Julian Grant
People, Place and the North Coast 500
Supervised by Dr Iain Robertson, Dr Lucy Dean and Dr David Worthington
Julian came to the Centre for History in January 2019 after attaining an MA (Hons) in Modern History at the University of St Andrews followed by an MSc in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow (with a stint in residence at the Quaker meeting in Havana, Cuba in between). The interlinked threads of heritage, place and community run through his previous research experience, which includes an oral history of the decline of the fishing industry in the East Neuk of Fife and a study of community action in Glasgow during the 1970s.
His PhD research at UHI reckons with these same themes at the intersection between tourism and local communities around the North Coast 500 coastal touring route in the far north of Scotland. In collaboration with community heritage organizations, Julian is working on a series of public-facing research projects that use participatory photography to share a community-generated set of perspectives on landscape and place. This research seeks to orient the contested place-discourses of the North Coast 500 within the historical context of tourism in the Highlands. More broadly, it expands academic understandings of "heritage from below" by engaging with a new array of cultural practices made in the context of tourism.
At the moment, Julian lives in the Caithness town of Thurso: a fresh set of northern horizons for a lifelong walking immersion in the landscapes of everyday life in Scotland and beyond.
This PhD studentship is funded by the European Social Fund and the Scottish Funding Council as part of Developing Scotland’s Workforce in the Scotland 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Fund Programme.