The Work of the Walter Scott Research Centre

Summary

This podcast explores the work that is being undertaken to produce a ten volume edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry at Aberdeen. Alison Lumsden, the Principal Investigator for the AHRC funded project The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry: Engaging New Audiences, explains what is involved in creating such an edition and with research fellows Natalie Tal Harries and Anna Fancett discuss why it is needed and their personal interests in Scott. As ECRs Natalie and Anna share their own journeys from PhD to their current posts, and explain what their day to day work with the Walter Scott Research Centre involves.

Bio Sir Walter Scott Research Centre

The Walter Scott Research Centre was established in 1991. It exists to conduct and to promote research into Scott and his works, the intellectual world in which he grew up and on which he drew, the contexts in which he worked, and the ways in which his work was used by other writers, other arts, business and politics, particularly in the nineteenth century. Its interests are interdisciplinary and its scope is international. The Centre is primarily engaged in project research, but also supports the research activity of its individual members and facilitates the study of Scott at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Centre is now engaged in editing a 10-volume edition of Scott’s Poetry under the leadership of Professor Alison Lumsden. Two volumes in the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry have been published: Marmion, edited by Ainsley McIntosh (2018) and The Shorter Poems, edited by Gillian Hughes and P. D. Garside. Poetry from the Waverley Novels and Other Writings, edited by David Hewitt, and The Lady of the Lake, edited by Alison Lumsden are now well underway.

Ali Lumsden

Ali Lumsden is Regius Professor of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen and Director of the Walter Scott Research Centre. The Centre aims to promote all aspects of Walter Scott’s work and the intellectual contexts for it and to explore his relevance for modern readers. It works closely with Abbotsford, Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders. Ali is also Principal Investigator for the AHRC funded project The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry: Engaging New Audiences.

Anna Fancett

Anna Fancett is a Research Assistant at the Walter Scott Research Centre. Building on her doctoral research on the significance of familial representation in the novels of Walter Scott and Jane Austen, Anna has published articles in the Scottish Literary Review and the Wenshan Review, as well book chapters, blogs, and teaching resources. In 2020, she was the winner of the Jack Medal, which is awarded annually for the best article on a subject related to Reception or Diaspora in Scottish Literatures. She is currently working on a Walter Scott companion for McFarland’s nineteenth-century series.

Natalie Tal Harries

Natalie Tal Harries is a Research Fellow at the Walter Scott Research Centre, University of Aberdeen, working on the AHRC funded Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry project. She is also an ECR Fellow at the Institute of English Studies (University of London) where she has been working on the late Indian influences of P.B. Shelley. Natalie’s research interests are primarily focused on Romantic poetry, and she is particularly interested in the ways in which the varied and often ‘esoteric’ reading and interests of Romantic writers informed metaphysical exploration, transcendental experience and visionary expression in their poetry.