I am a Lecturer in History & Heritage at the University College Isle of Man (UCM) where I am Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) History & Heritage which is delivered at UCM and validated by the University of Chester. I am Visiting Research Fellow and Associate Tutor at the University of Chester.
I completed my PhD in the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 2006. My doctoral research focused on the development of traditional housing on the Isle of Lewis from the late-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Between 2005 and 2008, I worked as a researcher on the Faclair na Gàidhlig project which aims to construct an historical dictionary of Scottish Gaelic. In this role, I analysed a selection of around 250 Scottish Gaelic texts, dating from the medieval period to the present day, determining their value for inclusion in a corpus of Gaelic texts.
I moved to the Isle of Man in 2008 to take up position as Lecturer at the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Manx Studies, based in Douglas, Isle of Man. In this role I taught and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students, managing the postgraduate MA in Manx Studies, and organising the Centre’s seminar series.
In 2014 I took up a new role as Lecturer in History at the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education (now University College Isle of Man). Here I developed the BA (Hons) History & Heritage programme which enrolled its first students in 2015.
In 2012 I became a Trustee of Manx National Heritage, the Isle of Man’s statutory heritage agency. I also sit on the Board of Culture Vannin, an organisation established to support and promote Manx culture and language, and have served on the Committee of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society. I have a particular interest in vernacular buildings and have been involved in the Society’s Traditional Buildings of Mann project which aims to encourage local communities to take a more active interest in the traditional buildings in their area.
I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
For further information about courses I teach and manage, visit my courses page.