Identity, Independence and Interdependence

Identity, Independence and Interdependence

A Workshop in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh

Monday 26 May 2014, Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre, Doorway 1, Old Medical School

On 18 September 2014, Scots will vote on whether to remain part of the UK or become an independent country. In the run up to the referendum, the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh is hosting a workshop on identity, independence and interdependence in historical perspective. Drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches and evidence from a variety of places and periods (from the prehistoric to the modern), this one-day meeting will examine the relationship between a community’s sense of identity and its political independence. How has political independence been used to mould national or regional identities? In what ways are formally independent territories enmeshed in networks of interdependence? What roles do economic, social and cultural connections play in the creation of identities? How have national, regional and local identities been reflected in political institutions and territorial boundaries? How do communities’ senses of identity manifest themselves in the historical and archaeological record? This workshop will bring together specialists from the fields of history, classics and archaeology, as well as sociology and politics, with the aim of encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue.

Confirmed speakers include:

John Collis (Sheffield): ‘Celts ancient and modern: how the Scots became Celts’

Alison Cathcart (Strathclyde): ‘Identity and interdependence in the plantation of Ulster’

Ewen Cameron (HCA): ‘“Independence” and the “status quo”: false binaries, the referendum and modern Scottish history’

Richard Hingley(Durham): ‘Negotiating national identity with Roman monuments’

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (HCA): ‘The rhetoric of empire in ancient Iran: “Better Together”’

Manuel Fernández-Götz(HCA): ‘Ethnic identities in archaeological and anthropological interpretation’