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):
-
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
-
SDG 4 Quality Education
-
SDG 5 Gender Equality
-
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
-
SDG 13 Climate Action
-
SDG 15 Life on Land
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Research output
-
Scottish Legal History Group report 2025
Dodd, L., Broun, D., Cairns, R., Finlay, J., Leith, S. & Sherrard, H., 30 Mar 2026, In: Journal of Legal History. 47, 1, p. 124-127Research output: Contribution to journal › Abstract › peer-review
-
Agnes Mure Mackenzie (1891-1955)
Leith, S., 28 Mar 2025, (Accepted/In press) Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of Scottish literature. Carruthers, G. & Hansen, M. (eds.). Wiley-BlackwellResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
-
'And on one toils, into the hill': working and walking in Nan Shepherd's North East
Leith, S. J. H., 19 Oct 2025, In: Studies in Scottish Literature. 50, 1, p. 24-36Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Brands of Scottish nationalism from c.1945 to c.1975
Leith, S., 9 Sept 2025, (In preparation) Wiley companion to post-War British and Irish literature and culture. Bradford, R., De Ornellas , K. & Howells, D. (eds.). Wiley-BlackwellResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
-
Burns Chronicle reports of manuscript forgery from c.1892 to c.1978
Leith, S. J. H., 10 Nov 2025, In: Burns Chronicle. 134, 2, p. 188-204Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
'Antique' Smith and Burns Chronicle Reports of Manuscript Forgery
Leith, S. (Speaker)
18 Oct 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
-
Spiritual Spaces, Beautiful Places: Highland Conservation during Scotland's Twentieth Century
Leith, S. J. H. (Speaker)
28 Apr 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
-
Exploring the Early Decades of the Saltire Society with Helen B. Cruickshank, Agnes Mure Mackenzie and Alison Sheppard
Leith, S. (Speaker)
28 Mar 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
-
Croaking Ptarmigans and Creaky Bothies: Mountain Climbing and Meditation in Twentieth-century Scotland
Leith, S. (Speaker)
30 Sept 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
-
Beauty and the Hydroelectric Board: Revisiting 'Use and Delight' in Mid-twentieth-century Scotland
Leith, S. (Speaker)
23 Jul 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Thesis
-
'Tied up with pink ribbons': repression, counterculture and Scottish national identity, c.1926-c.1967
Leith, S. (Author), Petrie, M. (Supervisor) & Kidd, C. (Supervisor), 1 Dec 2021Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis (PhD)