40 Years On: Aberdeen, Enlightenment, and Global Legacies (In-person)

Join us in Aberdeen to celebrate academic progress since the landmark 1986 conference (see separate link for online participation).
About this Event

40 Years On: Aberdeen, Enlightenment, and Global Legacies

Join us for another landmark conference , this time marking forty years since the influential 1986 gathering that placed Aberdeen at the centre of Scottish Enlightenment studies. This special anniversary event revisits and re-evaluates that scholarship while exploring new perspectives on Aberdeen’s intellectual, cultural, and global impact.

Through a series of roundtable discussions, academics and heritage professionals will examine the role of Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland in shaping ideas in philosophy, education, Jacobitism, religion, science, literature, and the arts. The conference will also consider Aberdeen’s wider influence through trade, empire, migration, and global networks from the seventeenth century to the present.

Held in historic Old Aberdeen, this event offers a unique opportunity to reassess Aberdeen’s place in the Scottish Enlightenment and its enduring global legacy. A curated group of participants, including invited attendees from the 1986 conference, will take part in discussions on 15 October 2026.

For online participation, please sign up through this separate Event Brite link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992760674822?aff=oddtdtcreator

Co-organisers: Alanna MacTavish, Brittany Thompson, and William Vasiladiotis

Image credit: Hugh Irvine, The Castlegate, Aberdeen, 1800, Colour Lithograph, National Trust for Scotland, Drum Castle Garden & Estate

Agenda

🕑: 08:30 AM - 08:45 AM
Welcome
Host: Michael Brown
🕑: 08:45 AM - 09:00 AM
Remembering 1986: setting the scene
Host: Murray Pittock
🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Roundtable 1: Enlightenment Philosophy
Host: Christopher Berry
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Roundtable #2 - Jacobitism
Host: Daniel Szechi
🕑: 01:30 PM - 03:00 PM
Roundtable #3 - Enlightenment and Education
Host: Kelsey Jackson Williams
🕑: 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Roundtable #4 - Arts & Culture
Host: Murray Pittock
🕑: 05:00 PM - 05:15 PM
Aberdeen City Archives 40 years on
Host: Phil Astley
🕑: 05:15 PM - 05:30 PM
Closing Remarks
Host: Bradford Bow
🕑: 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
After-conference Reception (TBC)