University of Edinburgh: Developing online PG Cert in Scottish Culture & Heritage / Cultur & Dualchas na h-Alba

From 2009 - 2017 I worked for University of Edinburgh's Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies as a tutor and occasional lecturer on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes teaching on various courses and models across interdisciplinary Scottish Studies and Ethnology.

From 2013 - 2017 my specific role as a Teaching Research Assistant was to coordinate, design, develop and deliver a new online postgraduate curriculum in Scottish Culture and Heritage/Cultur agus Dualchas n h-Alba, a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands. This course is no longer running.

The new programme engaged with the wealth of popular tradition in Scots and Gaelic — based principally on the School of Scottish Studies sound archives and the Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches website — and with national and international debates relating to culture and creativity in the 21st century. Course material was delivered via online webinars with guest lecturers and creative practitioners, one-on-one tutorials, pre-recorded lectures, creative short videos and audio podcast lectures. 

Modules I developed included The Traditional Arts in Scotland: History and Context which covered music, song, story, dance, poetry and emphasised the crucial role the traditional arts have played in bringing a unique stamp to the nation's creativity; Tradition and Modernity which considered current debates in cultural policy and how wider structures impact upon creative practice and performance in contemporary contexts (this module brought in creative practitioners to share experience of practice in the field); Understanding Heritage, thinking critically about the various modes of its production in the modern world, and Resources and Research Methods where students learned traditional research skills as well as new skills such as preparing material for broadcasting and podcasting. 

In this capacity, I was nominated by the students for a EUSA Teaching Excellence award for three years running.

School of Scottish Studies Archive Search room, 2010. (image source)