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Sarah Leith

Dr

  • Associate Lecturer in the History of Scotland and the Wider World, c.1707-c.1914, School of History
  • School of History (Scottish), St Katharine's Lodge, The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9AR, UK

Personal profile

Biography

A cultural historian of modern Scotland, my research lies at the intersection of politics and culture, with particular interests in identity, print culture and environmental thought. My articles have been published within Burns Chronicle, Northern Scotland, Studies in Scottish Literature and Scottish Literary Review, while my book reviews have appeared within Northern Scotland and The Scottish Historical Review. I have also contributed pieces to edited collections and to the forthcoming Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Scottish Literature, including entries about organisations (Saltire Society and Scottish PEN), Scottish institutions (law, church and university) and writers (for example, Willa Muir, Neil Gunn and William Hutchison Murray.) My first monograph, Place, Culture and Scottish Nationalism: Agnes Mure Mackenzie in Modern Scotland, is under contract with Edinburgh University Press and has been submitted for review. I received my AHRC-funded PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2021.

Between 2024 and 2025, I was co-investigator for a Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded Small Research Grant project entitled 'A History of the Saltire Society: Setting and Achieving National Cultural Priorities'. My chapter for the edited collection resulting from this project is forthcoming. Additionally, I am a member of the Steering Group of the AHRC-funded Scottish Magazines Network.

From 2018 to 2025, I was Communications Manager for the Institute of Scottish Historical Research. As Communications Officer for the School of History, I was the editor of the 2023 and 2024 editions of the School's alumni magazine, The St Andrews Historian.

Previously, I have been employed as a Lecturer and Research Assistant at the University of Glasgow, working within its School of Critical Studies and its Centre for Robert Burns Studies. I have also been a Research Assistant for the University of St Andrews School of History's St Andrews and the Legacies of Empire and Women Historians of St Andrews projects. My blog posts for these St Andrews projects may be read via the previous links, while contributions to other projects may be found at Scottish Magazines Network, Scottish Critical Heritage and the Institute of Scottish Historical Research

As well as editing magazines and writing blog posts, my public engagement activities have included talks given at the Advocates Library (2025), the Saltire Society (2025) and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club's World Golf Musuem (National Sporting Heritage Day Lecture 2024). I have also been heavily involved with the School of History's Women's History Month, co-organising 2024's 'Changing Experiences: Early-career Women Historians at St Andrews, from the 1920s to now', amongst other activities. In 2024, I also co-organised ‘IHR @ St Andrews: Telling and Sharing Stories’, a collaboration between the School of History at the University of St Andrews and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London; this event explored ways in which to conduct public history.

Teaching activity

Sub-honours

MO1008: Themes in Late Modern History (c.1776-2001)

HI1801: Scotland's History: Kingdom, Nation, People

MO2008: Scotland, Britain and Empire, c.1707-2000

HI2001: History as a Discipline: Development and Key Concepts

Honours

MO3264: Microhistories of a Global Nation: Scotland, c.1707-c.1843 (module co-ordinator)

HI4101: Communication in History (module co-ordinator)

HI4999: Honours Dissertation in History

HI4998: Honours Project in History

Postgraduate

SC5204: Building Britain: The Construction and Deconstruction of Britishness, 1707-2000

MO5152: Global Times - Plural Spaces 2

MO5602: Directed Reading in Modern History

HI5107: Directed Reading in Transnational History

MO5999: Dissertation for MLitt Programmes

MSt (Res) (primary supervisor)

Adviser of Studies for Supported Pathways and MA General

School of History co-ordinator for the Sutton Trust Summer School

I am undertaking the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP).

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  3. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  4. SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
    SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
  5. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action
  6. SDG 15 - Life on Land
    SDG 15 Life on Land

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