Alex Dold

Intertextuality, Historical Fiction, and Public History in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Novel Series

Supervised by Dr Jim MacPherson, Dr Mairi MacPherson and Dr Lesley Mickel

Alex studied English Studies (major) and German studies (minor) at University of Bonn, Germany for her undergraduate degree. Her master's degree from the same university is in 'English Literatures and Cultures'. She fell in love with the Highlands and the literature about them during an Erasmus-funded semester abroad at Inverness College UHI. Having always been interested in how literature influences the reader, Alex decided to research this in more depth. Her PhD research is concerned with the question of how the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon influences the perception of history and works as public history, being entertaining and educating at the same time through the medium of intertextuality. Alex combines history studies with literary studies in this interdisciplinary approach.

In her spare time, she guides walking tours of Glasgow.

Alex is an assistant tutor with the Centre for History for the third year now. In the academic year 2022-23, she teaches classes in the undergraduate modules 'What is History?', 'People, Protest, Power' and 'Empire, Environment and Identity'.

She can be found on Twitter @AlexDold where she regularly posts information about her research.