Island Studies

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A photograph showing the terrain in Shetland

Welcome to Island Studies at the Institute for Northern Studies. We specialise in the history, archaeology, and culture of the many islands surrounding Scotland's coasts.

Our world-leading research projects include:

These initiatives not only enhance our understanding of island societies and cultures but also help address current and future issues facing islands.

We also organise the Faroes-Shetland Research Symposium, strengthening ties between the two neighbouring archipelagos by sharing expertise and research. This collaboration aims to foster joint research projects in the future, bringing the two institutions even closer together. Additionally, the Islands Matters public online seminars, hosted by Island Studies, contribute to the UHI Islands' Strategy by promoting discussion and debate.

The staff at the Island Studies hub is also involved in the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern and Arctic Island Studies Research. The overall goal of this network is to support Arctic and Northern Island communities in socially, materially, and culturally benefiting from the discipline of Island Studies.

Island Studies Hub content A drawing of an island and setting sun

Island Studies Hub

Our acclaimed postgraduate programmes MLitt Island Studies and MLitts in Highlands & Islands Literature, Viking Studies and Scottish Heritage together with our strong PhD programme cover a range of different aspects of Island culture and heritage and can be studied from anywhere in the world.

Contact Us content Photograph of Dr Andrew Jennings on a beach

Contact Us

andrew.jennings@uhi.ac.uk

+44 (0)1595 771406

Staff content A photograph showing a beach in Shetland
Postgraduate Students content A photograph showing a croft on Shetland
Seminars, Symposia and Conferences content

Seminars, Symposia and Conferences

At its core, Island Studies believes that islands possess the human and intellectual capital to conduct research independently. Island Studies is based at UHI Shetland and organises various hybrid seminars, symposia, and conferences including:

Research content

Research

At its core, Island Studies believes that islands possess the human and intellectual capital to conduct research independently.

  • Bates, R. Crawford M, Sanmark A ‘The Norse Waterways of West Mainland Orkney, Scotland’, ., Journal of Wetland Archaeology (2020)
  • Crawford B and Sanmark A, Eds. T. Lemm and A. Pedersen (2016), 91-106 March 2014 ’The Orkney Huseby Farms − The Onomastic, Historical and Archaeological Context’ , Proceedings of the Huseby workshop, Copenhagen . 
  • Jennings, A (2023) The Bridge Effect: Critical Reflections in the Age of Technological Solutionism
    Jennings, A. (Editor) & Brinklow, L. (Editor), Charlottetown, PEI: Island Studies Press 
  • Jennings, A (2022) Frolics and Freuteries: Norse Magic and Norn Words Jennings, A., Islands of Place and Space: A Festschrift in Honour of Arne Kruse. Cooijmans, C. (ed.). Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies,
  • Jennings, A (2021) Pan-Island Survey of the Creative Economy in the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland: Survey commissioned to establish accurate details around the number of professional practitioners and their subject disciplines contributing to the creative economy in the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland. (Unpublished)
  • Jennings A, (2021) Shetland's Norse Identity: 'Da Norn is lang gien, but hit’s left a waageng' Scotland and Islandness: Explorations in Economy and Culture. Burnett, K. (ed.). Peter Lang, (Studies in the History and Culture of Scotland Series).
  • Jennings, A. (2017) Our Islands Our Future: Purposeful Opportunism at its Best , 1 From Black Horses to White Steeds: Building Community Resilience. Brinklow, L. & Gibson, R. (eds.). Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island: Island Studies Press
  • Kockel U (1984)"A Blasket That Might Be – A Utopian Proposal?" Schriftenreihe der Deutsch-Irischen Gesellschaft Bremen e.V. 3, 92p.
  • Kockel U (2020) ‘Islands: Places at Sea, on Land and in the Air: Toposophical Ruminations of a Wanderer’, Stravaig 13: 6-9. [rev. & exp. version of chapter in Per Scribendum Sumus]
  • Kockel,U, McDermott, P and Campbell, L (eds) (2020) ‘Islands at Sea, on Land and in the Air: Existential Voyages from Nostalgia to Utopia.’ In: , Per scribendum, sumus: Ethnopoesis, or: Writing Heritage. A Cèilidh in Honour of Mairéad Nic Craith. Lit , 9-14.
  • Kockel, U (2017) ‘On Becoming Indigenous: Building, Dwelling and Thinking Future Heritages of a Nordic Scotland.’ In: Hanneleena Hieta, Aila Nieminen, Maija Mäki, Katriina Siivonen and Timo Virtanen (eds), Rajaamatta: Etnologisia keskusteluja, Ethnos, 367-89.
  • Kockel, U (2004) ‘Celticity as Culture Criticism: German Utopias and Ireland.’ In: Ullrich Kockel and Máiréad Nic Craith (eds), Communicating Cultures, Lit, 86-107.
  • Kockel, U (1995) ‘Language and Culture.’ Manx Studies Research Review 1, 1995, 27-31.
  • Lind A and Jennings A, (2025) ‘Living on the Edge? - Shetland and the HerInDep Project: An Initial Survey’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 1-19.
  • Lind, A (14 July 2022) ‘Orkney’s Forgotten War: The Royalist Occupation, 1649-1650’, The Orcadian.
  • Lind A. (2024-2027) - Mapping Identities: Visual Depictions of Scotland [co-I], Royal Society of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland and the Land Research Group.
  • Lind A (2023-2025) - A Pirate’s Life: John Gow, Heritage and a Bottle of Rum [PI], Innovation Voucher (Scottish Funding Council), in collaboration with the J. Gow Distillery.
  • McLeod S (2024) Norse Navigation in the Northern Isles (academia.edu)
  • McLeod S (2019) Sound, Movement, and Emotion: An Historically-informed Performance at a Viking Burial Site | Northern Scotland (euppublishing.com)
  • McLeod S (2015) Legitimation through Association? Scandinavian Accompanied Burials and Prehistoric Monuments in Orkney (academia.edu)
  • McLeod S (2015) 'Ardvonrig', Isle of Barra: an appraisal of the location of a Scandinavian accompanied burial (academia.edu)
  • Nic Craith M (2022) The Vanishing World of the Islandman: Narrative and Nostalgia, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures.
  • Nic Craith M (2020) The Vanishing World of the Islandman: Narrative and Nostalgia, Bern: Springer .
  • Nic Craith M (2020) ‘A Sense of Place in Irish-Language Memoirs: the West Kerry Gaeltacht, 1929-1939.’ In: Maurice Bric (ed.), Kerry: History and Society, Geography Publications (Dublin).
  • Nic Craith M (2020)  ‘Island Space’ in the Land of Colmcille, TIDES.
  • Nic Craith M and Hill E (2015): ‘Re-locating the Ethnographic Field: From Being ‘There’ to ‘Being’ There’, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 24 (1), 42-62
  • Nic Craith M (1999) ‘Primary Education on the Great Blasket Island 1864-1940’, Journal of the Kerry Historical and Archaeological Society 28, 77-137.
  • Nic Craith M (2013) ‘Heritage Politics and Neglected Traditions: a Case-Study of Skellig Michael’, in Regina Bendix, Aditya Eggert and Arnika Peselmann (eds), Heritage Regimes and the State: Nomination, Implementation, Regulation, Universitätsverlag Göttingen, , 157-179.
  • Nic Craith M (1988) An tOileánach Léannta. Research Series, Clóchomhar.
  • Plumb O (2024) 'Where were the Orcades? Early medieval engagement with the islands at the edge of the Earth in texts and maps', Innes Review 75.1 1-22
  • Plumb, O. (2024) Q and A: Where were the Orcades? Early medieval engagement with the islands at the edge of the Earth in texts and maps, Edinburgh University Press.
  • Plumb O, Sanmark A and Heddle D (eds.) (2020),“Beyond the range of human exploration”: Cormac and the ‘North’ in the seventh century’ in  What is North? Imagining and representing the north from ancient times to the present day (Turnhout: Brepols, ), pp. 37- 51
  • Sanmark A and McLeod S (2024) ‘Norse Navigation in the Northern Isles’ , Journal of the North Atlantic, 1-26
  • Sanmark. A (2016) An exploration of thing sites in the Islands on the Scottish West Coast’, Traversing the Inner Seas. Scottish Society for Northern Studies Publication
  • Sanmark A. (2024) Baliasta and Stembelshoull: two thing sites in the island of Unst, History Maker: Essays in honour of Brian Smith, Shetland Times (Lerwick )