The first of a series of research symposia jointly developed by colleagues in UHI Shetland and the University of the Faroe Islands will be held on the 22 September 2023 1pm to 4pm Online. The Islands Matter Symposium will bring together researchers from the Faroe Islands and from Shetland.
This symposium will focus on the history, culture and heritage of the two island groups, exploring relationships, similarities and differences. There will be a series of presentations of current research, and the opportunity for questions and lively discussion. It will be the springboard for further research and the development of research partnerships, reconnecting the two archipelagos.
The first Faroes Shetland Research Symposium of the new academic year, The Legacy of Gudrun Sigurdardottir in Husavik and the Legal Situation in the Faroes in the 14th century, will feature a discussion between two leading historians - Andras Mortensen and Brian Smith. This concerns a case at the Faroese lagting in 1407, where a family from Shetland was involved. The discussion will address three questions:
1) What was the case about?
2) What does the case say about the legal situation in the Faroes?
3) Does the case support the suggestion that the Faroes and Shetland in the early days of royal administration were organised as a special judicial district in the Gulating’s jurisdiction?
Andras Mortensen is Associate Professor of History at the Fróðskaparsetur Føroya . He wrote his PhD on Faroese boat-building tradition at in 2001. From 1989 he was a curator and later, from 2006, Director of the National Museum of the Faroes and Keeper of National Antiquities. From 2011 he has also been a director of Søvn Landsins, Faroese Cultural Heritage. He joined his current position at the university in 2017.
Brian Smith is Shetland's Archivist, a post he has held since 1976, and an Honorary Research Fellow with the Institute for Northern Studies . He is also Shetland's leading historian with a prolific output of publications, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Shetland's historical sources.
As part of the Faroe Shetland Research Symposium, we present a panel of four speakers.
On behalf of Faroe:
Hanne Birkelund Nilsson (PhD student, Dept. of Nordic Studies & Linguistics, University of Copenhagen) - Tourism and the Linguistic Landscape of the Faroe Islands
Research on “Linguistic Landscapes” investigates language use in public signage. In this presentation, Hanna will explore how tourism is materialised in the linguistic landscape of five popular tourist sites on the Faroe Islands. In all locations, tourism is visible through English signage that makes the landscape accessible to tourists. However, English signage is also used to contest tourism and its negative impact on local residents and natural environment in especially rural locations.
Alda Magnusardóttir Egilstrøð (Development Coordinator, Visit Faroe Islands) - Tourism development in the Faroe Islands – from anonymity to global attention.
The development of a more significant tourism sector, has had big effect on the Faroe Islands. Alda will give an insight into the development process, Visit Faroe Islands’ role and how the organisation has addressed opportunities and challenges that follow with a sudden increase in tourism in a remote place.
In 2018 Visit Faroe Islands was restructured from being a marketing agency to a management organisation with the overall responsibility for the development of Faroese Tourism. Tourism is still a relatively new, but increasingly significant industry in the Faroe Islands and Ms. Egilstrøð has been one of the main actors in shaping tourism management in the Faroe Islands with a wide range of initiatives and projects, ranging from better tourism information, maintenance projects (like the Closed for Maintenance) to product development and tourism policies and strategy.
On behalf of Shetland:
Esther Renwick (Historic and Environment Scotland) - “Just a few holes in the ground with stones around”: Managing Shetland’s Properties In Care
Historic Environment Scotland manages over 300 Properties in Care across Scotland, 8 of which are located in Shetland. As the District Visitor and Community Manager for the Orkney and Shetland district, it is Esther's responsibility to balance the needs of the site, whether that is conservation or operational practicalities, with the needs of both tourists and the local community. In this short presentation she shall outline some of the challenges and opportunities in managing these sites, and Historic Environment Scotland’s approach to sustainable tourism.
Esther trained as an archaeologist and then specialised in heritage education and interpretation – spending over 20 years working with public engagement in the cultural sector, the last 18 years of which she’s been based in Shetland. Esther graduated in 2017 with a PhD focussing on visitor experience and ‘authenticity’ in World Heritage Site Management from the University of the Highlands and Islands and since 2018 she has also been a Director of Moder Dy CIC, a local not-for-profit specialising in community-engaged research in Shetland Maritime Heritage.
Steve Mathieson (Shetland Development Manager Visit Scotland) - Tourism in the Islands
An overview of tourism in Shetland and it's impact upon the islands and community.
Having studied English & Drama at Reading, Steve has had a varied career. He spent several years working in North Africa, trained in marketing with Tate & Lyle Sugars before giving nearly 20 years of service across various London advertising agencies and has now been with VisitScotland for 14 years. He is perhaps most proud of being crowned the Shetland Bake-Off Champion of 2023.
