What’s New

fingers resting on old bound newspaper, partly in focus, pages slightly creased.

A brief summary of recent research and related activities.

JAN 2022. Publication of ‘People Watching’, Studies in Travel Writing, Vol 25, No 2 (2022).[free eprint]

DEC 2021. Publication of ‘From “the Black O’Connell” to “the Black Douglas”, New North Star 3 (2021) [open access pdf]

NOV 2021. Five Glasgow Minutes (COP 26 Edition). Short film.

MAR 2021. Ten Scottish MinutesCompilation of ten one-minute segments shot in various locations in Scotland, capturing mostly off-screen sounds.

FEB 2021. Panellist on a discussion of Frederick Douglass, Abolitionism, Ireland the Irish as part of Douglass Week.  Text of presentation, ‘From “Black O’Connell” to “Black Douglass”‘ to be posed on this site soon.

JAN 2021. ‘It Was in Sweet Senegal…’ Or Was it?  Some notes on ‘The Slave’s Lament’. New post on this site.

JAN 2021. Engrenages avec Georges Perec.  Short video adding to a scene from the French crime drama Engrenages (‘Spiral’) a recording of Georges Perec enumerating passing traffic in Paris in 1978.

NOV 2020. Didier Daeninckx: Cannibale (1998). Book review on this site.

OCT 2020.  Participated in online discussion and Q&A with Parisa Urquhart following screening of her film Frederick Douglass in Scotland.

OCT 2020. ‘The Temperature of Dundee: Frederick Douglass at School Wynd Chapel, 1846’. Online talk for Abertay Historical Society.

SEP 2020. ‘Some of the Names Have Been Changed.’  New post on this site reflecting on the role of minor characters in travel writing, with examples from Alain de Botton, Roger Green and Sophie Calle.

AUG 2020: Publication of paperback edition of Frederick Douglass and Scotland, 1846.

JUN 2020: ‘The Other Empire Exhibition, 1938.’  New post on this site about the counter-exhibition organised by the Independent Labour Party during the Exmpire Exhibition in Glasgow 1938.

MAY 2020: Janette Ayachi: Hand Over Mouth Music (2019).  Book review on this site.

APR 2020: publication of interview with Autumn Richardson and Richard Skelton’ Studies in Travel Writing, Vol 23, No 4 (2019). [free eprint]

APR 2020: Jemma Neville, Constitution Street (2019). Book review on this site.

JAN 2020: ‘Rochester: 25 January 1849’. New post on this site about the Burns Supper addressed by Frederick Douglass in 1849, with full transcription of the report in the North Star.

NOV 2019: ‘I have come to tell you something about slavery’. Co-presentation with Bridget Bennett, Norma Gregory, Hannah-Rose Murray, Jade Montserrat, Alan Rice and Anita Rupprecht (chaired by Fionnghuala Sweeney) to mark the opening of the Frederick Douglass Centre, Newcastle University.

NOV 2019: Carnoustie Train Loops. Recordings of eight separate trains passing by the kitchen window of a house in Carnoustie, Angus, looped simultaneously.

OCT 2019: Frederick Douglass and Scotland, 1846 shortlisted for Saltire History Book of the Year 2019.

OCT 2019: Publication of Georges Perec’s Geographies (open access online) which includes a chapter by me on ‘Perecquian Soundscapes’.

AUG 2019: Rauschen und Gesang. A contribution to the Disquiet Junto Project 0398 Rauschen-Bern (‘Make music by making a collage of noises’).

AUG 2019: ‘”The Temperature of Dundee”: Frederick Douglass at School Wynd Chapel, 10 March 1846’.  A paper delivered at Victorian Renewals, British Association for Victorian Studies Annual Conference, Dundee.

AUG 2019: Publication of the Routledge Research Companion to Travel Writing – co-edited with Tim Youngs.

APRIL 2019: Publication of Keywords for Travel Writing Studies: A Critical Glossary edited by Charles Forsdick, Zoë Kinsley and Kathryn Walchester, which includes entries by me on ‘Companion’, ‘Money’, ‘Pedestrianism’, ‘Psychogeography’ and ‘Vertical Travel.’