Murray Pittock :
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murrayp.bsky.social
Murray Pittock :
@murrayp.bsky.social

Pro VP U.Glasgow, personal views and evidence-based judgements only. 'You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass'-John Buchan. https://murraypittock.com .. more

Murray G. H. Pittock MAE FRSE is a Scottish historian and cultural and textual scholar. He holds the position of Bradley Professor of Literature at the University of Glasgow and serves as Pro Vice-Principal at the university, where he has occupied senior roles, including Dean and Vice-Principal, since 2008. He led the University's involvement in the Kelvin Hall redevelopment project in collaboration with the City of Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland (kelvinhall.org.uk), and since 2016 has chaired Glasgow's early career development programme, which has been considered influential across the sector. .. more

History 66%
Political science 12%
Pinned
Coming very soon now-a comprehensive single volume history of Scotland from brochs to Brexit with something for everyone from Old Street Publishing-with thanks to @willdalrymple.bsky.social for his assessment !

@sahavoice.bsky.social @broadcastscot.bsky.social
@asls.org.uk @iassl.bsky.social

CFP open for Towards Resilient Destinations: Integrating Nation, Culture and Tourism for Sustainable Futures, looking at Corfu as lab for sustainable tourism. Achim Steiner (former UN SD lead) opening. Inspired by Lawrence Durrell @alannamactavish.bsky.social

conferences.ionio.gr/trd/en/call/
Towards Resilient Destinations | Call for Abstracts (deadlines, guidelines, review process, publication)
Ιόνιο Πανεπιστήμιο
conferences.ionio.gr

Appears first to have been played in Scotland between 1746 and 1755. What could have made fertile ground for it then ?

Thanks too to @paulinemackay.bsky.social as co-supervisor.

Congrats to Suping Li on winning the Roy Prize for best PhD in Scotlit in 2025. A pleasure to supervise her work on the reception of Robert Burns in China, the third of my former PhDs to win this award @glasgowburns.bsky.social @iassl.bsky.social @asls.org.uk ucsl-scotland.com/2025/11/24/r...
Ross Roy Prize – 2025 Winner Announced
The Ross Roy Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis submitted on a subject relating to Scottish literature. Judged by a panel of expert scholars, the Prize commemorates the outstanding co…
ucsl-scotland.com

State of the art museology here in Vienna at the Strauss Museum. Interactive, Immersive, highly informative. @mimuofg.bsky.social @fergusbruce.bsky.social @paulinemackay.bsky.social @ahallardyce.bsky.social

Looking forward to visiting Burns' Ellisland tomorrow to discuss the forthcoming campaign to develop the Home of Auld Lang Syne with Joan McAlpine and colleagues. @glasgowburns.bsky.social is a longterm supporter: director @paulinemackay.bsky.social here with Alasdair Whyte & singer Robyn Stapleton

150th (actually it turns out 167th) anniversary dinner for Nairn Literary Institute last night. A very pleasant evening discussing everything from Picts to bridges before speaking on 'Do the Highlands exist ?' The audience were very polite. Thanks to NLI President Prof. Ron Skeldon for organizing.

Reposted by Murray Pittock

How did Scottish novelist and thriller writer John Buchan write about the British Empire?
Empire Club: John Buchan
share.google/VpGtXE3plO8n...

Reposted by Murray Pittock

New from @EmpirePodUK Club-
JOHN BUCHAN:
The Thirty Nine Steps, the Scots & Empire
With Murray Pittock @murrayp.bsky.social
share.google/VpGtXE3plO8n...

Call for Papers: 'Regional Perspectives, Planetary Reach. Themes, Genres, Forms of Narration in Contemporary Irish and Scottish Fiction', 28-29 May 2026, Università di Napoli L'Orientale. Deadline for proposals: 10 January 2026. @iassl.bsky.social @asls.org.uk
sites.google.com/view/irsconf...

Pleased to help out by joining the advisory board @registry.scot - we are already setting the pace at @sahavoice.bsky.social & @scga.bsky.social with .scot. More than worth considering to preserve & promote the brand @keepscotlandbrand.bsky.social

Delighted that @guyverhofstadt.bsky.social 's gift at tonight's
@euromovescotland.bsky.social dinner is my @yalepress.bsky.social Scotland:the Global History. Here signing it with Bill Rodger @sahavoice.bsky.social @iassl.bsky.social @asls.org.uk

New blog on new @eassh.bsky.social website on Arts, Humanities, Industry and the Economy: eassh.eu/Blog/2025/Ar...
Arts, Humanities, Industry and the Economy - EASSH
eassh.eu

Quotes from reviews of Collected Ramsay: ‘could hardly be surpassed' (Tea-Table Miscellany)
'deeply nuanced and illuminating’ (Gentle Shepherd);
‘exemplary’ (Ever Green, Prose)
‘groundbreaking’ (edition). Well done @stevenewman.bsky.social @rhonabrown.bsky.social @breerob-kirk.bsky.social & all.
Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) – poet, playwright, founder of modern #Scots writing, & with a claim to be the father of #Romanticism – was born #OTD, 15 Oct. A 🎂 🧵 …
#C18
1/6
🖼️ Allan Ramsay, 1684–1758, by William Aikman – Scottish National Portrait Gallery
www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-arti...

Tomorrow in Paris- preparing for the Pix sale at ADER auctions and speaking on the politics of textiles, medals, and of course-glass @iassl.bsky.social @sahavoice.bsky.social @asls.org.uk

Reposted by Murray Pittock

Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) – poet, playwright, founder of modern #Scots writing, & with a claim to be the father of #Romanticism – was born #OTD, 15 Oct. A 🎂 🧵 …
#C18
1/6
🖼️ Allan Ramsay, 1684–1758, by William Aikman – Scottish National Portrait Gallery
www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-arti...

Looking forward to supporting ADER auctions in Paris to sell the magnificent Pix collection for the benefit of @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk . Unravelling the mysteries of Jacobite glass in Paris next Thursday @sahavoice.bsky.social @whitegoldsword1708.bsky.social @funkyplaid.bsky.social

Reposted by Murray Pittock

Call for Papers: 18th International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language, Literature, and Culture, 1-4 July 2026, University of Bristol. Submission deadline: 14 November 2025. icmrsllc2026.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/call-for-pap...

30 years this month since the 1st edition of The Myth of the Jacobite Clans was published & it still sells a fair number of copies every year. Thanks to all who read & understood its challenge to the framing of the '45, advancing data on the scale & nature of recruitment &opposition to the Union.

Reposted by Murray Pittock

John Buchan: A Man For Our Time?

Prof @murrayp.bsky.social discusses John Buchan – a literary legend & a man ahead of his time on issues from Scottish nationalism to the rights of indigenous peoples. Recorded at the 2025 Beyond Borders International Festival.
💙📚
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5zP...
John Buchan: A Man For Our Time? - BBIF 2025
YouTube video by Beyond Borders Scotland
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Murray Pittock

#Tartan is an iconic and instantly recognisable part of Scotland’s culture and heritage.

This petition demands important and long-overdue legal protections to Scottish textiles and designs - although the Lowlands also should be included

#keepScotlandtheBrand

petition.parliament.uk/signatures/1...
Petition: Pass an act for tartan woven in the Highlands, similar to Harris Tweed Act 1993
Create an act that legally recognises tartan cloth woven in the Highland region following the precedent set by the Harris Tweed Act 1993. A Highland-based authority could be established to manage the ...
petition.parliament.uk

Beyond Borders: my Buchan at 150 discussion-thanks to a great Festival for posting! John Buchan: A Man For Our Time? youtu.be/Z5zPRJt1Hdg?... via @YouTube
John Buchan: A Man For Our Time?
YouTube video by Beyond Borders Scotland
youtu.be
A strong start to our Irish Scottish Cultural and Diplomatic Relations event @ria.ie with Prof @murrayp.bsky.social of @sahavoice.bsky.social

Reposted by Murray Pittock

A talk by IASSL member Fernando Toda @usaloficial.bsky.social on the translations of Barbour's Bruce and Hary's Wallace into Spanish: 2 October, 5:30 UK time, in person at @uofglasgow.bsky.social & online. Book your free ticket!
La libertad es una cosa noble: Bruce and Wallace translated into Spanish
A talk by Fernando Toda of the University of Salamanca, exploring the translations of Barbour's Bruce and Hary's Wallace into Spanish.
www.eventbrite.co.uk

Tomorrow in Dublin, delighted to be introducing this event with @sahavoice.bsky.social in collaboration with the Irish Humanities Alliance at the Royal Irish Academy to mark the completion of the first phase of the Bilateral Framework between the Irish and Scottish governments

The second most downloaded BBC prog, a live audience in millions, which ran for 1000 episodes, was almost entirely-if not entirely-populated by academics with no media training. Think about it and the resources wasted unravelling a mystery that a competent BBC researcher can determine in minutes.
Lovely to hear Melvyn Bragg talking about the big idea behind "In Our Time": to get academics on the air, talking about the subjects they were most passionate & knowledgeable about, without worrying about whether they had "media training".

It's remarkable that this was (& remains) such an odd idea!