Cultar Duthchasach: Materialising Gaelic Cultures in Twenty-First Century Scotland

For many thousands of Scots today, communicating in Scottish Gaelic plays a significant part of daily life. For the first time, this project will look beyond language to explore how Gaelic identities are expressed through materialities: objects, artefacts and environments. Crucial to this interdisciplinary study is the innovative concept of 'language ecology': the interactions of language, place and the material world. Through in-depth ethnographic research and collecting, working closely with communities in and connected to the surviving Gàidhealtachds in north-west Scotland, the student will explore Gaelic language ecologies to identify and analyse cultural markers considered distinctively Gaelic. Using recent ideas and perspectives from academic fields concerned with communication in its broadest interpretation, the student will explore how objects are used to express ideas, emotions, memories, affiliations and identities. Taking a dynamic perspective on the language's past, present and future, there will be a particular focus on young people's negotiating their Gaelic inheritance, in both physical and digital realms, in a multilingual, globalised world.