, before undertaking a Master of Research on the Officers of The Black Watch, 1902-1914, graduating with distinction.
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My interests broadly span the social and military history of late-19th and early 20th Century Scotland, with a focus on relationships between the army and wider society. I also have a particular interest in material culture of the Edwardian period. My recent work includes a chapter: ‘“For King, Law and People”: The Black Watch Volunteer Battalions, 1859-1899’ in The Black Watch from the Crimean War to the Egyptian Campaign (2024).
Email: [email protected]
Andrew Simpson
I am a PhD candidate in Modern History under the supervision of Dr. Derek Patrick and Prof. Guy Rowlands. The focus of my thesis is on the raising and development of children within the Jacobite political movement from 1689 to 1750. The focus of the work will be examining the methods out-of-favor political movements used in educating and inculcating their values into following generations.
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My interests broadly span from the Reformation in England, Scotland, and Germany to the end of the Long Eighteenth Century. I have a particular interest in the culture and image fabrication of the Jacobite political movement in Great Britain and abroad. My recent work includes co-editing the first critical edition of the Anglican Divine William Whitaker’s A Disputation on Holy Scripture (2024) through Prolego Press.
Email: [email protected]
Jack Abernethy
Scotland and the Dutch Revolt, 1568-1609
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Emily Betz
The “English Disease”: Identities of Melancholy in Early Modern England
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Colin Kidd
Nora Epstein
Visual Commonplacing: The Transmission and Reception of Printed Religious Images in Reformed Britain
Email: [email protected]
Supervisors: Andrew Pettegree and Bridget Heal
James Fox
The rise of numeracy and quantitative thinking in Britain, c.1660-c.1800
Email: [email protected]
Supervisors: Sarah Easterby-Smith, Jacqueline Rose and Amy Blakeway
Daniel Leaver
The Discovery of North Sea Oil and Political Change in Scotland, 1969-1979
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Malcolm Petrie
Carol McKinven
‘Quite at liberty to marry another’: bigamy in nineteenth century Scotland
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Rab Houston
William Mulloy
Fourteenth-Century Border Comparisons
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Professor Michael Brown
Xiaoping Qi
Relations between Scotland and France during Thirty Years’ War
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Amber Ward
‘Investigating community, identity and economic change in the ex-mining communities of Central Fife after 1985’
Email: [email protected]
Supervisors: Malcolm Petrie, Jim Phillips (University of Glasgow) and Ewan Gibbs (University of Glasgow)
Callum Woolsey
Assessing the impact of returning Scottish soldiers on the Bishops wars and the Restoration
Email: [email protected]
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Previous PhD students in academic positions
James Inglis (PhD 2023) is Assistant Curator at the Bodmin Keep Military Museum in Cornwall.
Elizabeth Tapscott (PhD 2013) is Assistant Professor of History at Lindsey Wilson College, Kentucky, USA
Kathrin Zickermann (PhD 2010) is Lecturer in History at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Siobhan Talbott (PhD 2010) is Lecturer in Early Modern History at Keele University.
Steven Reid (PhD 2009) is Senior Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow.
John McCallum (PhD 2008) is Lecturer in History at Nottingham Trent University.
Mark Towsey (PhD 2007) is Professor of the History of the Book at University of Liverpool.
Mark Wallace (PhD 2007) is Associate Professor of History, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas.
Janet Deatherage (PhD 2006) is Executive Director, Office of Corporate Engagement, Loyola University, Chicago.
Esther Mijers (PhD 2002) is Lecturer in Scottish History, University of Edinburgh.
Derek J. Patrick (PhD 2002) is Lecturer at the University of St Andrews.
Michael A. Penman (PhD 1999) is Senior Lecturer in History, University of Stirling.
PhDs Awarded
2023
James Inglis
Typewriters and Commerce in Scotland, 1870s to 1920s
Supervisors: Aileen Fyfe, Malcolm Petrie, Sam Alberti (National Museum of Scotland) and Alison Taubman (National Museum of Scotland)
2021
Louise Heren
An Ugly Epoch: male sexual violence in interwar Scotland
Supervisors: Rab Houston, Bill Knox and James Nott
Sarah Leith
‘Tied up with pink ribbons’: Repression, counterculture and Scottish national identity, c.1926-1967
Supervisor: Malcolm Petrie and Colin Kidd
Perin Westerhof Nyman
Cotes of Arms: Heraldic Dress and Interpersonal Relationships in Late Medieval Scotland
Supervisors: Katie Stevenson and Michael Brown
Christin Simons
International reactions to and interaction with the Scandinavian Asiatic Companies
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Jospeh Wagner
Into the Oceans: Scottish Long-Distance Trade and Colonisation in the Seventeenth Century
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
2020
Morag Allan Campbell
‘This distressing malady’: Childbirth and Mental Illness in Nineteenth-Century Scotland
Supervisors: Sarah Easterby-Smith and Aileen Fyfe
Paul Malgrati
Robert Burns in Scottish Politics (1914-2014)
Supervisors: Colin Kidd and Robert Crawford
Chelsea Anne Reutcke
Catholic print networks in Restoration England, 1660-1688
Supervisor: Jacqueline Rose
Cody Wyant
The intellectual origins and social landscapes of Patrick Geddes, ca.1880-1889
Supervisor: Colin Kidd
2019
Andrew Paterson Carter
The Episcopal Church of Scotland, 1660-1685
Supervisors: Roger Mason and Jacqueline Rose
2018
Piotr Potocki
The Catholic Church and Scottish Politics, c.1878-c.1939
Supervisor: Colin Kidd
2017
Adam Grimshaw
Anglo-Swedish Commercial Activity and Commodity Exchange in the 17th Century
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Morvern French
Flemish Material Culture in Medieval Scotland
Supervisor: Katie Stevenson
Amy Eberlin
Trade and Diplomacy Between Scotland and Flanders, 1320 – 1513
Supervisor: Katie Stevenson
Sean Murphy
Broadly speaking : Scots language and British imperialism
Supervisor: Colin Kidd
2016
Darren Scott Layne
Spines of the thistle : the popular constituency of the Jacobite Rising in 1745-6
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
2015
Claire Hawes
Community and public authority in later fifteenth-century Scotland
Supervisor: Michael Brown
Elizabeth H. Hanna
Arthur and the Scots : narratives, nations, and sovereignty in the later Middle Ages / Elizabeth H. Hanna.
Supervisors: Katie Stevenson and Rhiannon Purdie
Neil McGuigan
Neither Scotland nor England : Middle Britain, c.850-1150
Supervisor: Alex Woolf
2014
Cynthia Ann Fry
Diplomacy & deception : King James VI of Scotland’s foreign relations with Europe (c. 1584-1603)
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
Malcolm Petrie
Identities of Class, Locations of Radicalism : Popular Politics in Inter-War Scotland
Supervisor: Bill Knox
Elisabeth Smith
To Walk Upon the Grass : the Impact of the University of St Andrews’ Lady Literate in Arts, 1877-1892
Supervisor: David Allan
Claire McLoughlin
Scottish Commercial Contacts with the Iberian World, 1581-1730
Supervised by: Steve Murdoch
Martyna Mirecka
“Monarchy as it shoul be”? : British Perceptions of Poland-Lithuania in the Long Seventeenth Century
Supervisor: Roger Mason
2013
Bess Rhodes
The Reformation in the Burgh of St Andrews: Property, Piety, and Power
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Andy Drinnon
The Apocalyptic Tradition in Seventeenth-Century Scotland
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Elizabeth Tapscott
Propaganda and Persuasion in the Early Scottish Reformation, c.1527-1557
Supervisor: Roger Mason
2012
Adam Marks
England, The English and the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
2011
Isla Woodman
Education and Episcopacy: The Universities of Scotland in the Fifteenth Century Supervisor: Roger Mason
2010
Siobhan Talbott
An Alliance Ended? Franco-Scottish Commercial Relations, 1560-1707
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
2009
Steven Reid
Andrew Melville and the Universities of Scotland
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Kathrin Zickermann
Scots in Northern Germany and the “British” community in Hamburg, c.1603-1720
Supervisor: Steve Murdoch
2008
Elizabeth Black
Older People in Scotland: the Family, Work and Retirement, and the Welfare State From 1845-1999
Supervisor: Bill Knox
John McCallum
The Post-Reformation Church in Fife, 1560-c.1640
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Claire Webb
The ‘Gude Regent’? A Diplomatic Perspective upon the Earl of Moray, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Scottish Regency 1567-1570
Supervisor: Roger Mason
2007
Mark Coleman Wallace
Scottish Freemasonry, 1725-1810
Supervisor: David Allan
Mark Towsey, Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Libraries, Readers and Intellectual Culture in Provincial Scotland, c.1750-c.1820
Supervisor: David Allan
2006
Janet V. Deatherage
The Impact of the Union of 1707 on Early Eighteenth-Century Fife Electoral Politics, 1707-1747
Supervisor: David Allan
Chris Brown
We are Command of Gentilmen: Service and Support among the Lesser Nobility of Lothian during the Wars of Independence, 1296-1341
Supervisors: Roger Mason and Norman Reid
2005
Melissa Pollock
Franco-Scottish Politics: Crown and Nobility, 1160-1296
Supervisor: Michael Brown
2003
E. Calvin Beisner
His Majesty’s Advocate : Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees (1635-1713) and Covenanter Resistance Theory under the Restoration Monarchy
Supervisor: Roger Mason
2002
Margaret J. Beckett
The Political Works of John Lesley, Bishop of Ross (1527-96)
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Gillian H. MacIntosh
The Scottish Parliament in the Restoration Era, 1660-1681
Supervisor: Keith Brown
Esther Mijers
Scotland and the United Provinces, c.1680-1730: A Study in Intellectual and Educational Relations
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Alison G. Muir
The Covenanters in Fife, c.1610-1689: Religious Dissent in the Local Community
Supervisor: Keith Brown
Derek John Patrick
People and Parliament in Scotland, 1689-1702
Supervisor: Keith Brown
Alison A. B. McQueen
The Origins and Development of the Scottish Parliament, 1249-1329
Supervisor: Michael Brown
1999
Michael A. Penman
The Kingship of David II Supervisor: Dr Norman Macdougall
Pamela E. Ritchie, Dynasticism and Diplomacy: The Political Career of Marie de Guise in Scotland, 1548-1560
Supervisor: Roger Mason
Roland J. Tanner
The Political Role of the Three Estates in Parliament and General Council in Scotland, 1424-1488
Supervisor: Norman Macdougall
1998
Stephanie Malone Thorson
Adam Abell’s ‘The Roit or Quheill of Tyme’: An Edition
Supervisor: Norman Macdougall