Professor Murray Pittock
- Pro-Vice Principal - Special Projects (Office of the Vice Principals)
- Bradley Chair of English Literature (English Literature)
telephone:
01413305253
email:
Murray.Pittock@glasgow.ac.uk
R309 Level 3, School of Critical Studies, 7 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1567-998XPersonal assistant: Mrs Joanne Shearer
telephone: 01413308496
email: Joanne.Shearer@glasgow.ac.uk
Biography
A Scottish historian, Bradley Professor of Literature and Pro Vice Principal, having served in senior roles including Dean and Vice Principal since 2008. He led for the University on the University/City of Glasgow/National Library of Scotland Kelvin Hall development, and has chaired Glasgow's unique early career development programme, which has been highly influential in the sector, since 2016.
He has also acted as lead or co-lead for a range of national and International partnerships, including with the Smithsonian Institution, and plays a leading role in the University's engagement with government and the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), organizing the 'Glasgow and Dublin: Creative Cities' summit in the British Embassy in Dublin in 2019, and working with the European network CIVIS on the creation of a European policy document on universities and civic engagement, on which he gave a masterclass for La Sapienza University.
He also produced a major report on the impact of Robert Burns on the Scottish Economy for the Scottish Government in 2020; a Parliamentary debate was held at Holyrood on the recommendations, which have been cited in policy debate many times since. In 2022, he was declared Scotland's Knowledge Exchange Champion of the year, and is a senior member of the Queen's Anniversary Prize winning Centre for Robert Burns Studies team. Outside the University, he served on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Institutional Environment Pilot Panel in 2018-22, and is a Trustee on the National Trust for Scotland Board (2019-27) and Investment Committee, as well as acting as Co-chair of the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance (SAHA) and chair of the Governance Board of the Scottish Council on Global Affairs.
He also serves as Scottish History Adviser to the NTS and as an adviser to a wide range of other national heritage bodies and the Scottish Parliament; recently he has provided expert advice to both the Scottish and British parliaments on promoting Scotland abroad. He is on the Advisory Board of NISE, the Europe-wide research group bringing together over 40 research centres working on national identities and was President of the Edinburgh Walter Scott Club in 2019-20 and 2021-22. He has given a number of major lectures, most recently the Magnusson, MacCormack and Caledonian lectures
Research interests
Murray Pittock has changed the dimensions of international scholarship in three fields. He is a central figure in Jacobite scholarship and the leading scholar of Jacobite Scotland across literature, history and song. He has been described as "Scotland's leading public intellectual", as "probably Scotland's leading cultural commentator" and as "Scotland's leading cultural historian'.
His 2002 British Academy Chatterton Lecture on 'Robert Burns and British Poetry' began the re-evaluation of Burns' centrality to Romanticism, while his 2008 book on Scottish and Irish Romanticism established an understanding of national Romanticisms and the importance of establishing a comparative study of them. His major books and reports include:
- Scotland: The Global History (2022, 2023): Spectator History Book of the Year Choice, CHOICE outstanding academic title and other awards
- The Edinburgh Edition of Allan Ramsay (6 volumes) (2022-24). General editor and editor of two volumes. First ever comprehensive scholarly edition
- Enlightenment in a Smart City (2018), Association for Scottish Literature book of the year
- The Oxford Burns: the Scots Musical Museum (2 vols, 2018). First ever scholarly edition.
- Culloden (2016, 2017, 2021, 2022): History Today Book of the Year Choice; Warfare History Network Choice; Herald Christmas Book Choice; recommended War Studies Review, Country Life; House of Commons reading list.
- The Invention of Scotland (1991, 2014, 2016).
- The Road to Independence ? (2008, 2014): Recommended London Review of Books, Daily Telegraph, top 25 books on Scottish nationalism in last 100 years, Bella Caledonia, 5 part Radio 4 series; Catalan translation launched Barcelona, Valencia. Orwell Prize nominee.
- Material Culture and Sedition (2013): Saltire Research Book of the Year shortlist
- The Myth of the Jacobite Clans (1995, 1999, 2009, 2017): 'one of the most important books written on Jacobitism in the last thirty years' (Daniel Szechi).
- Scottish and Irish Romanticism (2008, 2011)
- Celtic Identity and the British Image (1999)
- Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland (1994, 1995, 2006, 2008, 2009)
- Spectrum of Decadence (1993, 2014, 2016)
- Inventing and Resisting Britain (1997)
Murray has worked at the universities of Manchester (where he was the first professor of Scottish literature at an English university), Edinburgh, Oxford, Aberdeen and Strathclyde, and has held visiting appointments at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (2002), New York University (Visiting Professor of English, 2015); Charles University, Prague (Ministry of Education Visiting Professor in Languages, 2010), Trinity College, Dublin (Visiting Professor in English and History, 2008), Auburn (History and Equality and Diversity, 2006), Notre Dame (NEH seminar visiting scholar in Irish Studies, 2014), USC (Roy Lecturer in Scottish Studies, 2015) and Yale (Senior Warnock Fellow, 1998 and 2000-1). Murray is a Fellow of the Academy of Europe, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the English Association, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Arts and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland among other bodies, and is an honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Murray is one of the few UK academics to be a prize lecturer of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy, and has acted as an external assessor for chairs and grants from the Ivy League to the Middle East. Murray, has acted as adviser to the National Galleries, National Museums of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland and other bodies. In 2013, he secured the founding agreement and governance structure for the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, and led discussions with SFC. In 2014, he became the founding convenor of the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures, and remains chair of its Trustees.
Murray has won almost 20 grants to work on cultural and public memory, Jacobitism and the redefining of national Romanticisms. Currently he is PI of the £1M AHRC Ramsay Project. Murray’s former research students and assistants are in posts in the UK, US and SE Asia at levels ranging from research assistant to Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Two PhDs (Michael Shaw, 2014; Craig Lamont, 2015) won the Roy Medal for the best Scottish Studies thesis of the year in successive years.
Murray has appeared in the UK and overseas media in over 50 countries on some 3000 occasions to comment on history, literature and current affairs, including scripting and presenting radio series ( The Roots of Scottish Nationalism -Radio 4, 6.25M aggregate audience, 81% UK wide approval rating) and has co-curated a number of exhibitions. He regularly acts as a consultant to national institutions. Murray supervises PhDs in the areas of Burns, Cultural History, Irish Studies, Jacobitism, Romanticism, Scott, Scottish Studies and other fields.
Grants
- MSCA Fellow (Dr Petra Poncarová) Project Erskine, EPSRC/Horizon, 2023-25 (PI)
- Museums in the Metaverse, Innovate UK 2023-25 (CI)
- The Collected Works of Allan Ramsay, AHRC 2018-23 (PI)
- The Scottish Heritage Partnership, AHRC/EPSRC, 2018-19 (PI)
- Robert Burns and the Scottish Economy, Scottish Government Economic Development Directorate, 2018-19 (PI)
- Placemaking Consultancy, Barclays Bank, International Financial Services District, 2021 (PI)
- Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century AHRC, 2011-16 (CI)
- Allan Ramsay and Edinburgh in the First Age of the Enlightenment, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2015-17 (PI)
- Robert Burns Beyond Text, AHRC, 2009-10 (PI)
- Robert Burns in Global Culture, AHRC, 2007-09 (PI)
- 11 other grants
Supervision
Currently supervising on 'The Reception of Robert Burns in China' (Suping Li); James Boswell (Andrew MacLeod) and the Cultural History of Whisky.
Previous topics: Jacobitism and the Atlantic World, Cultural History of the Bagpipe, Scottish Fin-de-Siecle, Georgian Glasgow and many others
Additional information
- Pro Vice-Principal (since 2015), VP & Head of College (2010-15), Dean of Arts
- Programme Director and Chair, Board of Review, Early Career Development Programme
- Scottish KE Champion, 2022
- Chair, Kelvin Hall development for University of Glasgow, 2014-17
- Chair, XR Project Management Board and University-BBC Partnership Working Group
- former Co-lead, Smithsonian Strategic Partnership Development
- Chair, Scottish Council on Global Affairs Governance Board
- Co-chair, Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance
- Trustee, National Trust for Scotland; Member Facing our Past/BLM Advisory Board
- Chair of Trustees, International Association Scottish Literature Trust
- NISE Advisory Board on national movements in Europe
- REF Institutional Environment Panellist
- External adviser: QUB, Birmingham, Edinburgh, GCU, UHI, Napier, Plymouth universities
- Former Chair, Trinity College Dublin Fellowship scheme, visiting professor/fellow; NYU, Yale, Charles, Prague, Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin, Auburn, St Anne's College Oxford
