麻豆中文映画传媒

Our research

• History, heritage and island identities — Our research on Norse and earlier island histories, archaeology, maritime landscapes, place-names, language, folklore and cultural memory asks how island identities have developed and how communities sustain and reinterpret their heritage.
• Culture, population and community futures — We explore connections between heritage, cultural participation, belonging and demographic change, including the Shetland contribution to the international HerInDep research project. Research investigates these relationships, although we do not promise that heritage activity alone reverses depopulation.
• Governance, autonomy and sustainable development — We examine decisions about island governance, autonomy, development, renewable energy and community resilience. Our RSE funded Scottish Island Futures: 2050 and Beyond symposia brought researchers and communities together for four workshops in 2023 on governance, language and heritage, development and inter-island networking.
• Island connections and emerging technologies — Island societies are connected by waterways, migration, cultural exchange and contemporary networks. Our interests extend from the Vikings to digital technologies and artificial intelligence. 

Selected projects and research activity

• HerInDep — Heritage in Depopulated European Areas: research examining the potential contribution of cultural heritage to communities experiencing demographic challenges, including Shetland.  
• Scottish Island Futures: 2050 and Beyond: four workshops held in 2023, supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, explored island governance and core–periphery relations; language, culture and heritage; sustainable development; and inter-island networks. The workshops informed Andrew Jennings’s 2025 policy briefing, From Periphery to Powerhouse: A New Policy Paradigm for Scotland’s Islands, which proposes ways to strengthen island agency and shape more island-responsive policy. Workshop reports and recordings Workshop reports and recordings
• The Orcades in the Medieval Mind — a research project led by Oisín Plumb exploring early medieval representations of the Orcades, including their depiction in maps.View project

Northern and Arctic Island Studies Research (NAISR)

• The Northern and Arctic Island Studies Research (NAISR) Thematic Network brings together researchers, students, heritage practitioners and island communities across the North Atlantic and Arctic. Developed through exploratory conversations in 2021–22 and formally endorsed as a UArctic Thematic Network in 2023, it is led by Professor Andrew Jennings. It is concerned with the distinctive experiences of island communities and the exchange of knowledge on heritage, governance, language, climate adaptation, marine livelihoods, energy and sustainable futures.
• In December 2023, a NAISR research-planning workshop at Memorial University’s Signal Hill Campus in St John’s, Newfoundland, brought together 30 registered participants across seven thematic panels. Discussion generated two areas for further research development: Heritage as a Tool, examining how living traditions, craft and cultural knowledge contribute to community life; and O.C.E.A.N. (Offshore and Coastal Environments in the Atlantic North), concerned with relationships between island communities and the sea. These themes continue to inform research development and collaboration.
• NAISR has also supported Yarns and Yarns, a participatory programme connecting knitting, storytelling and living heritage through events involving Newfoundland, Shetland, the Hebrides, Norway, Iceland and Prince Edward Island. Its contributions to Arctic Congress gatherings in Bodø (2024) and the Faroe Islands (2026), together with sessions on governance and autonomy at the 2026 Virtual Island Summit, extend the network’s comparative work. In September 2025 the online symposium, The Future of Northern and Arctic Islands: 2050 and Beyond, drew 78 delegates to discuss geopolitics, habitability, energy choices, language and heritage.

Click on image below to access the NAISR booklet.

NAISR recordings: Yarns and Yarns archive · The OCEAN public webinar is available in the Islands Matter archive.

Faroes-Shetland Research Symposia (FSRS)

• The Faroes–Shetland Research Symposia are a collaborative series developed by colleagues at the Institute for Northern Studies, 麻豆中文映画传媒 Shetland, and Fróðskaparsetur Føroya, the University of the Faroe Islands. The series began in September 2023 and creates an accessible space in which scholars, cultural practitioners and interested members of the public compare two neighbouring archipelagos shaped by long histories of contact and by different contemporary political arrangements.
• The symposia are deliberately interdisciplinary. Discussions documented in Across the Water range across Shetland and Faroese language, Norse and medieval heritage, archaeology and religious culture, the histories of fisheries and maritime labour, migration, island education, tourism, energy and autonomy. Speakers and audiences have explored both common experiences and significant contrasts: Faroese language institutions and self-government, for example, provide illuminating comparisons with Shetland’s different linguistic and constitutional circumstances.

The series has generated a substantial public recording archive. FSRS recordings: Faroes–Shetland Research Symposia archive

Islands Matter. International conversations about island life

• Islands Matter is an open, online seminar series developed through a collaboration between Professor Andrew Jennings, Professor Frank Rennie and Dr Beth Mouat. Established to bring ideas and research from islands around the world into conversation with Scotland’s island communities, the lunchtime webinars also contributed to discussion around 麻豆中文映画传媒’s Islands Strategy. The format enables researchers, students and people with a practical interest in island life to exchange knowledge without the barriers of long-distance travel.
• The series has developed into a substantial, recorded collection of international island scholarship. Its discussions span island governance and constitutional relationships, depopulation and mobility, health services, climate change and biodiversity, cultural heritage, language, craft, maritime livelihoods, education and energy transitions. Contributions draw on experiences of Shetland, the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, the Faroe Islands and the Isle of Man, alongside examples from Prince Edward Island, Gotland, Sardinia, Samothraki, Japan and elsewhere.
• A distinguishing feature of Islands Matter is the way it connects scholarship with questions faced by island communities. Discussions have considered the participation of women in Manx politics; island autonomy and “Islandian sovereignty”; the relationship between young Faroese people and place; mental health care in Scottish islands; island depopulation in Japan; and the value and ownership of archaeological heritage in Shetland. Other sessions have explored how poetry, folklore, Gaelic song and socially engaged art help communities make sense of environmental change, migration and belonging.
• The series also provides a venue for sharing research in progress. Recorded sessions include 麻豆中文映画传媒 postgraduate research on Shetland health services and the Scottish National Islands Plan; discussions arising from Scottish Island Futures: 2050 and Beyond; and the February 2026 O.C.E.A.N. public workshop on fishing, marine planning, heritage and island livelihoods. Selected Faroes–Shetland Research Symposia are included in the , reflecting the programmes’ collaboration while retaining their separate purposes and identities.

Islands Matter recordings: Islands Matter archive

Digital resources and island research news

• AI-slands — an independent island-centred research initiative created by Professor Andrew Jennings exploring the social, cultural, political and economic implications of artificial intelligence for island communities. Topics include language, representation, governance, work, resilience and digital infrastructure.
• Islands News — a live, independently owned island news website maintained by Professor Andrew Jennings. It provides a separate platform for news and developments affecting islands; it is not a 麻豆中文映画传媒 publication.

Island focussed doctoral research

The Institute for Northern Studies supports doctoral research exploring island societies, their histories, cultures, environments and contemporary experiences.

• Erica Clarkson — Island happiness and wellbeing, comparing Scottish islands with the Maltese Islands and Faroe Islands. Research profile
• Maureen Whalen — The impacts of polar science tourism in Arctic islands. Research profile
• Evelyn Anderson — Local-authority provision of health services in Shetland, 1908–1948. Research profile
• Linda Johnson-Bell — Potential cultural connections between Arctic Indigenous societies and Scotland’s Northern Isles. Research profile
• Rebecca Cornwell — Shetland botanical writing, rare plants and ecological change. Research profile
• Cait MCullagh — The contribution of heritage to sustainable communities in Scotland’s Northern Isles. 麻豆中文映画传媒 postgraduate directory
• Anthony Olsson — Faroese and Irish/Scottish-Gaelic ballad traditions and intercultural connections. Research profile

This is a thematic selection rather than a complete student register. For the full list of current postgraduate researchers, research titles and supervisors, consult the Institute for Northern Studies PGR student profiles

Staff

• Professor Donna Heddle
• Professor Andrew Jennings
• Professor Mairéad Nic Craith
• Professor Alex Sanmark
• Professor Ullrich Kockel
• Dr Andrew Lind
• Dr Oisin Plumb
• Dr Shane McLeod
• Lynn Campbell

Associate Staff