As announced last week on the Port Towns & Urban Cultures site, on Wednesday 22 July, 14.00 (UK time), our emerging coastal history and coastal studies online group will host its inaugural event, a roundtable on ‘Fractured Coasts’.

Our four speakers will be:

• Elsa Devienne (Northumbria University)
• Gerry Bigelow (Bates College, USA)
• Bathsheba Demuth (Brown University (USA)
• David Gange (University of Birmingham)

I will be fascinated to hear how the idea of ‘fracture’ connects with these four leading scholars and their work on the coast. Whether identifying multiple levels of coastal ‘fraying’ in the past, viewed from a kayak or an ever fluctuating ice sheet, or considering the destructive power of sand, both in environmental and social terms, in fragmenting communities, ‘fracture’ seems to have value as a term to reflect on. It is one that I’ve puzzled over for many years in relation to the pasts of places here in the ‘firthlands’ of the Scottish Highlands, where I live and work. To what extent has life around the coast been a troubled one – identifiable by political, cultural and environmental fragmentation, rupture and disturbance – as well as one associated with social unity and solidarity or, in a completely different way, liminality?

The format will be short presentations from each of our speakers, in turn, followed by audience comments and questions. We plan to record the event.

All participants must register via the link below in order to attend.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Jul 22, 2020 01:30 PM London
https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqc-ygrTgiE92eq_6-SQF70bg_LjPdBSS1

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

For Twitter users, you’ll see further updates by searching and tweeting via the #FracturedCoasts, #CoastalHistory and #CoastalStudies hashtags.

Thanks for your interest!

Best wishes,

David

Twitter: @WorthingtonD

Dr David Worthington,

Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland

Ionad Eachdraidh, Oilthigh na Gàidhealtachd agus nan Eilean, Alba

www.history.uhi.ac.uk